Inclusivity is becoming an increasingly important objective for not just parks and recreation organizations but within organizations across every field. All members of the community and your staff deserve to have equal opportunities to benefit from everything your parks and rec organization has to offer. Delivering this promise helps your organization truly make a difference in your community.
Ensuring inclusion can be a difficult thing, if you don’t know where to start – it goes beyond creating equal job opportunities, servicing everyone in your community regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation, or creed, and making sure that everyone is treated with respect. Here are some ways in which you can ensure inclusivity at your parks and rec organization.
Create a Statement and Make it Visible
A statement regarding inclusion – listing all of the promises that your organization plans to make – is a great way to keep everyone accountable, from your staff to anyone who may use your facilities. This statement of inclusion can exist on your website, be printed out and displayed in the office, or included in any handbook(s) that you may use for your organization, for both staff and community users. It should include statements of inclusivity, such as how every person who works at or uses your facilities should be treated fairly and equally.
Provide Programming for Everyone
One way to ensure that you are servicing everyone in your community is to provide inclusive and diverse programming. This would include programs for the elderly, for the youth, for both sexes (such as women’s or men’s only fitness classes), for LGBTQ-friendly programs, and programs for minorities in your community. This demonstrates your organization’s support of every diverse group in your city, helping to keep them engaged, active, safe, and healthy.
Create Advisory Committees
To ensure that every group within your community is well represented, consider creating advisory committees. These unique groups can help you identify your organization’s strengths and weaknesses and will actively help you improve how you support your community. Such groups may include a seniors’ advisory committee, a women’s advisory committee, a persons with disabilities advisory team, gender diverse group, and a family advisory board.
Ensuring that your community is well represented and that everyone in it is included should be the main objective of every parks and recreation organization. To help you better connect with your members, Xplor Recreation’s cloud-based parks and recreation management software is a terrific solution that helps build communities. With it, you can manage all aspects of your facility operations, marketing and finance, and reduce time spent on logistics. Learn more about Xplor Recreation’s facility management software.
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