2018 2020 strategic plan - peoria park district · opportunity for under resourced communities...

2018 – 2020

Strategic Plan

Stakeholder Engagement

Summary

Peoria Park District 2018 -2020 Strategic Plan

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Contents

Community/Customer Focus Group Meetings - Feedback Summary .................................. 3

District Staff Focus Group Meetings - Feedback Summary .................................................21


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Community/Customer Focus Group Meetings – Feedback Summary

Among the various steps in the Strategic Plan development process was an extensive stakeholder

engagement effort intended to gather community and customer feedback about the District, its

operations and future. Community/Customer Focus Group Meetings were held during the third week of

February 2017 with various representatives from the greater Peoria community (e.g., school partners,

businesses, civic groups, partner organizations, user groups, city representatives, volunteers, youth). All

participating attendees were asked the series of questions listed below.

1. Who are the District’s customers?

2. What do you believe to be the most important services the District provides to the community

and its customers?

3. What do you believe will be the most critical key issues the District will face in the next 3-5

years?

4. Where should the District focus energy and resources in order to have the greatest impact on

the common good and benefit the Peoria community as a whole? Essentially, what should the

District’s priorities be given competing demands and interests?

5. What are the strengths of the District and its services? What do you do well?

6. What are the weaknesses of the District and its services? What can be improved upon?

7. What opportunities exist for the District moving forward? What is it that the District can

capitalize on?

8. What barriers, challenges, and/or threats exist that must be addressed or overcome in order for

the District to continue to provide quality services to the community,

customers and visitors moving towards the future?

9. Are there any potential partnerships or collaborations that you believe would be beneficial for

the District to pursue moving forward? If so, what are they and what would be the reciprocal

benefits of such relationships?

10. What barriers exits that may prevent people from participating in District services? If yes, who

are they and what are the barriers?

11. Is there anything else you would like to share?

A summary of all feedback received is included on the pages that follow.


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Community Focus Group Meetings – February 21 - 23, 2017

Feedback Summary


▪ We don’t know—broad audience ▪ Special interest groups ▪ Trail users ▪ Non-customers (People don’t know about PPD) ▪ New residents ▪ Parents ▪ Parents of kids with disabilities ▪ Non-taxpayers who don’t have resources ▪ People with disabilities ▪ Children ▪ Limitless—visitors, tourists ▪ Bradley University ▪ Residents of City of Peoria ▪ Visitors ▪ Temporary residents ▪ Across the river residents ▪ 60-100 miles away come ▪ Older adults ▪ Schools ▪ People and their pets ▪ Non-residents ▪ Residents ▪ Everybody is potential customer—because of the breadth ▪ Children ▪ Retirees (stay for facilities and programs) ▪ Hikers and bikers ▪ Younger adults looking for outdoor opportunities ▪ Tourists ▪ Soccer players for tournaments ▪ Adults, youth teens in programs ▪ Nature enthusiasts ▪ Local environmental organizations ▪ Pet owners ▪ Organized sport groups (swimming, baseball, hockey) ▪ Residents ▪ Tax payers ▪ Everybody ▪ All ages of residents ▪ Active customers ▪ Potential people ▪ Non-residents ▪ Visitors


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▪ Tourists ▪ Economic ranges around town ▪ Passive ▪ Intentional usage ▪ Business community—need to attract employees ▪ Range beyond ▪ Community ▪ Families ▪ All ages ▪ Registered people ▪ Drop-in outdoor use ▪ Residents and non-residents ▪ Surrounding communities ▪ Regional draw ▪ Youth and children ▪ Adults ▪ Parents ▪ Lifelong users ▪ Everybody is potential customer ▪ Grandparents ▪ Diverse customer base ▪ School kids ▪ Scouts ▪ Anybody and everybody ▪ Visitors ▪ All ages ▪ All races ▪ All backgrounds ▪ Those who know they are customers of the district and those that don’t know they’re customers

of district ▪ Surrounding communities ▪ Community ▪ Youth ▪ Children ▪ Everyone ▪ All ages ▪ Animals

