In this episode, we sit down with Becky Dunlap, a passionate park and recreation professional and advocate, to hear about how she ended up in a career in the field she loves so much without even realizing it. Becky is a Certified Park and Recreation Professional (CPRP) and a Project Consultant for GreenPlay, LLC, where she travels to local parks and rec around the country to help them create a vision for their communities. Becky is also the host of the podcast Becky Talks Parks , which is her pa...
Oct 02, 2018•20 min•Season 1Ep. 26
In our 25th episode, we invited you to send us your ideas for future podcast episodes. Lucky for us, Jessica Cannaday, CPRP, Marketing and Communications Manager with Oak Brook Park District, sent in an idea to cover universal recreation. Universal recreation is the philosophy driving Oak Brook Park District – the idea that park and recreation facilities and programs should be open and welcome to all. In addition to an inclusive family locker room and specialty programming, the department just o...
Sep 18, 2018•23 min•Season 1Ep. 27
Happy 25th episode! This is a huge milestone for Open Space Radio, and we recently hit another milestone — we surpassed 10,000 downloads of the show! Thank YOU for listening and joining us on this journey! In this episode, we reflect on some of our favorite past episodes and discuss what we love about park and recreation professionals. The passion that park and rec professionals have for what they do is unparalleled — it amazes us every single day — so naturally, we wanted to scream it from the ...
Sep 04, 2018•15 min•Season 1Ep. 24
On today's episode, we chat with Tom Norquist, president of the International Play Equipment Manufacturers Association (IPEMA), about how risk and adventure play is stepping back into the limelight and can help kids' independence and creativity. Typically, when we think about play, the idea of risk or danger may be a little scary, especially if we’re talking about children playing. However, this kind of unstructured, hands on, risk play is making a comeback. Taking a risk and coming out on top p...
Aug 20, 2018•36 min•Season 1Ep. 23
On today’s episode, we’re talking with Peter Kageyama, one of the 2018 NRPA Annual Conference keynote speakers. Kageyama is an author, whose book For the Love of Cities: The Love Affair Between People and Their Places was recognized in 2012 as a Top 10 Book in urban planning, design and development. He is an internationally sought-after community development consultant and grassroots engagement strategist who is passionate about bottom-up community development and the people who are making chang...
Jul 31, 2018•22 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Park and Recreation Month is right around the corner, and we’re super excited to celebrate with you all in a few days. As many of you already know, the theme this year is A Lifetime of Discovery , and we’re challenging everyone to explore the undiscovered roles and offerings of their local parks and recreation. Things like STEM programming, innovative health and wellness opportunities, programs for older adults, conservation efforts, the list just goes on. One of our newer supporters of Park and...
Jun 29, 2018•20 min•Season 1Ep. 21
On today's episode, we're talking about the importance of summer meal programs and the impact that parks and recreation is making in communities across the country through the Summer Food Service Program. We're joined by Allison Colman, NRPA's health and wellness program manager. Allison oversees NRPA's out-of-school time portfolio, including the Commit to Health campaign and our work on the USDA Child Nutrition Programs. We also speak with Colleen Lammel-Harmon, Chicago Park District's Wellness...
Jun 05, 2018•31 min•Season 1Ep. 22
May is Older Americans Month and park and recreation agencies play a crucial role in serving older adult populations. According to NRPA’s 2018 Agency Performance Review, 41 percent of park and recreation agencies have one or more senior centers and 79 percent offer programs specifically designed for older adults. NRPA supports this work through our Healthy Aging in Parks initiative — part of which includes a grant program for evidence-based arthritis intervention programs which are funded with t...
May 28, 2018•10 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Last Monday evening, a group of Boy Scouts were on the trail behind NRPA's headquarters when they came upon a baby Barred Owl who had appeared to have fallen from its nest more than 40-feet up in the trees. They contacted Ted Mattingly, NRPA’s resident hero and Director of Facilities and Administrative Services, who realized that the baby owl’s chances of surviving on its own after falling from the nest were slim. He decided to take matters into his own hands and brought the baby owl inside whil...
May 07, 2018•21 min•Season 1Ep. 20
The nation’s largest STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) celebration took place this past weekend at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The 5th USA Science and Engineering Festival featured more than 3,000 exhibits, 30 stage shows and attracted approximately 350,000 people. This year’s theme was “Where can STEM take you?” and the primary goal of the weekend was to inspire the thousands of kids in attendance. The hands-on festivities of the weekend ...
