Beyond "fun and games." (National Recreation and Parks Administration)

"We have an important message, and it needs to get out," Wes Francis admonished a gathering of recreation advocates and federal juvenile justice officials in Washington in 1983. What prompted this emphatic exclamation from a long-time citizen advocate and National Recreation and Park Association trustee? It was, she later observed, a frustration borne by the tendency of national policymakers and legislators to overlook the record of public recreation's capacity to soften social ills.

Mrs. Francis' frustration is magnified in the present era of public perceptions and political pronouncements that challenge the efficiencies of government, commitment to public service, and specific responses to crime and social welfare. This further is magnified by the depth of the nation's social condition and what many observe as the precipitous decline in the "quality of life" for the majority of Americans.

Vague perceptions of recreation and its values are nothing new. They are espoused in different terms. Parents and college roommates exclaim, "You're majoring in what? Can you really get a job doing that?" Perceptions of public service run the gamut. At one end of the spectrum is the wealthy industrialist's observation to then-National Park Service director George B. Hartzog, Jr. that as chief steward of the national park system's heritage he had "the best job in the world!" "I know I have the best job in the word," Hartzog, a career public servant, responded.

In contrast is the perspective of Samuel Broder, M.D. Frustrated with "the currently fashionable view of government as an impediment to progress," Broder resigned last December as director of the National Cancer Institute, a federal agency. "When I first came here 22 years ago, government service was still something that people admired; it was a very positive career choice," Broder told The Washington Post. "And I think it might be good to take a few steps back and remember that although we do have to make government more efficient and face fiscal realities ... there are certain core functions of the government that are extremely important, including scientific research for the alleviation of suffering," he said. Add opportunities for recreation and park experiences to the list of important government functions.

Frustration Compounded by Rejection

The frustration of recreation advocates is compounded by the rejection of proposed national initiatives which many believe would have helped restore the public recreation estate and enhanced services. Urban recreation facilities, for example, which hundreds of mayors would have restored with additional federal community development block grants in 1993, were the focus of a barrage of negative reactions from some members of Congress, who either opposed the administration's economic stimulus initiative in its entirety or the fact that public aquatic facilities, recreation centers, and similar place are eligible for aid. Vitriolic and continuing references to recreation investments as "wasteful pork" soon eroded the larger effort.

In 1994, some candidates for the 104th Congress re-opened the five-year debate which earlier had culminated in the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. The Republican Contract with America, which pledged to greatly diminish or eliminate recreation-as-prevention, has sparked the debate anew.

These national political and legislative scenarios are two of hundreds of debates in states and localities nationwide whose outcome could alter the very tenets of public recreation, its role in health and welfare, and the capacity to deliver public services. They challenge citizen advocates, public recreation managers, and those who educate and inform the next generation of professionals to be aggressive participants in public process.

Beyond Fun and Ga

"Beyond `Fun and Games,' Emerging Roles of Public Recreation," a 58-page report published late last year, was the National Recreation and Park Association's latest initiative to create positive perceptions of public recreation and its values. This publication was designed to inform local, state, and national policymakers about the diversity and impact of public recreation in a society increasingly at risk. It also serves as background information for the media responsible for communicating public actions to the American people. Recreation and park policymakers, executives, and managers also might discover among the cases initiatives appropriate to their agency's circumstances.

The title, "Beyond `Fun and Games,'" does not suggest a move away from recreation programs (or provision of recreation resources) that are "fun' or the timeless importance of "games" as a means of meeting personal or public recreation goals. The phrase is used to encourage decisionmakers to move beyond a mind-set and rhetoric which hold that fiscal resources for public recreation and parks should be made available only after the really essential services--fire and police, for example--are met, if at all.

The 19 programs profiled in the association's report were selected to illustrate the broad array of actions which today bring new dimensions to public recreation as human service. Diversity, regional coverage, and program duration were also selection factors. Several initiatives clearly reveal the nexus between social recreation and the conservation of resources--land and facilities--as public objectives. Mere were exceptions to the selection process, however, which allowed inclusion of initiatives that are relatively poorly funded or understaffed yet have succeeded against considerable odds in addressing community needs.

Almost without exception programs revealed a high degree of collaboration between public recreation and parks, other public agencies, and the private sector, both for-and not-for-profit. They embrace a diversity of services: disease prevention and health promotion; "latch-key" children; personal and public health; juvenile curfews; medical services; day care; nutrition; substance abuse prevention; mental health and family counseling; teen pregnancy; services for the homeless; family and community revitalization; anti-gang, violence and familial abuse; arts and cultural awareness; education-recreation; career development; restoration of infrastructure; and economic revitalization.