[community/everybody, residents, non-residents, non-customer (we don’t know who our customer is), special interest groups, youth, parents, visitors, schools, pets] 2. What do you believe to be the most important services the District provides to the community and

its customers? ▪ Opportunity for under resourced communities (61605, 04 and 03) Proctor, Logan ▪ Programs for people with disabilities ▪ Child programming ▪ Day camps ▪ Package of services at Glen Oak Park has something for everyone (fireworks)


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▪ Great playgrounds in some parks ▪ Outdoor and indoor recreational opportunities ▪ Getting people outside ▪ Golf ▪ Parks and natural areas ▪ Children’s programs—summer camps, day camps (art, sports, Riverplex) ▪ Riverplex partnership with OSF—combine rehab activities ▪ Affordable facilities ▪ Neighborhood parks encourage gathering ▪ Soccer, golf, hockey ▪ Provide services to low income families ▪ Provides open space for unstructured leisure ▪ Green space, parks ▪ Preserve natural spaces ▪ Sense of fitting in--feeling part of the community ▪ Health and recreation ▪ Access to top quality facilities and recreational opportunities ▪ Preservation of parks ▪ Child care, bridges gap between school year ▪ Providing facilities for regional draw—IHSA ▪ Staffing and planning for Riverfront ▪ Signature programs like zoo (keeps kids here but keeps them here) ▪ Spaces to enjoy outdoors ▪ Playhouse (explorer program scholarships) ▪ Helping people enjoy others ▪ Educational opportunities and experiences ▪ Providing sense of community ▪ Forest preserve ▪ Land acquisition ▪ Variety of services ▪ Provide options for parents ▪ Services that are provided and people don’t’ know it’s PPD ▪ “Wild” places in forest preserve—space to be alone in nature ▪ Revenue generators ▪ Programs for places in district that need help ▪ Moonlight coalition, GED ▪ Preservation ▪ Green space ▪ Forest reserve ▪ Play space ▪ Free play spaces ▪ Recreational activities ▪ Health and wellness ▪ Access to facilities for parties and weddings ▪ Trail and hiking system ▪ Riverfront—festivals ▪ Fitness at Riverplex--focus on health and wellness


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▪ Safe place to go ▪ Employment and volunteer opportunities ▪ Cultural and education (zoo, classes, botanical gardens, playhouse) ▪ Venues for weddings ▪ Best parks for city of our size—represents Peoria to visitors in a positive way-quality of life ▪ Parks ▪ Zoo ▪ Swimming—exercising while having fun ▪ Riverplex ▪ Proctor center ▪ Playhouse ▪ Sports ▪ Trails

[parks, outdoor green spaces, trails, youth programming, variety of affordable/quality programs, affordable facilities, health and wellness] 3. What do you believe will be the most critical key issues the District will face in the next 3-5 years?

▪ State funding ▪ Declining Revenue ▪ Demands from community for resources ▪ Legislations—increased property tax rates (in anticipation of tax caps) ▪ Processes and infrastructures ▪ Crime ▪ Impact of Caterpillar ▪ Maintaining what we have and expanding on it (advertising to let people know of facilities and

services) ▪ Awareness of facilities ▪ Building infrastructure—old facilities need renovation ▪ Flat line revenue, can’t increase maintenance or add more facilities ▪ Can’t levy more than legally allowed ▪ Can’t expand PPD tax boundary ▪ Competition from common interests (public and private), lose critical mass ▪ Peoria stadium ▪ Golf competition ▪ Expansion of zoo caused increased expenses—do we need world class zoo or a city zoo? ▪ Competition from wildlife prairie park ▪ Financial sustainability ▪ Property tax freeze ▪ The way people recreate is changing ▪ Volunteers—don’t have time or desire ▪ Time—families don’t have time to recreate ▪ Caterpillar will have impact on current population who users ▪ Exodus out of Peoria to suburbs will take away tax base ▪ Capture non-residents to come to PPD ▪ People not wanting to be in District 150 ▪ Funding from other districts/counties for users of Rock island trail ▪ Declining golf numbers---large assets to decide what to do with


