Using CAPRA Accreditation to Build Your Leadership Pipeline

Like many park and recreation organizations, Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District (THPRD) faced dramatic changes to its workforce, both during and prior to the pandemic disruption in 2020. Longtime staff members departing via retirement, layoffs or by seeking promotional opportunities elsewhere resulted in a loss of institutional memory — a major roadblock in bringing forward the next leaders in parks and recreation. When THPRD first started to see the impact of these losses, its leaders believed that seeking accreditation through the Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies (CAPRA) would present an ideal opportunity to document and formalize processes and serve as a succession planning tool. Both in the agency’s initial accreditation, and its first reaccreditation — which occurred post-pandemic — THPRD saw a true value in evaluating processes, prioritizing critical long-range planning and measuring successes. Through their CAPRA journey, THPRD was able to engage emerging leaders by pairing them with tenured managers to share information and formalize processes, thereby providing critically needed workforce and leadership development opportunities. This session will provide tips, tricks and advice on using CAPRA as your leadership development pipeline.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the many whys for obtaining CAPRA accreditation, including to establish or reaffirm processes, document institutional memory and prepare the next leaders in your agency.
2. Gain a realistic picture of what it takes to achieve accreditation from an agency that has met every CAPRA standard.
3. Learn tips, tricks and hacks for organizing the CAPRA workload, deciding which staff members to engage, knowing how to approach roadblocks and providing a positive environment for your CAPRA visitation team.