Process Update - November, 2010

Alberta Recreation and Parks Association, together with ACE Communities developed a draft Service Excellence Program overview and a related Audit and Organizational Development Framework. This initial thinking was critiqued at the ARPA Conference in Jasper on Oct. 21/10 by a broad range of seasoned veterans in the field of parks, recreation, sports, arts, culture, fitness, environment. All related documents have been updated based on consensus feedback; other recommendations will be reviewed by the Service Excellence Advisory Team (SEAT).

The intent and overall focus of the 'Service Excellence Framework' is to provide a guide for assessment, coaching and development work for recreation and rarks services. The content is designed to define, monitor, assess, evaluate and recognize outstanding performance in recreation and parks services. This Framework os organized around five modules (see earlier post for details): community building, programs, facilities, parks and management. Overall, there are approximately 120 practice guidelines, each supported by 5-10 quality indicators.

The process ahead will first refine the practice guidelines and quality indicators with the help of expert panels; then pilot the initiative with some communities in Alberta. Eventually, SEP is planned to expand to other interested provinces and territories across Canada.

Several documents are available to you upon posting a request:

• Feedback Summary of Responses from Jasper Oct. 21/10 session
• Roles and Terms of Reference for both the Service Excellence Advisory Team (SEAT) and for the PANEL members
• the draft Service Excellence Program Overview
• the very early draft Audit/Assessment tool or Framework

The Service Excellence Advisory Team (SEAT) currently consists of an Executive Team of 7 practitioners plus 5 ex officio resource people from ARPA and ACE. This Executive team is prepared to lead the way and are having their first orientation phone conference session on December 7th; SEAT members are expected to participate and will hold office for one year until Nov. 30/11.

• The Executive Committee of SEAT consists of Greg Scott as Chair, Elaine Betchinski as Vice Chair, with 5 Module Chairs: Deb Comfort/Community Building, Laura Howarth/Programs, Roger Smolnicky/Facilities, Paul Phaser/Parks and Kim Snell/Leadership and Management


• Brenda Clarke and Ken Balmer of RETHINK (West) Inc. are the resource and development arm of this initiative for the next year.


• Rick Curtis and Carol Petersen represent ARPA; Brenda Herchmer represents ACE Communities.

PURPOSE/ROLE of SEAT

To provide overall leadership and give suggestions, advice and recommendations to support the successful development, testing and implementation of SEP and the ‘Audit & Organizational Development Framework’. They will advise on the design of the Framework and process to encourage yearly organizational assessments, peer review, coaching and support systems for constant improvement with all recreation/parks programs, facilities, services, community building efforts.

PARTICIPATION OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOU

Please join in and help shape results. There are several ways you can become involved with this Service Excellence Program initiative:

1) review comment on PANEL Roles and Terms of Reference and recommend appropriate leaders (even yourself) to fill up to 30 positions per Module ( 5 x 30 = 150 people needed for the PANELS)

2) agree to participate as a member on one of the 5 Module PANELS; this volunteer work would expect participation in approximately 3 surveys which will focus on the module of your choice (one of Programs, Parks, Facilities, Community Building or Leadership and Management); also, all participants will be asked to generally review the leadership and management module and then examine their service in detail

3) In the new year, we will be looking for approximately 5 PILOT Communities (rural and urban) to test the Framework over Spring/Summer of 2011. Are you interested in being considered as a PILOT Community?

4) Post general comments, suggestions for improvement and/or questions on this blog. You are welcome to jump on board with us and participate in the development of this important tool; just post a note with your clear request, feedback and contact information. We will get back to you with a response at our earliest opportunity.

UPDATES

We are committed to keeping in touch with you and will post frequent updates. All of our SEAT, Panel and PILOT Community participants will be 'followers' of the blog. Just add you name to the list and you'll get automatic updates as they are posted.

TARGETS

The ultimate target is approval of both the Service Excellence Program and Audit Framework by the ARPA Board of Directors by Oct./11 - in time for an official launch and promotion at the Oct. 27 to 29th ARPA Conference in Lake Louise. The ultimate goal is to achieve endorsement/implementation of this tool by all the ARPA members and municipal practitioners in this field in Alberta.