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▪ Training and management—improve employee training ▪ Keeping employee knowledge base (retaining good staff) ▪ Funding ▪ Vast amount of services offered is unsustainable ▪ Balance diversity of services with limited funding ▪ State government property tax freeze ▪ Transfer cost for services back to users ▪ Finding the balance of serving needs and funding them ▪ More people in community will have time for leisure when jobs are scarce ▪ Keep ahead of trends ▪ Demographic changes—less interested in programming ▪ Competition for leisure time ▪ Impact of Caterpillar ▪ Combined sewer overflow impact ▪ Find collaborations with other cities ▪ Forming strategic partnerships to deal with funding issues ▪ Strategic prioritization process to help make decisions ▪ Equity and adequacy ▪ Help the community grow—more wealthy and more opportunity ▪ Services diluted by private entities--competition ▪ Innovative, letting go of old practices ▪ Technology, gaming ▪ Preservation of current lands ▪ Maintaining 3 golf courses ▪ People leaving Illinois ▪ Eroding tax base ▪ More outreach to areas like Carver, Proctor Logan ▪ Doing more with less ▪ Grants are decreasing ▪ More collaborations ▪ Partnerships help with resources and provide participants- ▪ Funding ▪ Aging infrastructure ▪ Growing number of Baby Boomers—need programs and facilities for seniors ▪ Outreach to surrounding communities-welcoming into district ▪ Website needs help—social media ▪ Consolidate webpages and Facebook to drive all to one page ▪ Funding ▪ Promote volunteerism ▪ What’s going to happen to facilities—other closures what’s next ▪ Determine what sports have lost numbers, what should be substituted (program portfolio) ▪ Keeping up with trends ▪ Preservation for many more generations ▪ Popularity--trends ▪ Collaborations District 150 ▪ Sustainability of older parks ▪ Deferred maintenance


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▪ Safety in parks for all ages in all facilities ▪ CFO—more money going out not enough coming in ▪ Follow through with plan ▪ Align all resources with health-- ▪ Perception ▪ Better promotion—awareness ▪ Collaborations ▪ Smoking ▪ Violence ▪ Safety ▪ Less pollution ▪ What will be replacing Caterpillar ▪ Littering

[financial sustainability, maintaining what we have, legislation, Caterpillar changes, competition and trends, partnerships/collaborations, outreach and awareness] 4. Where should the District focus their energies and resources in order to have the greatest

impact on the common good and benefit the Peoria community as a whole? Essentially, what should their priorities be given competing demands and interests? ▪ Increase numbers for everything—especially families ▪ Punch card to retain repeat visitors to get to multiple locations ▪ Create awareness ▪ Use schools to get information out ▪ Health issues--Obesity rate, low birth weight babies, unhealthy mamas, teen moms, mental

health ▪ Get people outside ▪ Capital reinvestments, partner with other groups in particular neighborhoods—establish

structure, economy will improve ▪ Generate awareness of opportunities for kids with disabilities and low incomes ▪ Music and bands to get people active and stimulate minds ▪ Carl Cannon?? Need more people like Carl ▪ Look at profit centers---continue where positive ▪ Summer classes for children ▪ Don’t focus just on profit centers ▪ Natural areas ▪ Basic park provision ▪ Focus on densely populated areas—bigger bang for your buck ▪ Skate park ▪ Access to green space ▪ Maximize utilization of facilities and resources ▪ Decision making ▪ Recreational opportunities keep kids occupied and out of trouble and healthy ▪ Benefit the community as a whole instead of specific small populations ▪ Strengthening the family—healthy community ▪ Open spaces and trees ▪ Bradley, non-profits don’t have time to do analysis—utilize students from Bradley to analyze

