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Mandate, Facilities & Services
The Benefits of Recreation
Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services provide a number of benefits to our community. These benefits help strengthen families, build healthy communities, improve the quality of life for Richmond residents, provide the healthy development of children and provide leaders.
Below, you will find eight key marketing messages taken from the Benefits of Recreation Catalogue.
Recreation is Essential to Personal Health
- Recreation helps people live longer
- Recreation prolongs independent living for seniors - keeping seniors vital and involved in community life
- Recreation and fitness significantly reduces the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke
- Recreation and fitness combat osteoporosis
- Recreation and fitness combat diabetes
- Recreation and fitness help in preventing specific types of cancers - particularly in the colon, breast and lungs
- Recreation and fitness help prevent and rehabilitate back problems
- Recreation and arts/culture contribute to mental health
- Recreation and arts/culture enhance overall health and well-being
- Recreation is a proven therapeutic tool - helping to restore physical, mental and social capacities and abilities
Recreation is Key to Balanced Human Development
- Recreation is essential to the development of our children and youth:
We learn motor skills (physical) through play and sports
We learn social skills through play and sports
We learn creativity through play and arts/cultural activities
We develop intellectual capacities and concepts through play - and many other life skills - Recreation provides the opportunity for adults to develop their full and holistic potential
- Recreation and adult leisure learning provide exceptional opportunities
Recreation is Essential to Quality of Life
- Recreation and arts/culture build self-esteem and positive self-image
- Recreation and arts/culture enhance life satisfaction levels
- Recreation and arts/culture enhance perceived quality of life - for individuals, families and communities
- Recreation, sports and arts/culture nurtures growth, acquisition of life skills and independent living for those with a disability
Recreation Reduces Self-Destructive and Anti-Social Behaviour
- Recreation, sports and arts/culture reduce self-destructive behaviour and negative activity in youth - an antidote to smoking, substance abuse, suicide and depression
- Recreation and arts/culture can reduce crime
- Recreation and arts/culture can reduce racism - building understanding between diverse cultures
- Recreation reduces isolation, loneliness and alienation
Recreation Builds Strong Families and Healthy Communities
- Families that play together, stay together
- Recreation provides safe developmental opportunities for the latch-key child
- Recreation, sports and arts/culture produce leaders who serve their communities in many ways
- Recreation, sports and arts/culture build social skills and stimulate participation in community life
- Recreation is often the catalyst that builds strong, self-sufficient communities (i.e. sport groups, arts guilds)
- Arts/culture helps people understand their neighbours, their history and their environment
- Recreation and arts/culture build pride in a community
Recreation Reduces Health Care, Social Service and Police/Justice Costs
- Fitness and well-being reduce both the incidence and severity of illness and disability - lowering healthcare costs
- Recreation supports families - reducing costs of social service intervention and foster care
- Recreation reduces crime and social dysfunction - reducing police, justice and incarceration costs
Recreation and Parks are Significant Economic Generators in the Community
- Recreation and fitness improve work performance - increased productivity, decreased absenteeism, decreased staff turnover, reduced "on the job" accidents
- Recreation and arts/culture attract businesses to the community - prime economic development and relocation magnets
- Recreation, sports and arts/culture are the attractions that draw tourism - the third largest and one of the fastest growing industries in the world today
- Recreation, fitness, sports and arts/culture are significant economic generators on their own - providing many jobs
- Small investments in recreation, sports and arts/culture often yield large economic returns - money generated by events, capital development and providing ongoing services is spent several times in the community
Parks, Open Space and Natural Areas are Essential to Ecological Survival
- Green space protects habitat, biodiversity and ecological integrity
- Green spaces improve air quality - removing carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and other pollutants from the air
- Outdoor recreation is one of the best approaches to environmental education - a key to long-term sustainability
- Protecting land from development (keeping it as open space) mitigates against potential environmental disasters (flooding, slip zone, aquifer depletion)
- Trail and pathway systems save energy and protect air quality by encouraging non-motorized transportation
- Arts/culture is one of the best ways to express the spirituality of the land, thereby encouraging stewardship ethics
For more information on the Benefits of Recreation or to order a catalogue, visit http://www.lin.ca/benefits.htm
