Benefits Online

1997 Benefits of Parks and Recreation Catalogue

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Introduction
• The Benefits Messages and Outcome Statements

• Evidence Supporting Each Benefit:

• Personal Health
• Human Development
• Quality of Life
• Anti-Social Behaviour
• Families and Communities
• Pay Now or Pay More Later
• Economic Generators
• Ecological Survival
• References
• Glossary
• Resource Guide
• Update Sheet

Acknowledgements

Renewed interest in the benefits approach in the late '80s

This Catalogue has been produced by the Canadian Parks / Recreation Association. RETHINK (West) Inc. (Ken Balmer and Brenda Clarke) was responsible for the research and writing of this catalogue, under the supervision of the benefits committee of Parks and Recreation Ontario.

This project was made possible through the financial support of the following corporate sponsors:

Canadian Parks/Recreation Association	RETHINK (West) Inc.
Health Canada	Parks and Recreation Ontario

The Canadian Parks/Recreation Association wish to acknowledge the extensive cooperation and support received by the many stakeholders that took the time to contribute research and information in the development of this resource. In addition, we wish to acknowledge the personal commitment and extra effort by Brenda Herchmer, Agnes Croxford and Fran Platakis in assisting Rethink (West) to finalize the resource.

Our appreciation is also extended to those organizations and individuals who have made significant personal commitments over the past decade to make research and information available to the public and our delivery sector on the benefits of parks and recreation. Many of these contributors are identified in the reference and resource section of this catalogue.

A National Benefits Network is being formed as a result of developing this revised catalogue.  It is a partnership of organizations and individuals committed to the development of information and resources which promote a greater understanding and use of the values and benefits associated with leisure activities and services.  Proceeds from the sale of the catalogue will be used to help further public education on benefits and values.

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Preface

Our beginnings were ‘benefits-driven’

Those of us who work or volunteer in the fields of recreation, sports, fitness, arts, culture, or parks have always known that the activity or program is but a means to a bigger end. We were attracted to the field to help people grow and be healthy, to build strong families and communities, to work with those ‘at risk’, to protect the environment, or to add quality of life to our neighbourhoods;

• the YMCA and YWCA has always known that recreation activity provided an ideal opportunity to pursue the goal of holistic development of spirit, mind and body
• our camps have always focused on helping the camper develop self-confidence, learn to live with others, and respect the environment
• the playground movement, prior to the majority of public recreation agencies, understood that children’s play was essential to the development process
• Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs have a profound understanding that fun and games in a supportive environment can help children and youth achieve their potential as individuals and citizens
• those with therapeutic roots are accustomed to designing recreation programs and other activity interventions to deliver and develop benefits such as motor skills, social skills, self-esteem, earlier recovery from illness or disability, and independent community living capabilities
• municipal parks and recreation departments were often started with the intent of keeping citizens fit and healthy, keeping kids and youth out of trouble, providing meaningful opportunities for families, etc.

We understood that we have many unique opportunities to make a difference in the lives of the individuals, ‘families’ and communities we serve.

This catalogue is a product of a renewed ‘benefits movement’ that came out of both the US and Canada in the 1980's. In the US, the work was inspired by individuals such as Bev Driver of the US Forest Service and was oriented toward research and models that would help agencies better understand the motivations and interests of their customers. In Canada, benefits initiatives were more closely tied to a need to remind others of the importance of our work - a social marketing, rather than research focus.

Traditionally viewed as a ‘soft service’, parks and recreation agencies were often the targets of financial cutbacks and restraint initiatives. As we attempted to defend our resources, we found it difficult to articulate the value of such intangibles as helping children develop self-esteem, contributing to quality of life, building leadership, or supporting families. This led to the realization that the recreation and parks sector needed evidence to justify the investment of dollars in their programs, services and facilities.

As a direct result, Parks and Recreation Ontario identified and acted on the need to develop a catalogue or summary of the benefits of recreation and parks - and an overview of research evidence backing up each of the benefits statements. The results were published in the predecessor to this document, The Benefits of Parks and Recreation: A Catalogue (1992). The project quickly ‘went national’ in Canada and the second printing was handled cooperatively through the Canadian Parks/Recreation Association (CP/RA).

Initially, the benefits were developed in four categories: personal, social, economic, and environmental

Both the Canadian and US work on benefits initially focused on the same four categories:

• personal benefits helping individuals achieve their full potential
• social benefits that promote healthy families, neighbourhoods, and communities of interest
• economic benefits critical to financial well-being, and
• environmental benefits leading to the protection of our common ecology.

