Brooklyn Park Community Change and Sustainability of Athletic Fields

Abstract

This project was completed as part of the 2016-2017 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with the City of Brooklyn Park. Brooklyn Park maintains 90 athletic fields and strives to make them available to the public. However, these fields tend to be underutilized. To better understand why residents do not use these resources, the city asked students in Dr. Lisa Kihl’s Senior Seminar in Sport Management class to interact with the residents. The students created and delivered surveys to known community groups who frequently use the parks. They found that the reservation system for the fields was largely unknown to many of the residents, and was not easily accessible to residents who speak languages other than English. Based on their findings, the students made short-term and long-term recommendations to the city. The students’ final report and presentation are available.