current programs and services to help with planning efforts


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▪ Innovation ▪ Community is as strong as weakest link—61605 zip code ▪ Investing time providing youth with leadership development ▪ Youth ▪ Access to kids that can’t access opportunities otherwise ▪ Baby Boomer programs ▪ Variety of innovative programs ▪ Revenue generators ▪ Family based—feeling of community ▪ Forest park nature center ▪ School partnerships ▪ Arts programming important with cuts from schools ▪ Music and sports bring people together ▪ Media needs to provide positive spin ▪ Focus energy in high risk neighborhoods ▪ Taxpayers not in high risk neighborhoods want services ▪ Community as a whole ▪ Health, recreation and fitness in all age groups ▪ Leverage facilities like zoo with revenue source, free days ▪ Provide quality programs and services for all people—some neighborhood people need extra

resources ▪ Youth outreach ▪ Many things to many people ▪ Green space and parks ▪ Maintain and expand green space ▪ Maintain buildings ▪ Prioritize maintenance ▪ Market facilities—if you know where your money is going they’ll realize they have a connection ▪ Are Playbooks reaching as many people as possible? ▪ Most people get news online ▪ Don’t duplicating services (same classes at multiple places) ▪ Glen Oak Park---redo the park and playground—want to see another slide and swings, drinking

fountains. Use rubber chopped up tires or rubber carpet ▪ Rec center in every neighborhood ▪ Ice cream trucks ▪ Camps—go on field trips, go to the pools ▪ Track around the parks ▪ No Age restrictions for hot tub ▪ Need more arcades closer that are open Thursday -Sunday

[improve awareness, capital reinvestments, provide opportunities for low income families, revenue generators, health and wellness issues, provide and maintain green space/nature] 5. What are the strengths of the District and its services? What does the District do well?

▪ Field trips to zoo ▪ Cross country course (partnership with IHSA) ▪ Partnerships with Playhouse to get preschool classes to attend (and others that can’t access) ▪ Parks and green spaces


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▪ Maintenance of parks ▪ Staff and program in place with passion. Janelle and Katy ▪ Partner with organizations (Southside Mission—pay for diesel to get patrons to facilities and

services) ▪ Summer children’s programs ▪ Golf ▪ Programs ▪ Diversity in programming ▪ Ice rink is PPD run—utilized 24/7 ▪ Affordable leagues and classes ▪ Great environmental programs ▪ Accredited zoo ▪ Playhouse partnership ▪ Partnerships in general ▪ Natural resource of big, beautiful pieces of land PPD owns ▪ Great staff ▪ Park Board has done a good job managing ▪ Silver Sneakers ▪ Large amount of land ▪ Wide variety of quality programs ▪ Facilities ▪ Golf courses and programs unparalleled—well maintained well designed ▪ Property ▪ Maintenance ▪ Incredible staff across the whole district ▪ Best staff in the state ▪ Long leadership—strong in community ▪ Open space/land banking ▪ Strategic planning process ▪ Conservation ▪ Structures seem to be well-maintained ▪ Quality of life having open spaces and beauty of parks ▪ Network of trails being used for variety of uses ▪ Connecting trails to other cities ▪ Physical amount of space per capita provides opportunities for future expansion ▪ Engaged donors ▪ Collaborate ▪ Variety of activities and opportunities for all ages ▪ Hook on golf ▪ Ladies golf league ▪ Diverse—all inclusive ▪ Day camps ▪ Exposure to outdoors ▪ Children’s theater program ▪ Volunteer opportunities for adults and kids ▪ Janelle at Proctor center ▪ Dedicated staffing


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▪ Customer service ▪ Youth outreach ▪ Diversity ▪ Comprehensive package ▪ Collaborations (elite, Moonlight, etc.) provide location and funding ▪ Variety of district (ice rink, zoo, and everything else) ▪ Caters to everyone—not just Peoria ▪ Wide variety of offerings for all interests and age levels ▪ There’s ability to collaborate with other entities ▪ There’s no reason to say, “there’s nothing for me to do” ▪ Natural beauty—riverfront park ▪ Historic structures ▪ Educational classes ▪ Steamboats and jazz festivals ▪ Fun parks ▪ Keeps kids occupied ▪ Opportunity to get out of the house to do something ▪ Get off phones ▪ Good variety of events at Riverfront

[partnerships/collaborations, variety of affordable diverse programs, youth programs, environmental programs/conservation, land holdings and maintenance of land] 6. What are the weaknesses of the District and its services? What can be improved upon?

