Coming April 2025! As Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives face increasing opposition across the country, professionals are encountering new challenges in ensuring parks and recreation for all. Join us to better understand the legal and political changes that have happened over the past 2 years, how it impacts public and private institutions and learn how you can adjust your language and approach to keep the work going.

Released April 2024! Family Health & Fitness Day is all about promoting health and wellness through parks and recreation. This online learning event will inform agencies of the importance of NRPA's Family Health & Fitness Day campaign and provide examples of how they can celebrate and promote this day in their local communities.

Enjoy this session from the NRPA 2024 Virtual Conference! 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.

Coming April 2025! Learn how to use our robust Environmentally Sustainable Parks Assessment Tool. This online learning event offers insight into the capabilities of this tool and its possibilities to support a holistic approach to your agency’s environmental sustainability plans, policies and practices.

Coming March 2025! How farmers markets around the United States and park and recreation agencies can work together to create a sustainable market. This online learning event will cover key aspects to consider when planning a farmers market.

The 2025 Monthly Virtual Learning Subscription includes 12 on-demand education Talks, one per month, and is free to Premier Members. These on-demand talks will be released on the first Monday of the month unless otherwise noted. The full 2025 Monthly Virtual Learning Subscription is worth a total of 1.2 CEU. NRPA's virtual education Talks feature knowledgeable subject matter experts presenting on timely insights from research and practice. Each Talk is worth 0.1 CEU.

Enjoy this session from the NRPA 2024 Virtual Conference! In the dynamic realm of parks and recreation management, leadership extends beyond daily operations to encompass crucial project management skills. From coordinating community events to overseeing transformative large-scale park projects, this multifaceted field requires a unique blend of leadership and project management abilities. This workshop focuses on managing large-scale park projects, including creating new parks, renovating facilities and enhancing community quality of life. Participants will gain a comprehensive guide covering the project lifecycle, from planning and budgeting to stakeholder engagement, resource allocation, risk management and successful project delivery. Our session prioritizes practical application over theory, with interactive exercises simulating real-world scenarios. This approach allows participants to actively apply concepts, boosting understanding and retention. Additionally, this workshop is designed to foster confidence and a sense of belonging for individuals less experienced or less confident in their roles, empowering them to excel in park and recreation management.

Enjoy this session from the 2024 NRPA Virtual Conference! This session will be a quick-hitting "self assessment" for recreation professionals individually and from a leadership perspective. The old adage "you never get a second chance to make a first impression" is absolutely true. Current and potential participants, staff, funders and partners hear us long before we say a word. Often we have created obstacles that are almost impossible to overcome because we don't even know they exist. More importantly, good will can be created the same way. There are so many aspects to this that we can't cover them all. But there are a top three that we will address: communication (verbal and non), attitude (staff and participant) and appearance (staff and facility).

Enjoy this session from the NRPA 2024 Virtual Conference! Starting in 2022, Apex Park and Recreation District’s aquatics program went through several changes to help its sustainability, quality and inclusion for all guests. These changes included enacting an 80 percent group lesson and 167 percent private lesson cost-recovery pricing model that allowed for a $3+ increase in wages, requiring all instructors to be certified through the American Red Cross as water safety instructors, creating an aide position to assist with safety and active participation time, and mandating monthly trainings for staff to attend. In July 2022, we started offering adaptive swim lessons for people of all ages with special needs so they could attend lessons with a higher trained swim instructor. In 2023, we enacted more changes and additions that included certifying the adaptive instructors in Swim Angelfish, adding a full-time employee to manage private swim lessons, hosting a water safety instructor trainer academy and starting a non-competitive swim team. With the change to the cost-recovery model, we saw revenue increase 147 percent and 116 percent in back-to-back years. This allows us to help sustain our adaptive programs and our open swim hours through increased revenue.

Find previously live Park Access Network content here! Park and recreation professionals have the tools and resources to lead localized, anti-racist solutions that advance the multitude of benefits derived from equitable park access and climate-resilient park systems. The Park Access Network is an open community bringing together diverse professionals to facilitate conversations and best practices among peers to drive systemic changes that advance equitable and resilient park access.