You're Invited to our Kick-Off Call
Building a Dynamic New Product for NPS
Healthy Parks Healthy People
NPS’ Healthy Parks Healthy People has recently partnered with the Center for Park Management to develop a Healthy Parks Healthy People Community Engagement Resource Guide. This new tool will provide park managers and staff with ideas, practical advice and resources to help them create and sustain a successful Healthy Parks Healthy People program aimed at engaging diverse populations. We will then use the guide at several parks over the course of the year to catalyze the development of several new Healthy Parks Healthy People initiatives.
We are currently assembling a workgroup of innovators and change makers to bring this idea to life - and we think you’d make an excellent addition to this dynamic team. We invite you to participate in our upcoming video conference call, where we will describe the idea in further depth, answer questions and identify next steps.
When
We're holding the call on two dates - pick the one that works best for you!
- Tuesday September 17th from 2-3 p.m. Eastern
- Thursday September 19th from 2-3 p.m. Eastern
Where
Video Conference & Call
To join the video conference and screen share, go to:
Dial:
- 1-877-890-9502
- Enter the following code when prompted: 8594765
Agenda
- Introductions
- Healthy Parks Healthy People Overview
- Resource Guide Purpose, Goals, Content & Execution
- Testing the Guide in the Field
- Resource Guide Work Group: Composition & Roles
- Identifying Next Steps
Draft Project Concept & Scope
Project Overview: The goal of this project is to develop a resource guide for park managers and staff to help them launch and sustain a Healthy Parks Healthy People program aimed at engaging diverse populations near their parks. The product will provide NPS staff with ideas, practical advice and resources to help them build a successful Healthy Parks Healthy People project directed at diverse populations.
After building the product, we will test it at two Urban National Parks – effectively helping to create and stand up a Healthy Parks Healthy People effort at the ground level. As a result, we will directly help these parks engage and connect with diverse surrounding community members – thereby increasing park visitation, building park supporters and enhancing park relevancy. After testing and evaluating the product, we will refine it for a later Service-wide launch (i.e. publishing it on InsideNPS and pushing replication through additional pilot projects).
Project Team: The resource guide will be collaboratively developed and tested by a diverse group of practitioners, innovators and change makers across NPS and external partner organizations in the nonprofit, public and private sectors. The project team will be asked to self-select into a number of roles (which will be determined collaboratively) such as a “design” team, a “review” team, etc. Each of these roles will have varying degrees of responsibility around the project, and will be subject to the availability, interest and expertise of each individual.
The Center for Park Management’s (CPM) will assume the role of convener, collaborator and project manager - catalyzing the development of the project in close collaboration with the National Park Service’s Healthy Parks, Healthy People Program and the larger project team. Team members will collectively identify themes and develop the guide’s content and structure.
Team members will be comprised of a diverse set of stakeholders across multiple disciplines, ideally including individuals from the following practices/organizations:
- Nonprofit Organizations operating across multiple spaces, including public/community health, minority outreach, parks and youth.
- Federal Agencies specializing in public health such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and multiple employees across NPS public health practitioners, NPS partnerships office, NPS Urban Park Strategists, etc.).
- Private Sector partners such as physicians, health insurance companies and community health clinics.
- Academic Community Members such as PhD students, researchers and professors focusing on the intersection of public health, minority outreach parks.
- Members of the Target Community such as community leaders and activists working in the groups we are trying to reach out to (i.e. non-traditional park go-ers), from minority populations to youth to veterans, etc.
Format & Interface: Ultimately the guide’s format will be determined collaboratively by the established project team and user-testing, however, an emphasis will be placed on ensuring interactive components, such as videos, an online portfolio of case studies, pop-ups, etc.,Providing interactive online features is important for several reasons: (1) this format is more engaging and tailored to an adult learning style as opposed to a completely static hard copy; and (2) including interactive components such as videos means we can leverage and lift content from partners and other sources (depending on license agreements) so that the project team does not have to independently produce all content.
There are a number of potential formats and interfaces for developing an interactive, media-rich product. Examples include but are not limited to:
· An interactive PDF*, containing layered content with embedded videos and other interactive components such as links to fillable forms, pop-ups to provide additional technical information to those who need it, customizeable templates, etc. , etc. As an interactive PDF, it can also be viewed statically online if there is poor internet connectivity in a particular park, and it can also be printed as a hard copy document without sacrificing layout if the user prefers a printed, off-line version.
*What’s an interactive PDF? Take a look to see what a PDF looks like and what if can do. Other examples: here and here.
· An online portal, hosted off-site from InsideNPS so that non-NPS partners can view and collaborate. Potential platforms would include GoogleSites, a Wordpress Blog, etc., all depending on the technical capabilities of the project team and budget. Resources and materials would be hosted on the portal, and would also include community forums where practitioners could share best practices and ideas.
Theoretical Framework: In addition to being based on field-tested best practices, the guide should also draw from proven theoretical frameworks applied in community health planning and diversity outreach spaces. The project team will explore some of these proven frameworks and adapt them to the current concept. For example, the guide may draw on IDEO’s design-thinking framework for decision-making and rapid prototyping, the Lean Startup’s method for producing impactful products, and the Collective Impact model for driving large-scale social change.