The initial catalogue of benefits further identified 27 benefits relating to these four themes and documented the evidence that was available at that time. This new catalogue now focuses on eight outcome-oriented messages, touching on one or more of the initial four categories.

And we discovered that the benefits were more about our potential than our current service reality

Articulation of these benefits resulted in the early realization that, while parks and recreation had the potential to contribute in all 27 areas, the field was not always delivering this potential. It became clear that:

• some practitioners had lost sight of the basic principles and benefits that had always driven the field - falling prey to a variety of pressures that diverted attention from the real mission
• others had lost the ability to articulate the importance of these benefits, or simply didn’t believe strongly enough in them - and thus were failing to insert them into marketing, planning, evaluation, policy and budget processes
• many others had become preoccupied with the themes and products of the 70's and 80's - the means to the ends suggested by the benefits - and were failing to realize that emerging issues and opportunities in the 90's required their ‘benefits focused’ skills and responses more than ever
• we had become expert at, and committed to, relatively narrow program and facility management practices.

The situation was summarized by two senior decision makers involved in focus groups leading up to publication of the first catalogue:

“ Too many recreation practitioners are too narrow in their vision of recreation’s potential. They tend to be almost exclusively concerned about accumulating and managing physical plants and conducting highly structured programs ... rather than appreciating the broader role that recreation needs to fulfil in our changing society.”

“ Narrow views of recreation and parks are no longer supportable and many traditional approaches are not viewed as essential services. It is your potential to support and respond to community lifestyle and environmental issues of the 1990's that is well understood and respected.”

We learned that recreation and parks services would only be accepted as essential if they deliver the potential implied by the benefits messages AND if they respond to the critical current issues facing our citizens and communities. Thus, the project evolved from one attempting to document the importance of parks and recreation, to one that challenges the field to reposition - to provide services that respond directly to the personal, social, economic and environmental challenges we all face.

Benefits have now become the focus of our National Vision

As a field, we have come a long way since 1992. Almost 20,000 copies of the original catalogue have been distributed. We are learning to use the common benefits language in recreation, parks, sports, fitness, arts and culture - and the messages are being heard.

The Canadian Parks/Recreation Association not only worked with its provincial partners to take the benefits messages nationally; it adopted a vision statement that summarized the potential implied by these messages.  A national Benefits Network is being formed to bring our partners from across the country together to ensure that our work really is benefits-driven and that others understand the significance of this work.

Together, we are developing outcome oriented, performance measurement indicatiors and tools to guage our progress towards becoming a benefits-driven field.  By the turn of the centure, we also hope that each of our services will be focused on delivering the benefits valued most by the customer - and that we will be evaluating the extent to which we did make the difference each customer was hoping for.

We are also committed to an increasing dialogue with the community at large to find out which benefits are of highest priority to our stakeholders.  These priority benefits will be like a mission statement - they will define thebusiness that we're in, community by community.

This Catalogue of Benefits is but a small part of an approach which deliberately targets strategies that will ensure the delivery of personal, social, economic and environmental benefits to our stakeholders.

The messages and evidence will lead us into partnerships and strategic alliances with related fields who are also committed to the same benefits.  Increasingly, we will be collaborating with health, social services, education, police/justice, tourism, economic development, planners and environmental groups.

This catalogue is about our potential - it defines our future!

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Introduction

Purpose of the Catalogue

This catalogue is intended to help the fields of recreation, parks, sports, fitness, arts and culture focus on outcomes. It takes the best research available about what our work can do for individuals, ‘families’, communities, economies, and the environment and packages this information around 44 benefit or outcome statements.

These 44 statements are structured around eight key marketing messages:

1. Recreation and active living are ESSENTIAL TO PERSONAL HEALTH - a key determinant of health status.
2. Recreation is a key to balanced HUMAN DEVELOPMENT - helping Canadians reach for their potential..
3. Recreation and parks are essential to QUALITY OF LIFE.
4. Recreation reduces self-destructive and ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR.
5. Recreation and parks build STRONG FAMILIES and HEALTHY COMMUNITIES.
6. PAY NOW or PAY MORE LATER! Recreation reduces health care, social service, and police/justice costs!
7. Recreation and parks are significant ECONOMIC GENERATORS in your community!
8. Parks, open spaces, and natural areas are essential to ECOLOGICAL SURVIVAL.

The intent of restructuring the catalogue around marketing messages and outcome statements is to give the field a common language. The vast amount of evidence backing these statements should also give us confidence to speak out and advocate for the importance of our work. Packaging the material into sections that relate directly to our allies in related fields (e.g. health) should make it easier to share the information and build bridges with potential community partners.