▪ Not bike friendly city ▪ Lack of awareness of programs ▪ Website is weak ▪ Mobile app is needed ▪ Push the events that park district is offering ▪ Regulations around events, not consistent (Zootini) ▪ Parks Board has limited vision of event possibilities ▪ Communication with neighborhoods is lacking—in some neighborhoods--autonomy ▪ City and PPD don’t communicate well ▪ Boards don’t know what their neighborhoods need ▪ Safety ▪ Maybe cost is too low—financial trouble ▪ Board pushed decisions down the road ▪ Amount of land—real estate holding company (how do you support land with declining revenue

base) ▪ Storm water utility ▪ Marketing was eliminated—disconnect ▪ Enrollment in programs ▪ Hard to capture revenue from non-residents for park users ▪ Segregate residents and non-residents, simplify and charge one fee ▪ Don’t use foundation well ▪ Lack of awareness ▪ Marketing ▪ People don’t know about PlayHouse


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▪ Registration for programs archaic ▪ People PPD for granted—need reminder of benefits ▪ Variety of programs spreads staff too thin ▪ Capital infrastructure ▪ Some parks need maintenance attention ▪ Amount of land—owners of lots of land, less maintenance, but there carrying cost for land not

being used ▪ Huge parks, but not small neighborhood parks through the development process ▪ Used to have more golf holes per capita than any other cities, but closed a course—now have

multimillion facility being used as dog park, hope it’s not a trend ▪ Pools are in trouble financially, don’t want them to close ▪ Foundation is not being used to it’s potential—centralized fundraising efforts ▪ Programs geared toward individuals, but not families ▪ Marketing ▪ Have to have money for golf and tennis ▪ No youth softball program ▪ Letting the community know what PPD needs (financial or other) ▪ Private entities want to donate money but can’t donate to PPD ▪ Variety spreads resources thin (marketing, funding) ▪ Can’t be all things to all people—not sustainable ▪ Registration process is awful ▪ Website doesn’t mirror Playbook ▪ Playbook is hard to find if you don’t’ know facilities ▪ Not using technology ▪ Restricting audience by poor website ▪ Don’t narrow to just “athletic” kind of people ▪ So much for during the day when working moms can’t get their kids to programs ▪ Not informed ▪ Registration process ▪ Communication ▪ Diversity in staff ▪ Many people don’t use Facebook ▪ Calendar on line isn’t updated ▪ Marketing ▪ Current pickleball players go elsewhere ▪ Graffiti at parks ▪ Hot water in water fountains ▪ Water fountains are dirty ▪ Language bad in parks ▪ Gangs in parks ▪ Not safe—sand can get in hair; wood chips get in kid’s eyes ▪ Little kids (under 6) Morgan square park go to park by themselves ▪ Too many cars by parks—river front ▪ Creeps in parks ▪ Smoking in parks ▪ Speeding in parks ▪ Forest park nature center trails aren’t safe


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▪ No shade on some trails, need shade ▪ Dog bags for dog poop ▪ Holes and dips in trail by Riverplex ▪ People over 19 shouldn’t be allowed without a child, unless there’s a trail

