BBM: It's working! - benefits based recreation management

The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA), through funding by the National Recreation Foundation (NRF), has initiated four demonstration projects to implement a benefits-based recreation program model to illustrate the impact recreation programs can have on participants. This programming philosophy has become known as "Benefits-Based Management (BBM) of Recreation Services." This is not to be confused with the marketing campaign also sponsored by NRPA; this latter effort is known as the "Benefits Are Endless...[TM]" campaign, and it is a critical component of more effectively promoting park and recreation services. These two efforts complement each other, where the BBM effort prepares professionals to develop, implement and evaluate programs that have a significant impact on participants. The "Benefits Are Endless...[TM]" effort teaches professionals how to communicate the impact of park and recreation services. Both efforts are critical.

Earlier articles (Allen, 1996; Allen, Harwell and Stevens, 1996; Allen, Stevens and Harwell, 1996) have described both a macro-model of BBM and a BBM Activity Planning Model (Figure 1). It is the purpose of this article to illustrate the use of the Activity Planning Model in two different recreation settings. One program is based in Chicago and is being conducted by the Chicago Park District, while the second program is being conducted in Rock Hill, South Carolina, by the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism. Both programs focus on youth, and they are part of the demonstration projects sponsored by NRPA.

The Chicago effort involves male Hispanic gang members, ages 13-21, from the Back of the Yards section of Chicago (see McGovern and Wellems, p. 56), and the Rock Hill program is a city-wide effort involving both male and female youth between the ages of 11-14. Most, but not all, of the young men in the Chicago program have been adjudicated by the court system. The youth in Rock Hill are young people who could benefit from additional support and involvement because of recent events in their lives.

FIRST COMPONENT

Issue and Target Goals

Both programs have followed the Activity Planning Model. The first section of this model requires the identification of clear and measurable outcomes. For example, each program selected target issues. These issues are major social concerns or problems deemed important by their stakeholders (mayor, city council, neighborhood leaders) that can be addressed by a long-term and comprehensive recreation program. In Chicago, the two target issues were the reduction of gang violence and an increased involvement in formal educational and job training programs.

In Rock Hill, the target issues revolved around young people's lack of commitment to the community and lack of involvement in community activities. Both programs established procedures for documenting the change in these target issues. These procedures are presented later in this article.

The target issues relate to the long-term impact of the recreation experience. However, in most cases recreation programs cannot or do not directly address the stated social issue. Rather, they address some of the characteristics or conditions associated with those problems. Therefore, target goals were developed that directly related to the underlying conditions or characteristics of the target issue. In both of these programs, the target goals related to the development of protective factors in these young people. Protective factors are those skills, attitudes and behaviors young people must possess to effectively cope with the everyday stresses of life (McMillan and Reed, 1994).

These factors also are the ones that provide the youth with the ability to resist the pressure to become involved with delinquent or criminal behavior. For these two programs, 10 protective factors were established. They are presented in Figure 2.

SECOND COMPONENT

Activity Components

The second section of the BBM Activity Planning Model relates to the development and implementation of purposive recreation programs. The content and structure of these programs must be specific to the stated target issues and target goals for the specific user group. General and/or homogenized recreation programs that have been developed for all participants, addressing all potential benefits, will not adequately address the stated goals and issues for the intended target group. In Chicago, a 12-week outdoor adventure/recreation program, aptly titled the Teen Outdoor Adventure Recreation Program, was developed and each session involved a different element of training related to outdoor recreation skills. A culminating activity of this program was a trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota.

The program in Rock Hill was titled the Mayor's Teen Volunteer (MTV) program. It involved 10 weeks of volunteering at various public agencies in the city, mostly within the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department. Other sites included the public library and the local Boys and Girls Club. In all cases, the youth worked directly with the public. They may have assisted with programs at a recreation center or been involved with a reading program for younger children at the library. Each youth in the MTV program volunteered a minimum of 10 hours per week. For both programs, the professional staff received extensive training in developing purposive programs that addressed the 10 protective factors stated as goals.

Performance Objectives Developed

For each session, the staff developed measurable performance objectives. These objectives had clear criteria for measuring successful completion of the objective, and they related back to the targeted goals. Some examples of performance objectives for the Teen Outdoor Adventure Program were:

1. Sixty-five percent of the participants will be able to correctly demonstrate the proper techniques for tent set-up.

2. Seventy percent of the participants will be able to canoe around the swimming pool one time without tipping over.

3. Seventy-five percent of the participants will be able to identify 10 major parts of a sail boat.

4. Fifty percent of the participants will be able to correctly tie a square knot and half-hitch knot within a period of three minutes.

