Parks, Recreation, Fitness, and Sports

In recent years, the time available for leisure-time activity has increased, but this increase has come in small chunks and been spent in sedentary activities. Similarly, the time spent on leisure activities has risen but has been focused on activities that encourage sedentary behaviors.

Providing access, education, and resources that help people incorporate fun and meaningful physical activity into their daily lives can foster real change in the national level of physical activity. The parks, recreation, fitness, and sports sector has considerable capacity to encourage more people to be more active by pursuing the following strategies:

STRATEGY 1
Promote programs and facilities where people work, learn, live, play and worship (i.e., workplace, public, private, and non-profit recreational sites) to provide easy access to safe and affordable physical activity opportunities. VIEW TACTICS

STRATEGY 2
Enhance the existing parks, recreation, fitness, and sports infrastructure to build capacity to disseminate policy and environmental interventions that promote physical activity.  VIEW TACTICS

STRATEGY 3
Use existing professional, amateur (Amateur Athletics Union, Olympics), and college (National Collegiate Athletics Association) athletics and sports infrastructures and programs to enhance physical activity opportunities in communities. VIEW TACTICS

STRATEGY 4
Increase funding and resources for parks, recreation, fitness, and sports programs and facilities in areas of high need.  VIEW TACTICS

STRATEGY 5
Improve physical activity monitoring and surveillance capacity to gauge program effectiveness in parks, recreation, fitness, and sports settings based on geographic population representation and physical activity levels, not merely numbers served.  VIEW TACTICS

STRATEGY 6
Increase social marketing efforts to maximize use of recreations programs and facilities and promote co-benefits with environmental and other related approaches.  VIEW TACTICS