Tuesday, 9/16/2025 from 2:45 PM - 3:45 PM EST

Room: W101

Topic(s):
Communication, Data and Evaluation, Funding, Planning and Design, Revenue Development

Description:
In 2021, local parks across the United States supported more than $200 billion in economic activity and created more than one million jobs. In the popular 2023 research report, “The Economic Impact of Parks,” NRPA and partners at George Mason University showed how every local park system contributed to these impressive economic and workforce outcomes. This interactive session will engage park and recreation leaders on practices and strategies for communicating parks' spending impacts to elected leaders, senior staff and others. Beginning with a review of NRPA’s latest 2025 economic study, attendees can bring questions and relate their experiences and insights into effectively communicating how parks and recreation contributes to their local economy. Co-led by NRPA’s research team and researchers from George Mason University, the conversation will include describing park system impacts in terms of returns-on-investment of budgetary allocations and how combining quantitative and qualitative data can show the “value add” of park system investment and spending. Attendees’ questions and experiences shared during this session will inform future resources for making the case for continued investments in parks and recreation.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand key practices for effectively communicating parks' economic impact to stakeholders.

2. Practice methods for framing park spending as a return on investment.

3. Discuss and rehearse strategies for using both quantitative and qualitative data to demonstrate the value of parks.

Speaker(s):
Terry Clower
Garrett Warfield