Examining barriers to participation in Kansas parks and recreation: a delphi method approach

Abstract

Parks and recreation organizations play a vital role in fostering community well-being by maintaining public spaces for leisure, encouraging social interaction, and improving the community’s physical and mental health. Part of serving the community is maintaining accessible and welcoming recreation spaces and programs. Factors that limit an individual's mental or physical ability to participate in a given activity are barriers to participation. These barriers often include proximity to parks and facilities, unsafe facility conditions, language barriers, financial constraints, and more. Parks and recreation practitioners have a unique perspective on barriers to participation that has not been explored at the same scope in the current literature. Their perspective also provides an insider look at the management strategies used to address community barriers to participation. This study takes an exploratory approach to understanding parks and recreation practitioners' perspectives by using the Delphi Method, which employs a flexible, multi-iteration process to reach consensus among subject-matter experts (Lintstone & Turoff, 1975). Kansas Recreation and Parks Association (KRPA) members served as study participants (n = 69) through three rounds of surveying. The first survey (n = 44) primarily asked participants to rate the significance of each evidence-based barrier to participation in their community. Survey two (n = 32) narrowed this list of barriers even further, leaving researchers with a clear conclusion: “Lack of Awareness” was the greatest practitioner-perceived barrier to participation and was significantly more prevalent than the second-highest-rated barrier: “Lack of programming that interests people.” Survey three (n = 34) focuses on the concept of “Lack of Awareness” through a set of free-response questions and a marketing questionnaire. Results indicate that strategies, including partnerships and community networking, diverse outreach methods, and social media presence, are important for building community awareness of strategies. Given the participants' shared experiences and perspectives, we recommend that Kansas parks and recreation agencies adopt an intentional Relationship Marketing philosophy in order to increase word of mouth promotion, participant retention, and improve brand image.