How Parks and Rec Is Leveling Up the Civic Experience

Your local government’s civic experience is paramount in fostering resident trust and building a sense of community. Increasing local parks and recreation engagement is a solid starting point in designing your desired resident experience. The approach to diversifying your municipality’s local parks and rec programming will vary based on the population. Many community members may want to engage more with their city but feel held back by finances or the inability to access childcare. One way to encourage residents to sign up for and attend more local parks and recreation activities is to offer more art and education-focused events. Various fun, accessible methods exist to get residents outside and interact with their local communities.

Heightening Your Local Parks and Recreation Engagement

From moving sculptures to breathtaking murals, your community members can enjoy numerous local parks and recreation activities. Art can provide solace as it often reflects a person’s innermost emotions. Creating art, physically or digitally, can be a healing form of self-expression and is often a safe way to express feelings like anger. Because art transcends socioeconomic conditions and race, it can serve as a way to encourage civic engagement and heighten the resident experience in municipalities of all sizes and demographics.

Impactful Local Parks and Rec Programming

Want more ideas to level up your civic experience through your local parks and rec department? Here are four unique programs worth considering for your community.

1. English as a First Language (EFL) learning groups: Many residents who call the United States home originated from other areas. To help boost the civic experience in your municipality, offering free EFL learning groups may be a strategic choice. The largest minority group in the States consists of Hispanics, making Spanish the second most common language spoken at 62 percent, right behind English, according to research conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Building trust in the local government starts with giving residents the tools to be fully active community members. Being able to communicate in the same language is highly valuable.

2. Art crawl: Much like the widely loved beer crawls, an art crawl is a brilliant local parks and rec activity. An easily navigable route of stunning sculpture installations all over town is sure to peak resident engagement, especially during the warmer months. Create an art crawl passport for community members and visitors to get stamped at each stop and set up an opportunity to enter a giveaway at the end for a free meal at a local restaurant or a complimentary workout class pass.

One CivicPlus® customer has a world-renowned American Art History Museum freely accessible to the public. They also have paid installations, and those tickets would make a grand raffle prize.

3. Youth educational camps: Here’s an idea that’s out of this world — space camp. In 2021, the National Science Board presented data showing the United States ranking 25th out of 37 in mathematics literacy internationally. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations were involved in this research.

To continue efforts in educating our youth in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education, your local parks and rec department can partner with a nearby local science center or museum leader to hold a weekend space camp for kids to learn about the solar system, rockets, and constellations.

They can also compete in a contest to draw a unique idea of what they think aliens might look like. A healthy resident experience strategy means including programs for all residents, regardless of age, to learn, grow, and develop into educated voters. This type of local parks and recreation activity is an innovative addition to any summer programming catalog.

4. Soil education forums: Agriculture is crucial to building trust in the government through resident engagement. Along with food, and related industries, agriculture contributed about $1.264 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021. That’s why soil health is declining at an alarming rate in the States matters.

There’s hope, however. Inviting residents and families to a community class taught by a local farmer to guide the high points of what makes soil crucial to the food chain and earth and ways to combat soil nutrient deficiency is a unique and thoughtful choice. Residents can learn about the microorganisms in soil and the entire world underneath our feet daily.

The staff responsible for developing community gardens and landscaping in local parks and rec areas can also share information about innovative science used to manage the soil. Tech companies like Biome Makers are making strides in soil health analysis and improving overall sustainability. Informing residents on topics like agriculture and educating them on things that directly affect them, like food quality, goes a long way in building trust in the government.

Improving Civic Experiences Through Recreation Technology

Here at CivicPlus, we’re dedicated to making local government work better. Our uncomplicated software is at the core of how we create positive civic experiences every day. Whether your population is 1,000 or 1,000,000, we have the tools, scalability, and technical support to meet your needs.

As the leader in recreation management software for local governments, we understand the challenges communities like yours face today — the constant need to do more with less. Our experts link all your complex and demanding community activity management functions into one easy-to-use program designed to serve your community and your organization. Your workday is jam-packed, and your recreation management software is now one less thing to manage.