Inclusive community recreation is an optimal environment for the development of recreation and sports skills and social relationships between people with and without disabilities. Although we know much about best practices for inclusion, little systemic change in recreation agencies has transpired. Diffusion of Innovation Theory is proposed as a…

Youth are often the primary group for parks and recreation organizations, yet recreation professionals are often not adequately prepared in the principles and practices of youth development. Similarly, youth workers outside the recreation field often lack information on basic recreation program design and activity leadership. Improving access to…

Authors in this paper present the design and implementation of daily routines in Slovenian kindergartens. Slovenian national document for preschool education, "Curriculum for Kindergartens" (1999), describes daily kindergarten activities (communication and interaction with and among children, use of compliment and reprehension, and rules…

A "leisure resource room" can help people in the campus community solve the problem of what to do recreationally while giving valuable experience to the professional recreators of the future. (Author)

Evaluation is one method of determining accountability in human service programs. A generic evaluation approach contains several steps: (1) stating a purpose for evaluating the program; (2) identifying evaluation questions; (3) identifying the nature of evaluation information; (4) collecting evaluation information; (5) analyzing evaluation…

In Scandinavia, student welfare needs are usually met by student unions financed independently of the institution. This article describes the different organizational structures and functions of Scandinavian unions in an effort to stimulate alternatives to traditional American student service delivery systems. (Author)

When applied to campus recreation programs, the concept of enterprise and entrepreneurial activity has proven successful with students as well as accepted by university officials. Service delivery models at three midwestern universities are analyzed. In each case a somewhat autonomous small business enterprise operates within the larger program.…

A symbolic interactionist approach to evaluation views the evaluator as an observer of group behavior in which individual action aligns with collective action. The evaluator attempts to discover what is actually going on in the program being evaluated. Though the interactionist approach frees the program manager from having to articulate goals, it…

A model is presented to demonstrate that systematic evaluation by design or planned, purposeful evaluation of recreational programs is possible. The evaluation model concepts of control group, randomization, and pretest and posttest are explained. (JN)

The future maintenance and improvement of park and recreation programs involves: (1) remembering that access to recreation should be independent of socioeconomic status; (2) developing and using marketing skills to serve human needs; (3) expanding and using research for better programs; and (4) evaluating programs for their contribution to human…