Ultimately, the purpose of this catalogue is to provide a resource or catalyst for change - to help reposition, promote, and provide services that truly are essential.

The continuing search for documentation

The 1992 Catalogue contained the best support documentation we could find at the time. However, the wealth of evidence that has been generated since is truly overwhelming - this catalogue is not an update, it is a totally new summary of extremely powerful and more current information.

Our search involved:

• letters to and phone discussions with every ‘benefits partner’ -individuals and organizations that have been producingbenefits products over the past five years (in Canada and the US)
• letters to subscribers of the benefits newsletter published by the US Forest Service AND to the contributing authors to ‘Benefits of Leisure’ (Driver et al.)
• e-mail requests for support and identification of resources through the Leisure Information Network (LIN), PERConline, LEISURE Net (Australia) - and the new Benefits Listserve (LIN)
• systematic searches by LIN and the Sport Information Resource Centre (SIRC)
• careful review of recent summaries of benefits by the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute (CFLRI), Sport Ontario, Alberta Community Development, National Recreation and Parks Association (NRPA), the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, Temple University Therapeutic Recreation Program, the International Proceedings and Consensus Statement on Physical Activity/Fitness/Health, etc.
• extensive library searches in several universities and colleges
• many, many follow-ups to leads and suggestions offered through the above mentioned first steps in the search.

Our focus was on identifying and quoting from primary sources. Our priority was to find research evidence. We were only prepared to utilize secondary sources, theory or anecdotal evidence if it came from the most credible sources (e.g. US Surgeon General). Reluctantly, we had to avoid case studies and non-scientific program evaluations because of quantity and the fact that they are easy subjects for criticism.

Any who find themselves inclined to criticize are encouraged to reframe their energy and help us do better by offering more credible evidence and improved sources.

The search is ongoing. Readers are requested to help us spot new, or missed material so that it can be included in subsequent updates. A form can be found at the end of the catalogue - please use it!

The eight messages relate directly to the original four categories

Although we have restructured the catalogue around eight marketing messages, there is a clear relationship with the original four categories. The chart below draws the links graphically;

We have also done our best to include supportive evidence in each of the areas - parks and arts, for example, are significant contributors to stress management, to quality of life, etc.  Evidence statements are grouped as much as possible given the inevitable overlap, so that those particularly interested in sports, or parks, or arts research can easily find and relate the relevant statements.

How we hope you will use this Catalogue

This catalogue's information  is intended to be used in many ways, not only by the fields of recreation, sports, fitness, parks, arts and culture; but also by allied fields such as health, social services, education, police/justice, environment, tourism and economic development. A broad range of agencies will find the material invaluable as they evaluate and enhance current services, develop and market new service initiatives, and familiarize their stakeholders with what our related ‘businesses’ are all about.

In the past five years, the Catalogue has been used:

• to remind ourselves of the importance of our work -workshops, presentations, speakers bureaus, ‘how to’ resources, all designed to keep our attention focused on the value of what we do and the differences we can make
• as a foundation for program and service evaluation -agencies have begun to formally evaluate whether or not specific services are actually delivering the benefits, and begun to systematically upgrade those that can clearly accomplish more
• to inspire policies, plans and strategic priorities - the benefits have been woven into mission and vision statements, have served as the foundation for master plans andorganizational reviews, and been reborn as corporate priorities in areas where efforts are falling short
• to bolster the case when looking for support - community groups, non-profit agencies, and local government departments alike find the material to be extremely valuable when requesting stakeholder support (e.g. budget, volunteer contribution, corporate partnerships)
• to build bridges with allied fields and potential community partners - sharing the document with those in health, for example, as a first step in learning to collaborate more effectively in pursuit of common goals
• to market and promote services that clearly deliver the benefits - in brochures, on posters, on the back of ‘try it-you’ll like it’ coupons - to let the customer know what can be accomplished and to educate the public about the significance of our work
• to identify research gaps - researchers and academics can easily spot where additional research is required; some benefits are fully substantiated, while in other cases only a few studies have proven the link between the activity and the benefit derived.

We sincerely hope, and anticipate, that this resource will strengthen both your resolve and your ability to be ‘benefits driven’ . The communities we serve deserve our best!

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© Copyright 1997
Canadian Parks/Recreation Association
1600 James Naismith Drive, Suite 306
Gloucester ON
Canada  K1B 5N4
(613) 748-5651   (613) 748-5854
e-mail: cpra@activeliving.ca
www.activeliving.ca/activeliving/cpra.html

ISBN 0-919963-62-5

All rights reserved by the Canadian Parks/Recreation Association