Where Will I Get the Money to do That?!
By Barbar Manzo, CPRP, Lee County Parks and Recreation, Fort Meyers, FL

Sound Familiar?
No matter where you live or how rich or poor your community is we have all asked ourselves that question many times! Traditionally, Parks & Recreation agencies have to fight for funding in one form or another and this has led to lots of creative solutions to how we get things done.

If you are just relying on traditional grants to supplement your municipal dollars then you'll still be short! So what to do?! Over the years I've realized that the only way to stretch my dollars and get more things for the department is through Partnerships. I know youre probably saying well what's so special about that, we've been partnering for years!!? And, yes we have, but I mean Really Partnering no longer trying to build an Empire, but rather a Coalition!! For some of us this is a new concept. We are very used to doing everything ourselves and sometimes territorial about our department. When I tell people about some of our successful partnerships, I'm very often answered with some form of "oh we tried that but couldn't make it work." My response to that is "it can't and won't work if were not willing to plug away at making it work." It takes lots of time and lots of effort to make any partnership work. And it takes the right person with the right attitude to make it successful.

Here are some old ideas with a new twist that might help:
Where will I get the money to do that? I'll need more staff! Forget more staff, concentrate on Volunteers, Interns. What? No time to train them - make time. Hire a Volunteer/Intern Coordinator and train all staff on how to treat Volunteers and Interns. Train these staff as you would your regular staff. Give them incentives, gifts, parking passes and recognition lunches. We did, we were growing so fast, but the mandate was no new staff So we took an existing vacancy, re-classed it to a Volunteer/Intern Coordinator and hired an experienced person.

In 2 years we had 900 trained, registered volunteers who hours were tracked and represented over $600,000 in legitimate wages. Takes time...You bet. Takes dedication...ditto, but the results are worth it.

Contract Instructors...we all have them, but do you use them to the fullest?? Make it worth their while. Forget the 80-20 split if you have to make it work, After all the only things we really want is the program provided for our customers. We dont have to be the ones teaching it Think like a Facilitator! Make it happen dont do it yourself.
Volunteer Organizations & Agencies. Do you have the Girl Scouts & Boy Scouts in your centers running their clubs or do you make them pay to rent a building?! Use them, bring them in, dont charge them and let them be your provider for after school clubs!!

What about 4H & Other Extension Programs? Do you have them in your community?? Once again give them your buildings to do programs and add them to the after school clubs. By partnering with our Extension Services, we now have 4-H Clubs, Nutrition Programs, Sewing Clubs and numerous other programs in our centers taught by the experts.

What it all boils down to is think STAFF LIGHT - PARTNER HEAVY. Don't pride yourself on how many staff you have, but rather how many partners you have. Do you have a Friends Organization working with you? If not, you should. They're easy to start. Every Park or Facility has a group of people who love it and use it all the time. Tap into these folks. Ask them to sit on a Board to help with advising you on how to run the Facility. What starts out as an advisory group most often ends up with people donating their time or helping to raise funds to supplement the program. These people have contacts in the community that will often assist you in reaching your goals.

Don't forget Recreational user groups. They have the people and the resources, but very often not the space. These groups provide recreational outlets for people through their own resources - One less thing we need to do!!

So give them space. I've given buildings to Art Leagues, Historical Societies, Senior Clubs, Hamm Radio Operators and Railroad enthusiasts. I've given space in parks to organizations to build facilities. Some of these are Disc Golf, Roller Hockey leagues, Archery Clubs, Community Tennis Associations, Shuffleboard Clubs, Master Gardeners, Scale Railroad Operation, Mountain Bikers, Horseback Riders, and Off Leach Dog groups, not to mention all the Youth Sport Leagues. These groups in-turn maintain their facilities and make them available to the public for lessons and use. A real win-win situation. Think of the Advocacy youve just developed!

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but its time for a reassessment. If you're asking yourself where will I get the money to do that then start looking at your partnerships and build on them I promise you'll love the results.