Apr 09, 2018•9 min•Season 1Ep. 19
On today’s episode, we’re discussing a new research report titled “From Green Space to Digital Place.” The report takes a look at smart city strategies and how cities are capitalizing on technological advances. When cities are looking at their budgets and identifying key areas for investment, parks and recreation are often put on the back-burner even though they are such an essential element to a thriving community. This report looks at the public interest in park and recreation services, and th...
Feb 26, 2018•18 min•Season 1Ep. 18
It’s February — the month of love. People everywhere are rushing through Hallmark stores and florists to get their significant others heartfelt cards, flowers and heart-shaped boxes of chocolates. Although showing your loved ones that you care every day is important — not just on Valentine’s day — perhaps more important is making sure that your own heart is healthy. February is American Heart Month, and we’re proud to partner with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s (NHLBI) The Heart ...
Feb 05, 2018•21 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Technology has changed the way we do pretty much everything in our daily lives. With technology-based transportation and convenience services such as Uber, Lyft, ZipCar, Instacart for groceries and Amazon for basically everything else, the ways people are getting around cities is changing drastically. These services dramatically reduce the need for people to use their personal vehicles, and this could mean a change in the future of land use in urban areas. In today’s episode, we chat with NRPA’s...
Jan 22, 2018•15 min•Season 1Ep. 16
In today’s episode, we’re taking a look at a city and mayor who have done some incredible work when it comes to park access. The city is San Francisco, California. Unfortunately, since recording this podcast, we were saddened to hear that San Francisco’s Mayor Ed Lee tragically passed away unexpectedly. Mayor Lee was an extremely passionate advocate for San Francisco’s parks, and under his leadership, the city made park and recreation programs more accessible than ever to its citizens . In May 2...
Jan 09, 2018•13 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Mayor Hillary Schieve is one of the more than 150 mayors across the U.S. who has signed on to the 10-Minute Walk Campaign — an effort between NRPA, the Trust for Public Land and the Urban Land Institute to ensure everyone has access to a park within a 10-minute walk of where they live, work and play. For Mayor Schieve, Reno’s parks and recreation isn’t just key to improving the quality of life for her residents, it’s vital to attracting and retaining quality businesses and solving some of their ...
Dec 27, 2017•12 min•Season 1Ep. 14
NRPA has always been a champion for pollinators, but in the past few years as bee and monarch populations have seen scary rates of decline, we’ve stepped up our involvement in helping to save pollinators — not only through local parks and recreation, but at our headquarters and through promoting ways we all can play a small part in saving these critical critters. (You can check out our Pollination Across the Nation poster here .) As part of this pursuit, we support the Million Pollinator Garden ...
Dec 11, 2017•9 min•Season 1Ep. 13
In today’s episode, we chat with Ava DeBovis and Daniel Hatcher from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation . The Alliance works with NRPA on Commit to Health — our program to increase healthy eating and physical activity during out-of-school time programs managed by park and recreation departments. Ava and Daniel address common barriers park and recreation staff may feel when attempting to create healthier out-of-school time and provide easy and practical solutions for overcoming them. They us...
Nov 27, 2017•24 min•Season 1Ep. 12
On October 10, 2017, the Trust for Public Land (TPL), the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI) came together to launch a campaign called 10-Minute Walk. The 10 Minute Walk campaign concept is simple — every should have access to parks within a 10-minute walk of where they live, work and play. To date, over 140 mayors have signed on to the 10-Minute Walk campaign. They’ve signed on because they recognize that proximity and accessibility to parks is im...
Nov 13, 2017•20 min•Season 1Ep. 11
We’ve all been there. All of a sudden, a normal conversation takes a difficult turn and we find ourselves at a loss. Do we fight? Do we leave the conversation all together and avoid the offending person for as long as possible? These conversations are hard and it’s easy to just avoid them or walk away. However, we’re missing out on some prime growing and learning opportunities when we avoid instead of engage. On today’s podcast, I chat with Social Justice Educator and Wednesday Keynote from the ...
Oct 30, 2017•27 min•Season 1Ep. 10
In this third and final installment of our series on drones in parks, we speak with Rich Dolesh, NRPA’s Vice President of Strategic Initiatives on the future of drones in parks. In part one, we looked at local, state and federal policies as well as resources for land managers. In part two, we spoke with a park director and how her agency has handled drones in their parks system. Part 1. Policy, Drone Zones and Resources for Land Managers Part 2. How Park Managers Manage Drones Part 3. Opportunit...
Oct 17, 2017•19 min•Season 1Ep. 9
