Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to fund recreation and park services study. (Rec Room).

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has awarded a research team led by NRPA national award winner Dr. Geoffrey Godbey a grant for researching relationships between recreation and park services and individual health concerns among older Americans. The study, which also includes research members Dr. Laura Payne and Dr. Beth Orsega-Smith, and is scheduled to report results in February 2004, will focus on, among other things, an understanding of "the ways in which low cost, readily available, commonly used forms of recreation sponsored by local government park and recreation services (LGPRS) may contribute to personal health as well as the potential for such contribution to be enhanced both through increasing participation and the associated benefits for a higher `dose' of leisure time physical activity."

"The study will involve data collection in five cities and is sufficiently funded for a comparatively sophisticated approach", says Godbey. Cities will be selected based on a number of factors, including population, ethnic/racial diversity, climate, and levels of public park and recreation resources. Data collection will be done in the form of questionnaires and focus groups.