April 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 14

Who, What, Where & how Around the Parks

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The partner organizations will help to
implement the plan strategies at regional,
national, and grassroots levels. Each sector
compiles strategies that promote physical
activity, and each has a representative on
a coordinating committee to unify efforts.
NCPPA in turn works to promote public
policy and track results, and it will launch
a cause-related marketing campaign to engage audiences at all levels (spring 2011).
" One of the strategies under Parks,
Recreation, Fitness, and Sports that is
clearly of interest to NRPA is the interest
in joint-use agreements between park
and recreation and schools, " Franklin explains. " NRPA is one of our early examples of success with implementation in that
they developed a survey for park and recreation agencies and have distributed it
and tabulated the results to determine a
baseline for how many were already actively in joint-use agreements.
" That was Phase 1, " she continues.
" Phase 2 is now going out to other organizations like YMCA, Boys and Girls
Clubs, and through the schools because
they also are working with the Education
sector on joint-use agreements. "
Franklin cites the upcoming Olympic Day (June 23) as another example of
NRPA's sector contributions. NRPA leverages its relationship with the U.S. Olympic Committee to help agencies contact
Olympians, Para Olympians, and hopeful Olympians to speak and participate in
local events. " It helps get kids interested
in sports by giving concrete examples of
their great achievements, " Franklin says.
" In many ways the plan could be considered a blueprint for how people will
achieve the National Physical Activity
guidelines, " Franklin says. " The guidelines are out there, but it doesn't tell you
about meeting them. "
A NCPPA core function is to serve as
a resource for anyone interested in furthering the organization's mission at any
level. Much of this will be accomplished
through its website (www.ncppa.org) and
several newsletters available at no cost.
One newsletter carries news clippings
with links to complete articles on physical

www.NRPA .ORG

activity along with special alerts for conference RFPs and grant opportunities. A
quarterly newsletter addresses the progress and news associated directly with
the National Physical Activity Plan. Franklin and her board members also speak
at meetings and conferences, addressing
physical activity in general and the Physical Activity plan in detail.
In the sphere of communications, NCPPA
offers a template for press releases with suggested formatting and wording for working
with the media. It's currently wrapping up
work on sample social media messaging.
Through the pro bono work of a Baltimore
advertising and marketing company, Carton Donofrio, NCPPA expects soon to launch
a cause marketing campaign. While the
creative is complementary, paying for the
media placement will require significant
fundraising, Franklin says.
A year ago, Franklin had what now
seem like lofty expectations in Congressional support of promoting physical activity. However, with the budget-cutting 112th
Congress scaling back nearly every program outside of military and entitlement
spending, NCPPA has been forced to concentrate on " putting all our energy into
what's already in place, " she says. Thus,
NCPPA will be looking at " using the federal priorities indentified by the sectors as
areas of focus on the Hill....We looked at
the 112th and decided what it's really about
is to educate and protect in many ways
when it comes to physical activity. "
Franklin says her grounding in parks
and recreation will serve her well in advocating for this NCPPA sector. " Oftentimes,
when there is a legislative bill that might
be able to provide some funding, it will
say, 'schools or community-based organization'-a community-based organization being a YMCA or Boys/Girls Club. It
does not include local government organizations, like parks and recreation.
" So, I will be working toward making
sure that doesn't happen, " Franklin says.
" Obviously, my heart and soul have been
in parks and recreation for so long that
this is automatic for me. "

-Interview by Philip Hayward

April 2011 - Parks & Recreation

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