Profile Reveals Quality in P&R

The profiles collectively reveal that the delivery of high quality public recreation experiences for all people, including those most in social or economic need, do not typically require "exotic" institutional re-arrangements or special authorities. Rather, they reinforce state and local laws which provide that recreation is basic to our collective "health and welfare," and thus a public responsibility. They also reveal that the "reinvention" of government should not presume that government structure and public service are "broken," individually or collectively, or that limited public fiscal resources should be directly available to private providers without a viable public role in how they are spent.

Civic leaders, mayors, and other elected or appointed officials, linked with professionals who help conceive and effectively deliver programs, clearly are critical to continuing successes. The profiles illustrate the resourcefulness of public officials in weaving together partnerships with the potential to link a broad array of services and programs that transcend more typical views of recreation and parks.

P&R Plays Key Role

Collectively, the profiles fall into four broad categories: community and personal security; health and welfare; education and awareness; and jobs. In every instance a public recreation and park agency initiated the program, or plays a central role in its management or delivery. Here, in brief, is what we found:

* Cincinnati, Ohio--Winton Hills Community. Enhanced late night recreation programs and increased community involvement through expanded recreation services contributed to a 24% decrease in reported crimes in this impoverished area. The city has since improved funding and expanded the concept to several other communities.

* Fort Myers, Florida--The STARS objective (Success Through Academic and Recreation Support) combines recreation, learning and good behavior. The program has resulted in a 26% decrease in repeat criminal behavior among 13-14 year olds and a 66% decrease among children 11 and under. The number of school-age children "at-risk" of educational failure has decreased 55%.

* Phoenix, Arizona--Juvenile Curfew Program. The recreation agency's support of a city-wide curfew program is part of a broad "City Streets" initiative. The curfew program provides counseling, jobs, and recreation-focused community services to youthful curfew violators. It has contributed to a 10.4% decrease in juvenile arrests for violent crime. In some neighborhoods, Phoenix has experienced a 56% overall decrease in calls for police assistance during periods of enhanced recreation.

* Olympia, Washington--Street Outreach for "Edge Kids." Through contact and assistance to runaways, school "dropouts," and other youth at high risk, the street outreach program successfully diverts eight to 10 individuals each month from encounters with the juvenile court system. The program supports self-help groups and counseling and health services, among others.

* Tuscon, Arizona--KID-CO Program. A successful existing program, KID-CO was enhanced to respond to a growing number of latch key children citywide. It recently served more than 3,000 children and youth and has contributed to a 52% decrease in reported crime.

* Champaign, Illinois--Springer Recreation Center. More than 1,000 people have received health care information and services in collaboration with three private health providers.

* Lewiston, Maine--The Partnership. Recreation-based community outreach provided 8,600 breakfasts and 15,000 lunches in 1993. The program help triple the number of children screened for lead poisoning.

* Philadelphia, Pennsylvania--Hank Gathers Recreation and Youth Access Center. At one site, the center combines public health services and education, including information on sexually transmitted diseases and a diversity of recreation services to serve more than 1,200 people at the neighborhood level. It represents a safe haven site for those at-risk because of family or other circumstances.

* Chattanooga, Tennessee--Bridging the Gap. This inter-generational initiative fosters senior engagement with youth, helps youth develop respect and affection for adults, and creates "positive memories." Additionally, the African-American cultural arts center and its "creative youth artists" group encourages and supports artistic creativity and talent.

* Troup County, Georgia--Nutritional Services for the Elderly. Responding to growing community needs, the recreation department reorganized to substantially enhance outreach and multiple services to seniors. It served over 50,000 meals in 1993.

* Santa Ana, California--Project PRIDE. This recreation- and curticula-based initiative involves strong anti-gang and cultural pride messages. In 1994 it functioned at 23 school sites and involved 6,750 students.

* Dallas, Texas--Juvenile Gang Prevention Program. The Department of Parks and Recreation leads a coalition of community providers in a recreation-based gang prevention program from which 60% of participants, substantially above the average, advanced to the next highest school grade in 1993.

* Maryland--Drug Free Trail. The Maryland Forest and Park Service's two-track program uses both classroom and outdoors instruction and training to provide an environment-based drug prevention message to more than 1,500 Baltimore city students each year.

* Vermont--Youth Conservation Corps. Inc. (VYCC) Established in 1985 as a program of the state forest, park and recreation agency and reclassified in 1992 a public corporation, VYCC seeks citizenship, environmental enhancement and employment through wilderness and conservation-based training and work. It combines academic, leadership, survival, and basic career skills. About 2,900 youth had completed this 16 week education, job and career training program by 1994.

