The City of Wichita’s Park & Recreation department has received national accreditation from the Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies (CAPRA). The accreditation is based on an agency’s compliance with 151 national standards, meaning the department has met the required standards to provide ongoing quality programs, services and facilities to residents.
Wichita Park & Recreation is 1 of 150 accredited agencies of 8,000 parks and recreation departments. The department was recognized earlier this month during the National Park and Recreation Conference in St. Louis. To achieve accreditation, department staffers thoroughly reviewed every aspect of ongoing operations for the process of evaluation and improvement.
“We now have a better understanding of our organization, our needs and the needs of the citizens of Wichita,” said Troy Houtman, the Director of Park & Recreation. “We’ve made adjustments to our operations in order to be in-line with national best practices. We have also seen some positive changes regarding the collection of data from our users and we are using that data to make changes to our programmatic offerings. ”
Wichita Park & Recreation manages 138 parks, eight recreation centers, nine swimming pools, 52 athletic fields, five golf courses, seven interactive fountains, numerous adult and youth-based activities and athletics programs and 2,407 acres of rights-of-way. For more information visit Wichita.gov, and on Facebook at City of Wichita Park & Recreation.
