Recreational Needs Assessments- How Do They Work For A Community?

Recreational Needs Assessments are one component to planning for recreation and act as a critical supporting document that helps to define the needs and the desires of the community to allocate resources responsibly. The Needs Assessment draws on primary survey research from public and key stakeholder engagement, comparative analyses of other communities similar in size and character, and current trends in recreation in the Province and Canada.

Public recreation strengthens the development of communities and contributes to the wellbeing of individuals. Recognizing the values that public recreation and cultural opportunities provide to residents is a key reason why a community should complete a Recreational Needs Assessment Study.  The study gains an understanding of the current uses, future needs and desires around recreation resources and services from tax paying residents and stakeholder groups. The purpose of a Needs Assessment is to serve as an unbiased basis of information for Communities’ Administration to consider while making future recreation service decisions.

The Needs Assessment identifies the use and efficacy of the existing parks, open spaces, recreation facilities and programming in the area, as well as understanding current population and market trends. Primary research for the Needs Assessment are primarily collected through engagement with residents within a community and surrounding area. The key findings and recommendations provided in the Needs Assessment are formed by what was heard from residents in the community, paired by best practices in the field of recreation and other secondary research. The recommendations aim to enhance and support sustainable recreation services for the community, while recognizing the fiscal realities of public service provision by identifying ways to increase efficiency and effectiveness of resources.

To make sustainable decisions surrounding recreational improvements, a prudent and fiscally responsible approach is to look critically at existing infrastructure, facilities, and programming, both in community and surrounding area, to determine potential gaps, duplications and redundancies in recreational assets and services. The identification of recreational needs, in any community, requires inputs that measure various factors, such as socio-demographic trends, patterns in recreational use, sport and recreation asset provision and participation, current recreation asset conditions, design, utilization, and distribution.

A Recreational Needs Assessment consists of 3 primary components that are compiled into a well outlined report that is presented to Community Administration as a third-party, unbiased document for reference.

1.     Research-Based Information

Research-Based Information covers the community profile, recreation assets and opportunities, and bench-marking. The community profile reviews and documents the community’s characteristics (e.g., history, geography and climate, government, cost of living etc.), community population and demographics (e.g., growth patterns, median household income, ethnic diversity etc.) and any relevant documents a community possesses (e.g., Parks & Recreation Master Plan, Cultural Plan, Strategic Plan etc.)

The existing recreation assets and opportunities a community has to offer is documented. This includes establishing an inventory of both indoor and outdoor recreation (e.g., rinks, courts etc.) and open space (e.g., parks, pathways etc.) assets in the community; creating inventory of community offered recreational programming/services; and a high-level review of the community’s Recreation Service Delivery and existing partnerships.

Lastly, it is important to complete a comparative analyses of recreation assets, programming and opportunities between similar sized communities in the province. Comparatives analyses include:

·        Current recreation infrastructure and open spaces

·        Programming offered

·        High level overview of recreation service delivery models (i.e., delivery chart)

·        Community partnerships (e.g., municipal and rural municipal)

·        Annual recreation budgets

Benchmarking is a useful tool to assess current recreation provisions of similar sized communities.

2.     Consultation Based Information

Public engagement remains the single most important approach in identifying the needs of the community. This tool enables first-hand information on the expressed issues and desires of residents and organizations, as well as those in the surrounding areas. The method of engagement can vary between Needs Assessment with multiple methods of outreach being utilized that maximize the potential outreach to residents and stakeholder groups. However, the standard practice of engagement is through Community Resident Recreational Survey, Community Group Recreation Questionnaire and Public Open Houses.

The Community Resident Recreational Survey is used to collect community resident feedback on a variety of topics related to recreation including:

·        Household profile

·        Recreation participation

·        Current facility and space usage

·        Recreation program participation

·        Recreation satisfaction

·        Future recreation priorities

The Community Group Questionnaire provides community organizations/non-for-profits, with a focus on recreation, to provide input on a variety of topics including:

·        Past/current/future enrollment numbers

·        Current facility and space usage

·        Organization and membership satisfaction

·        Organization key challenges

·        Organization future priorities

Additionally, the Public Open House provides residents with an in-person opportunity to voice their opinions or concerns about recreation in their community.

Recreation Needs Assessment Open House Poster Boards Set Up

3.     Study Analysis

The Study Analysis is a summary of the findings from the first two components of the Needs Assessment as well as a summary of current Trends and Leading Practices in Community Recreation.

Trends and Leading Practices provides a broader perspective overview of current recreational trends and leading practices on a provincial and national level which includes:

·        Participation and activity trends

·        Recreation service delivery trends

·        Infrastructure trends

·        Trends in volunteerism and partnerships

The Study Analysis is where a summary of key finding from both the research-based and consultation-based study components.  This provides an overview of the current state of recreation within a community and area as well as in comparison to bench-mark communities and the current recreational trend and leading practices on a provincial and national level. 

Finally, the Study Analysis will then provide recommendations for recreation in the community based on all the compiled information. This is usually presented in a ranking of indoor and outdoor recreation infrastructure and programming priorities based on the community demand and study focused research. 

City of Estevan Recreational Needs Assessment Open House Set Up

Case Study

The City of Estevan – Recreational Needs Assessment

Project Highlights:

·        Measuring the current state and satisfaction level of recreation in the community

·        Established a recreation facility and open space inventory

·        Focused on identifying future recreation needs and priorities in the community

·        Created a priority list of recreation investments for the community based on resident feedback 

·        Identified potential partnership opportunities for funding of recreation facility investments