* Columbia, Missouri--Project CARE. In collaboration with the public school system and other public agencies and private organizations, CARE helps youth develop job skills, explore career interests and obtain placement with local businesses. Eighty percent of participants successfully complete the program to enter the workforce and/or continue education.

* Mecklinburg County/City of Charlotte, North Carolina--Recreation for the Homeless. Designed to fill "holes" in the metropolitan area's response to homelessness, the program helps bring stability through recreation to "kids and families ... in a state of chaos and displacement." Mentally ill homeless persons also are identified and aided.

* Heidelberg, Germany--The School of the Arts, U.S. Army Youth Services. This initiative softens the personal and family challenges of military service abroad. The school enhances program diversity and creates awareness of, and skills in, music, dance, theater, and visual arts. It provides a means of outreach to local communities.

* White Sands Missile Range, U.S. Army Youth Services, New Mexico--We're In This Together. Diverse facilities and age-appropriate programs and facilities at this remote location help create a sense of personal identity and community cohesion. The program dramatically exposes youth to the consequences of "bad decisions" through encounters with prisoners and other activities. Collaboration with other military and public services is emphasized.

* Orange County, Florida--Rec'n Roll. Retrofitted and professionally staffed county vans support delivery of recreation services to small communities in rural areas. Eighty percent of youth served by "Rec'n Roll" are not enrolled in other public recreation programs.

Strong Media Response

The NRPA report has elicited strong media response. Time magazine on November 14 observed that it offers "compelling evidence" that recreation and related services can help reduce crime and juvenile arrest rates. The message may be getting through," Time writers observed, adding, "A small but growing number of mayors and judges, most of them Republicans, are breaking party ranks to say that it's prevention, not inflexible punishment, that puts a dent in crime."

Seventeen years after he resigned from the National Park Service directorship, George Hartzog was to receive the 1990 Henry M. Jackson Award for Distinguished Public Service from the foundation bearing the late Washington senator's name. Accepting the recognition, Hartzog reflected on his career in parks and recreation. He described his federal public service as "the happiest, most fulfilling, and hardest working years of my life." Hartzog's acceptance remarks, eloquent and inspirational, are especially relevant under present circumstances:

"Politics, the medium in which the people transact their common business ... is honorable and indispensable to the survival of democratic government. The practitioners are the elected and appointed political leadership of the Republic and the career service. All of them--politicians and bureaucrats--are public servants. They interface on the `fire line' where political policy meets program execution. Each is essential to the success of the other, it is a disaster to the public interest when either believes otherwise.

In the name of the people, they minister to the suffering, defend our freedom, rescue the environment, protect the public health, explore the universe, maintain public order and perform myriads of other tasks essential to our well-being as a society.. All of us (in the National Park Service) toiled to fulfill the role of government as defined by President Lincoln--doing for the people that which they cannot do for themselves. We tried not only to manage the parks better but also to keep them continuously relevant to the changing needs of society. That, to me, is the essence of public service..."

Today there is a critical need for public recreation to respond to social disorder and human stress. Clearly many public servants agree, and others will follow. There also is a need for clear perceptions of parks and recreation. These dual challenges, and Time magazine's observations, encouraged me to revisit William E. Brown's Islands of Hope, Parks and Recreation in Environmental Crisis, written for NRPA in 1970.

Four Dimensions Are Defined

Mr. Brown defined four dimensions of parks and recreation. People "need experiences" in these dimensions--for perspectives on nature, history, society, and recreation, Mr. Brown observed.

"The recreation dimension gives perspective," he wrote, "on the amenities of life off the treadmill, including both strenuous and serene involvement in natural settings; on individual physical and mental health; on the joy of play, whether experienced as water recreation at a remote reservoir or a game of sandlot ball in a city park." Now, public policymakers and public servants have pushed the real contributions and perceptions of recreation to new limits.

Not everyone, of course, will agree with the direction. Yet, the profiles individually and collectively suggest that if there is anything like the proverbial "magic bullet" for this nation's identity crisis it may be right under our collective nose. It is the nation's public recreation and park services, resources, and institutions and the citizens and professionals dedicated to public service associated with them. Collectively, they move public recreation "beyond fun and games," to the higher status of "essential service."

Beyond "Fun and Games," Emerging Roles of Public Recreation is available from NRPA Publications: $16 non-members; and $12 members. Fax orders to [phone].