For the Mayor's Teen Volunteer program, the performance objectives were different for each youth since they were all at different volunteer sites. The objectives were stated more as activities to be performed while volunteering, with the intent of building the 10 protective factors and a sense of responsibility. Some examples from the public library site were:

1. The volunteer will compile 50 packets for "Books and Baby" program and deliver them to the hospital.

2. The volunteer will develop a work schedule of projected daily tasks for eight weeks.

3. The volunteer will be responsible for entering weekly baby newspaper announcements on to the database.

Performance objectives were developed for every meeting or activity with the youth. Many of these objectives seem very simplistic; however, it was the impact of the 10-to-12-week period that was important. The professionals were interested in the cumulative impact of achieving these objectives.

Once the performance objectives are stated, the experiences must be developed in a manner to maximize the probability of achieving the performance objective(s) and the target goals. Developing the experiences to achieve the performance objectives was quite straight forward; however, the more critical element of program development was offering these experiences so the target goals also were met.

In reviewing the literature on effective programming for youth in at-risk environments, several key programming principles were identified that lead directly to developing the target goals. Although these principles relate to working with youth in at-risk environments, many of the principles have generic use across all recreation programming groups. Figure 3 presents the complete list of programming principles. As one reviews this list, one readily sees that many of these principles can be incorporated into almost any recreation experience. In both of the projects, the recreation professionals were instructed to select the most important principles for their situation and focus on including those in every recreation experience. The key from a programming effectiveness perspective is taking the time to modify an experience to accommodate these principles. These principles are one of the essential elements in providing programs that are an effective developmental tool rather than merely just a diversionary activity. Further, these principles can be universally applied with all types of recreation experiences and are universally valuable for programming with all user groups regardless of their status.

Processing the Experiences

Another critical element in the development of effective recreation programs is processing the experiences. Processing involves giving the participants the opportunity to reflect on feelings and situations that occur during the activity. This is the time to transfer what happens in the recreation experience to a real-world situation. Processing can be very informal; one may discuss a situation as it occurs by having the involved participants reflect on what is happening at that moment, or it may be a more formal process at the end of the experience. Just as teachers look for that "teachable moment," recreation programmers should look for those moments when they can provide a valuable lesson through the recreation experience. A tremendous opportunity for learning and impact is lost by not processing recreation experiences; it should become a normal part of the experience. It is interesting that in sports we process the winning or losing of a game, but we rarely process practices or other types of recreational experiences.

With our Chicago project, the processing had to be spontaneous and informal. Because of the youth we were working with, formal processing was not possible for most of the program period. One example of effective processing was during instruction on properly getting into a canoe. The instructor was stressing the importance of working together and establishing what each person had to do to prevent the canoe from turning over. Recall your own experience of getting into a canoe for the first time; you can see that this is an excellent time to make the point of how success comes through cooperation rather than independent efforts. In another situation, unbeknownst to the youth, the instructor played wolf sounds from a cassette player one evening when they were discussing their trip to the Boundary Waters. The youth became visibly alarmed. The instructor used this opportunity to discuss fear, especially fear of the unknown. The discussion evolved into an exchange of the fear they had everyday living in their situation and how fear generates behaviors that are not always in the person's best interests.

Because of the nature of the MTV project, the processing was on a one-to-one basis. Each volunteer supervisor met with the volunteers on a periodic basis to discuss things that were happening at their site. Processing really was a natural element to the total experience, and the youth had several opportunities to discuss their feelings and reactions to working in the volunteer setting.

Processing may take several forms. With a playground program conducted the previous summer, youth were encouraged to keep journals of their feelings (likes and dislikes) each day. Admittedly, during the first few weeks, the idea was not received very well. However, the instructors kept encouraging the youth and helped them recognize their feelings. After a few weeks, the youth began to accept the activity, and by the end of the nine-week program they were actively writing in their journals and enjoyed being able to express their feelings.

Another valuable element of the program planning process is monitoring. It provides a constant review and feedback that is critical to achieving the target goals and performance objectives. Through daily monitoring of activities, one remains focused and sensitive to the goals and objectives of the programs and makes modifications as needed. Each day the programmer should set aside time to determine how the target goals and performance objectives were addressed through the activities of the day and record any changes that need to be made before the next session.

