OutdoorNebraska

How do I start making my programming more equitable, inclusive, and effective? Start by building trust among your community members and parks and recreation agencies through public engagement. Acknowledge past experiences, involve local community leaders and partners, and be transparent and deliver on what you have promised. Routine follow-up with community members involved is also important to ensure they're aware of programming efforts that are coming to fruition. Consider these other pieces as you start to make your programming more equitable, inclusive, and effective: • Evaluate your current programs - are they meeting the objectives, satisfaction levels, and desired outcomes of your constituents? How many participants are you reaching? Are you engaging your intended audience? • Consider evaluating the environmental, physical, social and economic health of your community to give you a baseline of information to start creating programs that fit the needs of your unique community. • Reach out to your constituents to see what they want to understand the demographic make-up of the area and determine if you are being inclusive of all abilities, ages, races, and ethnicities. • Increase community participation in your parks and public spaces. • Create a plan with clear goals in mind - always know what your vision is, then broaden the vision with input from the community to ensure your programming efforts are effective and inclusive. • Assess your staff capacity - do you have a couple of staff members that can dedicate time toward community engagement to ensure your programming efforts are inclusive and equitable? • Secure funding - budget for community engagement activities in every phase of your project, including stipends or gift cards for community participants. • Build leadership support - demonstrate to your leadership why community engagement is important to the community, but also the long-term success of projects. Encourage leadership within your agency and your community (e.g. mayor, city council representatives) to join your community events to show their support for the project. 92 2 0 2 1 - 2 0 2 5 S TAT E W I D E C O M P R E H E N S I V E O U T D O O R R E C R E AT I O N P L A N Don't forget to build a sense of community ownership of the programming (refer to the Don't Forget section under Goal 1 in this chapter). Don't forget to make your programming, brochures, plans, and maps color-blind friendly. Volunteer actors re-enact life at an 1870s era frontier fort at Fort Hartsuff State Historical Park. (Valley County) HOW-TO DON'T FORGET!

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