November 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 41

" The evidence is anecdotal now, but in
D.C., where 40 percent of children over the
age of 8 are obese...we have to give clinicians-and ultimately families-something
concrete to do about it. "

Prescriptions or Scholarships?
In Oregon, where another park prescription
pilot program recently concluded, Oregon
State Parks outdoor recreation planner Terry BergOne key to the
erson offers a cautiously optimistic perspective.
The initiative found support in the Portland area,
widespread
Bergerson says, because " the physical inactivity
public support has
crisis was one of the top statewide issues in the
been the leadership
2008 Oregon Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor
of youth in the
Recreation Plan...[and] one of the recommendations was to look at park prescriptions. "
tobacco-free movement.
Inspired by a New Zealand " green prescriptions "
program, a 20-member group of recreation providers, health care administrators, pediatriTobacco-Free Parks
Set a New Norm
cians, and health program researchers
TREND
developed a plan to target physically inacTobacco-free parks made headlines
#
last year when New York City Mayor
tive Portland-area youth, ages 6 to 12, during
well visits with their pediatricians. The ultiMichael Bloomberg signed legislation
mate goal of the Oregon park prescription plan
making all of the city's parks, beaches,
was to encourage sign-ups for such recreational
and pedestrian plazas smoke-free. While
programs as swimming, dancing, or martial arts.
that blast of media attention (and the resulting con " It's easier said than done, " Bergerson admits.
troversy) created a new national awareness of the
Even though physicians' prescriptions were sent
issue, the tobacco-free parks movement has been
to a park and recreation provider-who then folgaining momentum for well over a decade. And
lowed up with a welcome phone call-resulting
most of its successes have come not from sweepsign-ups were lower than expected.
ing legislation like Mayor Bloomberg's, but from
Bergerson believes program costs created obgradual consensus-building within communities.
stacles for some families. Other difficulties may
In Minnesota, for example, where the ﬁrst parks
have included unfamiliarity with the concept and
went smoke-free nearly 20 years ago, 150 commulanguage barriers. An unusual doctor's prescripnities statewide now boast tobacco-free parks. As
tion, followed up by a phone call from a stranger,
Emily Anderson, program coordinator for the Min " might have led to some confusion and sort of a
nesota nonproﬁt Tobacco-Free Youth Recreation
feeling of being singled out, " especially for non(TFYR), points out, the majority of those commuEnglish-speaking parents.
nities have adopted policies-not ordinances enDespite the hurdles that have come with the proforceable by ﬁnes. (In some states, localities have
gram's newness and bare-bones funding, Bergerno authority to pass ordinances banning smoking
son says he's never worked on a project " that had
in public places. In those states, patient efforts toward local policy consensus is really the only opmore excitement and more potential " than this pilot
tion for achieving smoke-free parks.)
that spanned three park districts and linked parks
and doctors in unprecedented ways. He hopes to
" The driving force behind a policy is really comsee future versions of the program modeled more
munity enforcement, setting a new norm within
on scholarships, though, than on prescriptions:
the community that makes citizens kind of reach
" These families don't have a lot of extra income.
out to one another and say, 'You know this isn't
It'd be different if there were some funded proallowed here,' " Anderson explains. " Tobacco use
is not normal in the parks. "
grams doctors could send patients to. "

No butts about it:
Minnesota teens
show the results of
a park cleanup day.

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Parks & Recreation

November 2012 - Parks & Recreation

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