A formal record of the programmer's daily comments is the best method of using the monitoring process to its greatest benefit and providing a depth of understanding that is lost without this effort. With both of the projects, the programmers completed an activity report form each day. The last section of the form was for monitoring purposes. It included assessing the completion of the daily Performance Objectives and recording reactions to the daily activities. It became the information basis for modifying the program for the next session.

THIRD COMPONENT

Benefit Outcomes

The last component of the BBM Activity Planning Model involves the assessment of Benefit Outcomes that relate to both the Target Issue and the Target Goals. A comprehensive evaluation plan needs to be established for assessing both types of outcomes. Evaluation is an essential element of the program planning process; however, far too often, we neglect this critical activity because it is viewed as too difficult or time consuming. Much of the lack of support the profession is experiencing today is because we have not included comprehensive evaluations of our programs that verify the potential impact of our services.

As a part of the overall evaluation, the performance objectives were assessed on a daily basis. Hopefully, these objectives lead to the achievement of the target goals and target issue (s). However, there needs to be a direct assessment of these two areas. The target goals are stated in measurable terms; therefore, the evaluation should be focused directly on these statements. In many cases, there may be valid and reliable instrumentation available to assess the goals; however, in some cases, the programmer may have to establish appropriate indicators of goal achievement.

The target goals for the two demonstration projects related to building the 10 protective factors in the youth. However, as stated earlier, the target issues varied for the two projects. In the Chicago effort, reduction of gang violence and an increase in educational and job training involvement were the target issues. For the Rock Hill project, the target issues related to a general increase in one's sense of responsibility and in involvement with school and community groups.

Testing for Changes

For these demonstration projects, control groups were identified so comparisons could be made between those youth in the BBM program and those who did not participate in such a program. To measure any change in the 10 protective factors, both the BBM groups and the control groups were pre- and post-tested using an instrument developed by Texas A&M University. Tables 1 and 2 present the results from the two projects. Appropriate statistical analyses were conducted to determine if any significant differences were found between the two groups; however, the purpose of this article is not to discuss the statistical aspects of the results, but rather to report the findings in a manner useful to the practitioner.

TABLE 1. CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

Mean(1) Scores for Protective Factors: Demonstration and Control Groups

                                              Demonstration
                                                  Group

Protective Factors                      Pre-Test       Post-Test

Knowledge of Neighborhood Resources         4.83          6.09(*)

Caring Adults are Interested in Me          4.04          5.47(*)

Accepted and Liked by Others and Family     5.57          6.26(*)

High Controls Against Deviant Behavior      5.98          6.33(*)

Appreciation of Role Models                 4.86          5.70(*)

Positive Attitudes Toward the Future        5.47          5.76(*)

Values Achievement                          5.66          6.22(*)

Ability to Work with Others                 5.55          6.34(*)

Ability to Work Out Conflicts               5.25          5.88(*)

Perceived Competence                        5.98          6.52(*)

                                                Control
                                                 Group

Protective Factors                      Pre-Test       Post-Test

Knowledge of Neighborhood Resources         4.85          4.82

Caring Adults are Interested in Me          5.17          5.03

Accepted and Liked by Others and Family     5.49          5.30

High Controls Against Deviant Behavior      5.44          5.03

Appreciation of Role Models                 5.50          5.06

Positive Attitudes Toward the Future        5.62          5.33

Values Achievement                          6.44          5.27

Ability to Work with Others                 6.09          5.28

Ability to Work Out Conflicts               5.09          4.61

Perceived Competence                        5.76          5.48

References

Allen, L. R. (1996). A primer: benefits-based management of recreation services. Parks and Recreation, March, 64-76.

Allen, L. K.; Harwell, R. ~ Stevens, B. (1996). Prescriptive recreation programming. Proceedings of the Parks and Recreation in the 21 st Century Chapter III Conference. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Allen, L. R.; Stevens, B. & Harwell, R. (1996). Benefits based management of recreation services. Journal of Parks and Recreation Administration, 14(3), 10-19.

McMillan, J. & Reed, D. (1994). Resilient at-risk students: students views about why they succeed. The Journal of At-Risk Issues, Fall, 27-33.

COPYRIGHT 1997 National Recreation and Park Association
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