Needs Assessment
Name and type of
Organization:
City of Loveland, Colorado,
Parks and Recreation. Non-Profit Organization.
Mission and Vision Statement:
The mission of our
organization is to provide a positive recreational environment with a variety
of leisure opportunities, through the maintaining of parks, facilities, and
staff. The benefits of my recreational services are especially designed to meet
the physical, mental, cultural, and social needs of the community, while
enhancing the overall quality of life, through an effective and efficient
responsive manner.
The vision of our
organization is to continue to enhance the quality of professionally driven
leisure and recreation, by expanding our resources, such as facilities and
parks, in order to develop programs that will benefit every age, gender, and
race, as well as maintaining a positive influence to the surrounding community.
Values and
traditions:
My organization embraces the values
of integrity, a positive and enthusiastic attitude, teamwork, diversity,
communication, and maintaining high quality facilities, parks, and staff to
benefit the community.
One tradition that my
program offers is the Ability Building Adventures, which is a summer program of
learning and strengthening new adventurous skills. Each week there is a
different adventure (e.g. hiking/rock climbing, camping, river
rafting/kayaking, etc…) that begins with basic training and as the week goes
on, it turns into a wild and strengthening learning experience. Each student is
challenged throughout the week in physical, mental, social and cultural areas,
in ways that relate to the current adventure. The ABA
program leaves students with a positive life-changing experience that keeps
them coming back, year after year.
Historical Background
of the Organization:
Our organization was established in
1992, in order to bring community and culture together through leisure
activity. There were no Recreational organizations at this time, which gave us
the opportunity to form, what now is called the City of Loveland,
Parks and Recreation. Our organization has focused on filling community needs,
while bringing together all ages, race, and genders, through leisure. The
consistent varieties, throughout programs have also been something that our
organization has done well. What I mean by this is that, the popular programs
were kept, each year, but new ideas and programs would arise as our
organization would gain more knowledge about the targeted audience. This would
lead to a variety of change and new opportunities, each year.
What is the primary
approach to programming?
Our primary approach to
programming is Marketing, Community Development, and Social Planning. The goal
of marketing is to influence the behavior of an individual or group. It also is
considered an exchange that someone makes of value for something they need. Our
programs focus on the needs of the community, causing a change in behavior as
the individual is influenced by the benefits of a program. Community
Development is known as a way of leisure that imitates an enabler, encourager,
and cheerleader. Our program uses this approach as a way of improving economic,
social, and cultural well-being by involving people in community events that
help build paths of communication that encourage solidarity. Our last approach
is Social Planning, which focuses on the needs of our community, motivating our
organization to expand our programs and form them to fill each need.
Facilities, grounds,
and equipment:
The facilities, grounds, and
equipment our organization offers are, 26
developed parks on 281 acres, containing 20 softball fields, 25 playgrounds, 1
skate park, 14 picnic shelters, 4 outdoor racquetball courts, 3 golf courses
and 21 tennis courts. The City of Loveland
also offers adult soccer, softball, basketball, tennis, and volleyball, as well
as youth baseball/T-ball, gymnastics, soccer, softball, tennis, in-line hockey,
basketball, flag football, and volleyball. On top of all these great selections
to choose from, the Chilson Recreation
Center, in Loveland,
gives the option of recreation indoors. This is a recreation center that offers
a fitness and weight center, pool with waterslide, 2 gymnasiums, conference and
activity rooms, childcare, and pool tables. There is also 15.5 miles of
recreation trails in Loveland.
These trails run along lakes, rivers, irrigation canals, through fields, and
over and under city streets.
Number and Type of
Staff:
Most of the staff at the City of Loveland,
Parks and Recreation is full-time employees, with the exception of part-time
extra hires, and volunteers. There are 4 Recreation Programmers, who design
each program, and 6 others who work in other office positions. As for the
part-time employees, there are about 35 top quality leaders who are dispersed
between each program, from day camps to week long adventures. Sometimes people
volunteer by signing up to help keep our community clean, as well as
participating in city recreation events. The number of volunteers depends on
the amount of people who sign up, varying each week.