[lack of awareness and outreach, lack of communication, amount of land, poor marketing, outdated technology] 7. What opportunities exist for the District moving forward? What is it that the District can capitalize

on? ▪ Advertise to people about the classes for people who don’t know about PPD (especially

disabilities) ▪ Become a friendly city toward recreation ▪ Attract young professionals and families ▪ Expand on older adults ▪ Special events at Glen Oak (musical, eating and drinking) ▪ Recreation for pets ▪ Pub crawl through parks---partner with restaurants ▪ Provide place for people to link up for like hobbies ▪ Provide opportunities for winter use in parks ▪ Provide barcodes to have instant access (technology) ▪ Youth rec program for lacrosse earlier with soft ball ▪ Provide opportunities for low income youth have equipment ▪ Allow easier process to use PPD land/facilities ▪ More advertising for Rock Island Trail and tie in with other towns ▪ Attract traveling recreation ▪ Use Next Door.com? (assistant City Manager) to get information out to public ▪ Use local resources for events ▪ Some events with alcohol and some without ▪ Make use of parks you have ▪ Increase interaction between races as kids ▪ Donavan Park opportunities ▪ Look at fee structure (Girls scouts have 3 tier fee model on your honor) ▪ Opportunities to visit various PPD facilities on a pass program ▪ More partnerships ▪ Send reminders for registration times other than 2 x/year ▪ Email updates on what’s going on (like Post-It reminders) like the Nature Center ▪ Marketing opportunities for where the parks and trails are ▪ Grow base of dependable revenue ▪ “Help support the PPD” for non-resident users. Make a donation by an app ▪ Attract volunteers from non-resident users ▪ Use Foundation better for non-users ▪ Leverage facilities for special events more (weddings, birthday parties etc.) ▪ Reciprocals with other PPD ▪ Trail pass for residents and charge for non-residents ▪ Tween programming—there’s nothing out there currently ▪ Counselor in training ▪ Boating opportunities, programs and activities


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▪ Educate the community on what’s here ▪ Aquatics—central park pool has potential for an economic impact producer ▪ Strategic partnerships—need to plan on how to revitalize facilities into new uses ▪ Peoria stadium—go through strategic process ▪ Girls softball increasing ▪ Integrating hiking trails around community ▪ Partnerships ▪ Provide opportunities to learn about nature ▪ Outdoor education ▪ Partnership opportunities between PPD, churches, boy scouts ▪ Incubator for other partnerships ▪ Need more advertising in juvenile areas ▪ Marketing ▪ Develop or partner youth softball program ▪ Provide opportunities to earmark donations in foundation ▪ Website needs to mirror Playbook ▪ Streamline and centralize registration ▪ Improving indexing for Playbook ▪ Discount for multiple classes ▪ Ability to search for programs by different filter ▪ Ease of paying ▪ Frequent users acknowledged ▪ PPD needs own app—rewards, registration…. events…calendar of dates ▪ Social media notifications ▪ School days off programs at schools programmed by PPD ▪ Enhance collaborations and embark in new collaborations ▪ Program partners ▪ Get kids off screen time and get outside ▪ Partner with schools to get kids outside ▪ Develop awareness for organizations to provide scholarships for kids in private programs (swim

club) ▪ Have PPD’s own app that can provide information ▪ Getting information out various ways ▪ Have library and others be a proxy site for registration ▪ Hire more diverse staff ▪ Keep calendar updated ▪ Offer PPD membership that’s good for all facilities ▪ Utilize volunteers ▪ Pickleball facilities—encourage others to come here ▪ Stripe tennis courts for pickleball ▪ Look at neighborhoods to see what specific needs for each specific area ▪ Partner with private sector for enhance facilities (Donavan had a clubhouse that could be leased

to private vendor and other facilities that are underutilized) ▪ More opportunities for the River—private sector vendor ▪ Program partners ▪ Private vendors in parks (food trucks) ▪ Expand the idea of who PPD is (education and more)


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▪ Toot your own horn ▪ Bigger parking lots ▪ Make commercials and flyers about events ▪ Social media, newspapers---flimsy wind things to advertise ▪ community center to hang out—foosball, couches, paintball, laser tag Put benches closer to

where the playground is to be able to watch kids ▪ Need a skate park ▪ Land by the zoo could be turned into a skate park ▪ Safety town needs to be bigger and upgraded ▪ Need better bikes and different sizes ▪ Need a center to go with family and play games ▪ Columbia Park should be bigger

