NATIONAL ACCREDITATION AND AWARDS |
The National Recreation and Park Association administratively sponsors accreditation for park and recreation agencies. Accreditation is a distinguished mark of excellence that affords external recognition of an organization's commitment to quality and improvement. Accreditation has two fundamental purposes; to assure quality and to assure improvement. |
On paper, CAPRA technically stands for the Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies. It means meeting, or exceeding, standards maintained by park and recreation leaders and strengthening the value of the programs, facilities and experiences they provide their communities.
CAPRA accreditation is a mark of excellence and allows your agency to stand apart from other non-accredited agencies in your community. Agencies who earn their CAPRA Accreditation reflect this concept in all aspects of their operations, policies and procedures, programming and strategic plans.
Want to know more about how accreditation can benefit your agency? Click here to check out great videos on the value of accreditation.
Learn More About CAPRA and View Resources
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The National Gold Medal Award honors communities of all sizes throughout the country that demonstrate excellence in long-range planning, resource management and innovative and creative approaches to designing and delivering superb park and recreation services through fiscally sound business practices. The Gold Medal Award includes seven classes: five by population, one class for Armed Forces Recreation and one for State Parks Systems (in odd-numbered years).
If an applying agency is selected as a Gold Medal finalist, it signifies that the agency is one of the four best in the country.
There are four strong benefits for an agency to embark on the Gold Medal journey. First is the opportunity for an agency to chronicle successes through a very thoughtful and thorough process. Second, it encourages an agency to review, assess and identify the strengths of its organization in various program, management, fiscal and service categories. Third, it inspires an agency to frame its innovative and creative approaches in solving day-to-day challenges in the community while creating amazing experiences for customers. Finally, the process boosts an agency’s networking capabilities through the exchange of valuable management resource information with other applicants and creates an avenue to share best practices.
For additional information contact goldmedal@nrpa.org
12950 N 7th Street | Phoenix AZ 85022 @AZParksRec |