Financial Resources:
Donations, Grants, and Events, are
all financial resources for the City of Loveland,
Parks and Rec. Many Donors have made contributions for Adaptive Recreation
Programs, new facilities, and a state-of-the-art skate park. Other donations include
trees and benches for our parks and trails, as well as recreation equipment.
Certain companies will give out Grants, in order to support programs they
believe in. For example, Coca Cola has given us a Grant that will go towards
our adventure camp. This will help cover all our costs, such as gas for the
van, paying the employees, etc… The last resource of funding our programs is by
community events. Volunteers are used to run booths, concession stands, and
activities as a way to receive funds to put toward our wonderful programs.
Programs, Currently
Offered by our Program:
Currently our Organization offers,
Indoor Soccer for ages 5-12, Drop in basketball, Outdoor adventures, such as
hiking, Flag Football, Swimming lessons for any age, and In-line Hockey for
ages 15 and up.
Name of Community: Loveland
City State:
Colorado
Population: (59,563)
Percentage of people
in different age groups: Under age 5 (7%),
Over age 18 (73.1%)
Over age 65 (12.5%).
Percentage of
Females: (51%) Percentage of Males: (49%)
Ethnic/racial groups
represented, and percentages of people within each:
White (75.1%)
African
American (12.3%)
American
Indian and Alaska Native (.9%)
Asian
(3.6%)
Native
Hawaiian & other Pacific Islanders (.1%)
Some other
race (5.5%)
Hispanic or
Latino (8.6)
Percentage of people
with disabilities: (19.3%)
Education levels of
constituents: (25 years and older) High School graduate or higher (90.4%),
Bachelor’s degree or higher (27.5%).
Marital status/types
of households: Married men (64.3%)
Married women (58.8%)
Average family size (3.01) / Owner occupied housing units
(69.4%), Renter occupied housing units (30.6%) / Median family income ($54,337)
/ Total housing units (20,299)
Top five occupations
of constituents: Manufacturing, Health care and social assistance, Retail
trade, Administrative and support and waste management, Remediation service,
Professional scientific and technical services.
Major industry within
the community: Manufacturing (4,723) employees, (82) establishments, Annual
payroll ($228,988), Total value of shipments ($809,672).
Local tax base: (6.7%)
Community
issues/concerns: Population growth, Alcohol abuse, Illegal drug use, and
Teen pregnancy.
Types of public
transportation available: City of Loveland Transit,
Wheelchair and Special Needs Transportation, and Taxi Cabs.
Providers in the area
and there activities: YMCA. They provide basketball camps, swimming
lessons, personal trainers, and day camps.
Grounds and
facilities that exist in the community: Smith
Park and Loveland
schools, both provide much open field space. Smith
Park has a big toy for young
children and a small lake that reaches the northern edge of the park. These
grounds are great for camps and events.
To be a citizen of a
neighborhood: It means that we are a part of a whole, a group that shapes
and forms our community to what its final outcome is. This brings the responsibility
of caring for the environment and others, by playing your part in a social and
economical way to build up the community where we live. As each person in the
community is searching and thriving for ways to improve or get involved with
their community, Parks and Recreation Professionals play the leading role as
motivators, in which programs are designed to help fill the needs of the
community and also the individual.
1. The reasoning for conducting a needs assessment is to
receive input from the targeted audience. The input and information that is
obtained through these assessments will help in planning effective programs.
Programs will be designed according to the needs of the community, shown
through the needs assessment. Each aspect of each program will be based on the assessment
results and constructed to satisfy the customer and their needs.
2. Additional Information that our organization would need
to know about our target audience would be, age, race, gender, income, etc…
3. Most the information will be collected directly from the
assessment, but the rest must be collected from government websites that show
statistics and percentages for different categories and topics. Web sites, such
as www.census.gov, would be helpful in
retrieving community information.
4. We will collect
the information, from the assessment, allowing the Recreation Programmers to
take this information analyze every angle. Once conclusions have been made
about the needs of the people, programs begin to be constructed that will focus
on benefiting the community and needs.
