Equity in Park Planning: Activate ATL

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Course Details

Parks and recreation are the heart and soul of health and well-being for all who live, work, and play in the City of Atlanta. In 2020, at the Pandemic onset, the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) developed Activate ATL: Recreation and Parks for All 10-Year Comprehensive Master Plan, aimed at addressing historical inequities, growth, disparities in open space and amenities, and maintenance. The Plan integrates the values of access, equity, progress, ambition, and nature around three main goals: Invest in assets, Connect internal/external resources, and Grow the overall system, with a special focus on advancing equity.

Activate ATL culminated into the Equity Data Tool (EDT). The EDT established a baseline of data DPR can track, impacting capital improvements, funding, building citywide partnerships, and enhancing cross-departmental collaboration. Available to the public, it is used by other agencies and partners for their analysis of equity.

Activate ATL was one catalyst for several measures that increased funding to the overall system. This session focuses on the key theme of parks and recreation system equity using data-driven models for visualizing and communicating inequities and disparities but also touches on other topics related to the intersectionality of issues through collaboration and partnership.

Learning Outcomes

  • Understand the importance of public parks and recreation in urban communities as well as address historical inequities in parks and recreation systems.
  • Obtain strategies for harvesting a city-wide conversation on the quality of parks and recreation.
  • How to use the City of Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation's Equity Data Tool as a method to measure success.
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