National Recreation and Parks Association
Curriculum Development & Facilitation for NRPA Staff
Shift partnered with the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA), the premier non-profit organization dedicated to advancing public parks, recreation, and conservation across the country, to develop curriculum, facilitation guidelines, and instructional design across 6 core topic areas to support NRPA staff in delivering technical assistance to members.
- United States
- Community Engagement, Data Collection & Evaluation
- 2025
Project Overview
NRPA represents all park and recreation agencies in America, touching the lives of more than 300 million people in virtually every community. NRPA’s membership of park and recreation professionals and advocates is over 60,000 strong and represents public spaces in urban communities, rural settings, and every place in between. Shift was brought on as an internal consultant to NRPA based on our network expertise in health equity, participatory research, and multi-stakeholder facilitation.
Shift Health Approach
Shift conducted discovery with NRPA to understand the organization’s extensive existing technical assistance efforts, resources, and instructional content. NRPA sought the creation of one training module each across 6 dimension areas:
- Equity in Parks & Recreation
- Systems Change
- Seven Dimensions of Well-Being
- Environmental Resilience
- Community Engagement & Supporting Community-Led Work
- Data Collection & Evaluation
Implementation
For each module, Shift created a comprehensive facilitation guide, including goals and objectives, instructions for NRPA facilitators, linkages to existing NRPA materials and guides, as well as suggestions for learning formats to increase engagement for either in-person or virtual conversation — breakouts, group discussions, worksheets, reflection prompts, and more. The trainings were designed to appeal to multiple tracks of professionals making up NRPA’s membership — executive leaders, middle management, and frontline. Additionally, Shift brought specific insight and knowledge regarding how equity and community engagement principles could be integrated across the content.
Following initial design, Shift sent materials to NRPA’s programmatic team for feedback. Subsequently, Shift did a mock walk-through of 1-2 of the modules so that NRPA staff could see the curriculum in action, ask questions, and give feedback. Subsequently, all six modules were further refined and finalized.
2
phases: learning & implementation
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Accountability levers: governance, data/technology, investment
5
“D” narratives named: deny, distance, distort, delay, distract
Results & Impact
Shift’s engagement with NRPA was designed to support the Association in centralizing and connecting the dots across their expansive content and existing expertise. By playing a strategic aggregator role and working with NRPA to understand their needs, the ultimate 6-module curriculum that was designed incorporated an overarching approach that integrated equity principles, environmental resilience, and health and well-being through the power of local parks and recreation.