INTRODUCTION: ARE REOPENING SOLUTIONS CENTERING THOSE WHO ARE TRADITIONALLY FuRTHEST FROM ACCESS?
As part of the King County Play Equity Coalition’s COVID-19 response, we created Equity Considerations for Return to Play Resource for sports and recreation leaders to read and consider as they reopen and return to play. These considerations are not exhaustive but are the first step in viewing reopening through an “equity lens” and taking this opportunity to remedy inequities.
Without an equity lens, the pandemic is likely to exacerbate existing inequities in access to sport and play. Prior to COVID-19, only 19% of King County youth were getting the CDC’s recommended amount of physical activity: 60 minutes, seven days per week. This rate drops to 11% among youth who do not speak English at home, and participation in physical activity, organized sport, and outdoor recreation is predictable by race, affluence, gender and geographic residence. As public agencies, community based organizations, and other youth leaders and representatives plan for reopening and restarting youth physical activity programs, we have a unique opportunity to address these disparities by intentionally reshaping practices and policies.u
The Challenge
Key points (from STATE OF PLAY REPORT unless otherwise noted)
- Data from the Trust for Public Lands shows that Seattle has 6.8 park units per 10,000 people. However, data shows an increase of roughly 50% for usage and field hours in the past decade.
- Scheduled time for rectangular-field spots has doubled in past decade.
- Organized sports are culturally and economically exclusive. Youth who do not speak English in the home are 3 times more unlikely to participate in organized sports. Also, youth where families earn 75K or more are more likely to participate in organized sports.
- In Seattle, the only city in the county for which there is publicly available data of this type, there are 1.4 swimming pools per 10,000 people — well below the national average of about three pools per 10,000 people
- As part of Governor Inslee’s “Stay Safe-Stay Healthy” proclamation, all professional sporting activities, indoor and outdoor, outdoor youth team sports, and outdoor adult recreational team sports operating during the Safe Start Washington phased reopening must adopt a written procedure for employee safety and customer interaction, with detailed requirements for health and safety. Requirements are outlined relative to the risk category of the activity, as outlined in the document. (governor.wa.gov).
Access to playfields, courts and other sports facilities has long been a challenge to marginalized youth in King County, especially in South King County where there are fewer playfields in these neighborhoods. Across the county, there are significant barriers to access. These include: limited transportation options, procedural difficulties in reserving a playfield, the prioritization of paid programming and the prevalence of historic use policies. For example, throughout King County, field-scheduling procedures can create barriers; forms aren’t user-friendly and many are in English only, points of contact are difficult to find. Historic use policies – when a group is assigned the same field they had the year prior–can create more obstacles to access. Over the past decade, usage for recreational fields and facilities has doubled, creating increased demand but no increase in resources.
These challenges have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Per Governor Inslee’s “Stay Safe-Stay Healthy” proclamation, many recreational activities across the state have been prohibited and most facilities and playfields have been closed. Although some activities have resumed and some playfields are open again, as per the “Healthy Washington Plan” phased reopening plan, barriers to access are still a significant challenge, due to decreased staffing, high health and safety requirements and limited availability for fields and facilities.
The challenge is how to adhere to the many COVID-related challenges of re-opening, while also creating equitable access for ALL youth across King County.
Challenges relative to joint-use agreements:
- Costs: Insurance, maintenance, staffing
- Coordination: Administrative oversight, on-going coordination & communication
- Time: Develop, plan, & implement often between partners with little history collaborating
- Clarity: Agreements should articulate financial, legal, & operational responsibilities
- Liability: injury, property damage
- Scheduling access: communication & prioritization
- Relationships: Site level & starting new shared use, staff turnover impacting historical relationships and agreements
IDEAS TO CONSIDER:
FOR PROGRAMS:
- Often programs don’t own their own facilities, but if they do, be sure that those facilities aren’t only being accessed by those who can afford to pay for them. Find ways to give space on a sliding scale or low-cost.
- Find ways to partner with similar organizations to advocate to city and county institutions for shared use agreements and holding space open for free play and local community-use.
- Intentionally seek out and build relationships with folks in school districts and park agencies to begin a dialogue about your needs and how they can help insure community based organizations get the space they need.
FOR MUNICIPALITIES AND OTHER PUBLIC AGENCIES
- Seattle Parks and Recreation is piloting a program that blocks out time on fields for drop-in use. This allows for spaces that tend to be rented during high-use times during the day are protected for local, drop-in, free-play. King County Parks piloted an effort at Steve Cox Park in White Center intentionally leaving one hour per weekday and two hours per weekend unscheduled to keep the park available for drop-in use.
- While creating or developing joint-use agreements, review existing agreements to evaluate who is being served. If facility use is not equitable, include new user groups in new or updated agreements. Tools to provide this data could include: use and needs assessment, focus groups or interviews of current and potential users, focus groups or interviews of local community, or surveys.
- Facilitate meetings with risk management and insurance provider as Washington laws offer adequate liability protection to property owners for recreation and specific protections for school districts
- Consider Joint Power Agreements – pooling resources to provide more extensive coverage for all users of the space.
- Identify adequate scheduling software that provides live data to user groups that could enable a wait list of groups to access should a group cancel their reservation last minute.
- Improve clarity of the reservation/scheduling process so the process is easier to navigate and consider what kinds of translation might be needed in order for all to access. Prioritize community outreach and translation. Share reservation process information with community based youth serving coalitions and networks.
- Develop equity policies relative to facility access so that decisions regarding reduced fees or scheduling priority are guided by a policy prioritizing equity.
- Review model joint use agreements & check lists from “Model Joint Use Agreement Resources”