Some Great Examples of Service Excellence Assessment Tools/Programs

We are working to arrange access to our Diigo resource, an annotated online service that connects you to over 200 assessment tools related to programs, facilities, parks, community building and management.  In the meantime, here's a short list of some examples that have impressed us:

• Cultural Competency - the Minnesota Department of Health Services has developed an organizational self-assessment tool using 56 competencies in five categories (service delivery and quality management, human resource practices, governance/community relations/marketing, administration and policy, organizational culture) http://www.dhs.state.mn.us/main/idcplg?IdcService=GET_DYNAMIC_CONVERSION&RevisionSelectionMethod=LatestReleased&dDocName=id_016429 
• Excellence Framework for Sport and Recreation Services - A Sport England initiative.  A performance managment framework for sport and recreation services that helps local governments assess performance based on four levels (poor, fair, good and excellent).  Criteria and indicators are provided in eight areas: leadership, policy and strategy, community engagement, partnership working, use of resources, people management, standards of service, performance measurement and learning. http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/aio/4433678 
• National Occupational Standards for Community Development - Lifelong Learning UK lists practice guidelines in seven key areas: understand and practice community development, understand and engage with communities, take a community development approach to group work and collective acction, promote and support a community development approach to collaborative and cross-sectoral working, support community learning from shared experiences, provide community development support to organizations, manage and develop community development practice. http://www.ukstandards.org.uk/Admin/DB/0030/Community%20Development%20S1%20to%20S8.pdf
• New York AfterSchool Network Program Quality Self-Assessment Tool - organized around ten essential elements of an effective afterschool program, all of which come from evidence-based practice, with quality indicators for each element: environment/climage, administration/organization, relationships, staffing/professional development, programming activities, linkages between day and afterschool, youth participation/engagement, parent/family/community partnerships, program sustainability/growth, measuring outcomes/evaluation. http://www.nysan.org/userfiles/file/nysan/overview_QSA_tool.html 
• New Zealand Recreation Facility Management Guidelines - The New Zealand Recreation Association has published very detailed guidelines in the following areas: people, communication and promotion, financial management, asset mansgement, risk management, monitoring and evaluation, planning, customer care, programs and events, facility design, contract and lease management, governance. http://www.nzrecreation.org.nz/Default.aspx?section=organisation&page=projects 
• Review of Current Approaches to Performance Measurement in Protected Area Management - Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service has developed performance indicators for: parks systems, mangement systems, protecting individual species, ecological habitat and ecosystem monitoring, fire management, pest and weeds, habitat rehabilitation, human use and recreation. http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/publications/best-practice/pubs/perf-measurement.doc
• Seattle Parks and Recreation, Best Management Practices - a series of very deailted best maangement practices focused on landscaped and natural parkland and the assets located in those areas.  Themes include: construction site management, greenhouse operations, integrated pest management, irrigation management, natural areas, nursery operations, plant bed management, turf management. http://www.cityofseattle.net/Parks/projects/bmp.htm
• Service Excellence Program, Government of South Australia - The Department for Families and Communities has developed a Service Excellence Program that supports two achievement levels.  Critical elements and a performance check list for each are provide in several key categories: sound management, leadership, communication, working together, consumer satisfaction, service outcomes, contracting, people.  In each category there are two sections: essential minimum and organizational learning. http://www.dfc.sa.gov.au/pub/default.aspx?tabid=267 

The Modules and Core Organizational Competencies

One of the first challenges was to identify the core organizational competencies that we would expect of a recreation and parks organization or agency.  We also had to consider the reality that traditional Parks and Recreatio Departments have often morphed over the past decade to combine recreation with social services, or parks with public works.

Although definitely a work in progress, we are currently looking at five modules, anticipating that each participating organization would select the ones applicable to their mandate.  A Management Foundation Module captures the essential management competencies likely common to all.   For each module, we then identified 8-10 core organizational competencies.  Each of these will then be expanded using a number of 'quality indicators' for each competency, to assist the participating organization to assess just how good they are in each competency area.

We would welcome any and all comments designed to improve this categorization.  Please use the comment section below after thinking about:

• would the module approach (5 areas) work for your organization?
• are there any core organizational competencies missing from any of the four modules at the top of the model above?
• are there any that should not be included, from your perspective?

