2017 has been a busy year for all of us at Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR)! We’ve been working in every corner of the city to maintain our 485 parks and 27 community centers, restore our urban forest, build new parks and play areas, meet with community members to hear public input and plan for the future, and provide hundreds of programs, summer camps, swim lessons, and much more. Read on to learn about some of our 2017 accomplishments supporting strong communities. Click the following links to see how we are also supporting healthy people and a healthy environment.
Strong Communities
We help build strong communities by connecting residents with opportunities to interact with each other in a variety of active and passive ways. Our programs bring diverse groups of people together for recreation and healthy living activities, our community centers serve as the living room of our neighborhoods, and our parks and open spaces provide gathering places for families and social groups. We also offer many arts and cultural programs that activate our parks and encourage residents to connect with each other in our public spaces.
The Recreation for All fund, through the Seattle Parks District, provides financial support to local nonprofit organizations, small businesses, community groups, and individuals to provide culturally relevant programs and events throughout the city. This year, we partnered with 15 groups to provide more than 850 hours of programs serving over 1,300 people in underserved neighborhoods.
More than 700 special events, including protests, holiday celebrations, and cultural and neighborhood gatherings took place in our parks in 2017. We also provided support for more than 127 major events in our parks, such as festivals, parades, and marathons. Our Event Scheduling office processed 3,919 picnic bookings and 277 ceremonies. Click here to learn how you can host an event at one of our 485 parks.
So far in 2017, more than 25,700 people have volunteered with SPR, providing 145,725 hours of service. Though the volunteers’ efforts are invaluable to us, the Corporation for National and Community Service estimates that the monetary value of a volunteer’s time in the U.S. as $30.04 per hour. That means that so far in 2017, volunteers donated roughly $4.3 million worth of time to the department!