Question: Does your municipal P&R Department partner with any non-profits to provide summer community recreation programming (summer youth camps, fishing derbies, organized play days, etc..) in your parks or in other facilities? If so, do you enter into an official contract of service and how do you monitor the program?

Answer:

Rogers: Yes, we do. It started in the 1980s, and simply involves a non-profit recreation entity running a day camp on city parks and facilities, at no charge to the non-profit. No contract or formal monitoring; we work closely with them.

Fort Smith: We don’t partner with any non-profits for summer programs. We do however have lots of non-profit run summer programs that use our parks. In this case we require a facility lease agreement to be completed and a deposit is required along with proof of general liability insurance.

Little Rock: No, we do not partner with any non-profits to provide recreational programming. We do however work with the Arkansas Game and Fish with our fishing derbies etc. We do allow community and non-profit groups to utilize our park facilities such as soccer fields, etc. In some cases we do have contracts with them.

DeQueen: The only contract we enter into is with the baseball and softball leagues for field usage. The rest of our programs are all run within our own parks department.

Fayetteville: Yes, we contract indoor recreation to the Boys and Girls Club of Fayetteville every year. In addition to City Council approving the contract, we have to request a wavier of competitive bidding. We also contract out recreational programs for Senior Citizens to the NW AR Economic Development District. The philosophy behind this is not to offer competing programs and both non-profits have wonderful facilities to operate. We have both of them to write goals and they send us a quarterly report to review their activities, number of participants and where they are in reaching the goals we set.

Russellville: The City enters into an agreement with the Boys and Girls Club to offer programs.

Jacksonville: The only non-profit that we work with is the Boys and Girls Club. We do however have the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission fill our pond for our fishing derby. We do not have a contract. The Boys and girls club manager attends our weekly meetings. We work closely with them and know of everything that is going on with their organization. They are free to use our parks whenever they are available.