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

The Process of Creating a Service Excellence Program

In 2009, Rick Curtis (Executive Director, ARPA) came across an Excellence Framework for Sport and Recreation Services developed by Sport England  (http:www.idea.gov.uk/idk/aio/4433678).  This led to a search for similar tools and we quickly learned of many similar initiatives.  Australia, New Zealand and England appeared to be in the lead.

A discussion paper was prepared looking at the various challenges involved in crafting something similar for Alberta, and perhaps all of Canada.  The paper generated some excitement and a consultant was commissioned to lead the process (RETHINK).

During the period from May to October 2010, the following steps were undertaken:

• refinement of the initial discussion paper based on feedback from the ARPA leadership team
• initial discussions with ARPA's provincial/territorial partners to determine engagement interest
• an international scan for assessment tools that might inform our development process
• cataloguing all assessment tools using Diigo, to capture the resources ready reference during this initiative and for others
• prepartion of an early draft of each of five modules (community building, programs, facilities, parks, management) that identified core organizational competencies, practice guidelines and quality indicators for each module
• hosting of an invited leadership forum at the ARPA annual gathering in Jasper - inviting critical review to see if we were on the right track.  Participants indicated strong support for the principles and directions being taken AND, of course, offered a great deal of constructive criticism.

For the next 12 months, we will:

• host additional review workshops
• establish expert panels, one for each module, to bring the best available operational expertise to the table
• carry on our search for the best possible indicators of optimal practice and service quality
• work with 5-10 communities of all sizes in Alberta to pilot a draft assessment tool
• refine the framework, model and approach based on all of the above, and
• spend some time developing an implementation and launch strategy - including recommendations for governance/management of the ongoing service excellence program, financial sustainability and marketing.

All of this will be available for stakeholder review at the 2011 ARPA Conference in Lake Louise, Alberta.

If you would like to see electronic copies of the Discussion Paper, please use the comment section to provide your email address.

We've reviewed over 200 related Assessment Tools

Early in the process, we identified over 200 related assessment tools.  Each was carefully reviewed: to learn about approaches to assessment and to identify practice guidelines and related success indicators for the recreation and parks field.

All of these resources are available online and they cover every aspect of our work:

• 34 tools addressed recreation facilities
• 41 focussed on parks and natural area management
• 75 looked at program services (recreation, sport, arts, culture,after school, early childhood, etc.)
• 15 were about community building, and
• 95 addressed various aspects of management.

These resources have already been used to design the principles and approach to be taken.  They will continue to be used by our Advisory Team to ensure that we are building on the best approaches available.  And they will be used by each Expert Panel as they refine the actual practice guidelines and indicators that will be used in each of five modules of the Framework (community-building, programs, facilities, parks, management).

The 200 assessment tools have all been catalogued using Diigo - essentially an online annotated bibliography that allows you to search by the module categories and/or key words.  Someone using this Diigo service could look for assessment tools for:

• children's cultural programs
• sport programs
• gender equity in sport
• inclusion in facility design
• natural area parks
• risk management in facilities,
• etc.

Having searched and found a number of related annotations, the user can click on a link at the bottom of each annotation and go directly to the web source.  Generally, the full assessment tools are available for download.

We are in the process of making this Diigo resource available to anyone who is interested.  Please leave a comment with your contact information if you would like access; we'll keep you informed.

WHY do we need this initiative?

For the last two decades, every organization that depends on stakeholder support has been under increased pressure:

• to be effective and efficient
• to adopt best and promising practices
• to benchmark and compare
• to provide quality assurance
• to be accountable, and
• to measure performance.

Canada has many examples of accreditation processes (HIGH Five), guidelines (BC Pool Guidelines), and standards (BC Therapeutic Recreation Association Standards of Practice.  However, they are often specialized rather than comprehensive; have a tendency to minimum performance standards; and others are generic and not specific enough for recreation and parks agencies.

No approach, model or framework has generated the support to become firmly established.  Our recreation and parks 'profession' is without a clear and accepted body of practice that defines organizational competencies and/or service excellence.  Many would argue that we cannot be a profession without this work.  This Service Excellence Framework will fill this gap.

The Framework is being developed and piloted in Alberta with the support of several provincial/territorial partners of ARPA.  We strive to ensure that it will be successful and gradually adopted across Canada.