[improve outreach/education/awareness, update technology, provide low income access and opportunities, partnerships/collaborations, improve marketing, improve registration, youth] 8. What barriers, challenges, and/or threats exist that must be addressed or overcome in order for the

District to move towards the future? ▪ Not bike friendly city ▪ Board is closeminded about outside use ▪ Caterpillar moving means leadership in community is moving out of Peoria ▪ Competing interests (personally and professionally) ▪ Alcohol challenge with PPD—could have more events if we could ▪ People who can pay vs those who can’t—how to serve them all the same ▪ Financial stability ▪ Safety issues or perceived safety ▪ Boundaries ▪ Protecting PPD turf and not accepting new ideas ▪ Can’t be all things to all people ▪ PPD stuck in middle of all special interests ▪ Many cities don’t have park districts and rely on PPD ▪ Operate as silos ▪ More local units of government ▪ Streamline and equitable for common good—be more accessible for all-don’t leave out ▪ Challenges for special needs ▪ Financial sustainability ▪ Community doesn’t even know what PPD offers ▪ People staying inside on electronics (especially kids) ▪ PE and recess low priority in schools ▪ Funding challenges—stretch dollars ▪ Streamline services ▪ Duplication of services ▪ Competition from private sector and other park districts ▪ Fine tune what they’re doing ▪ Competition for out of district golf courses ▪ Work in silos (education, fitness, sports) ▪ Need to know where state funding is going ▪ There’s a lot that PPD does that teens don’t know about


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[financial unsustainability, lack of awareness, competition and duplication of services] 9. Are there any potential partnerships or collaborations that you believe would be beneficial for the

District to pursue moving forward? If so, what are they and what would be the reciprocal benefits of such a relationship? ▪ Pub crawl through parks---partner with restaurants ▪ Symphony for events ▪ School District ▪ City of Peoria ▪ Foster relationships with Caterpillar ▪ Hospital facilities ▪ Central Illinois Association of Realtors (welcome centers) ▪ Local parks and neighborhood—ask how residents near parks would like to use the park—

thrives if people are getting what they want (Proctor Center) ▪ Churches in the neighborhoods (many have busses to get patrons to parks) ▪ Reciprocals with other PPD ▪ Dunlap could help finance services that their residents use ▪ Peoria Police District—programming in higher crime areas ▪ Youth associations (like youth hockey) ▪ Neighborhood policing areas to keep kids active and earn money (currently East block

neighborhood has mowing program, managed by Police District (money goes with the kids to buy school supplies)

▪ Youth Conservation Corps ▪ Peoria innovation Team—Green Corps initiative for work force training (use for maintaining

parks) ▪ Higher Education (Bradley University) (broadcasting for free, sports programs—maintenance

and programming) ▪ Lease unused facilities to a partner ▪ Use seniors for senior projects at Bradley ▪ Look at Library and Playbook duplications—collaborate for huge city-wide library programs--

share resources (use Bookmobile in summer) ▪ Shared services with County or City of Peoria (police, maintenance) ▪ Red Cross Lifeguard and Babysitting Training ▪ Boat clubs to get more active use on river ▪ Bushwhacker—rental of cross country skis ▪ Partnerships at Donavan ▪ Men’s basketball league-always looking for gyms and PPD league doesn’t have enough to run ▪ Organization is developing green space and other opportunities in 61605 ▪ Use airport terminal gift shop as a model—PPD operates gift shop—use participants to staff ▪ Bradley University, other colleges and extension programs nearby—use for practical experience ▪ Free labor from boy scouts and other youth organizations ▪ Greek life at Bradley University for manual labor for events ▪ Bradley students want to work with kids ▪ YMCA Healthy Kids Day—community event encourages Bradley U and other community

members—want to expand to other areas ▪ Summit of parks districts to share ideas and partner where possible ▪ churches


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▪ schools (field trips, Playhouse, gardens) ▪ Monarch Task Force (garden club), pollinator garden at Donavan Park ▪ Want to offer scholarships to kids to swim in swim club, don’t know how ▪ Partnerships with private organizations to help them figure out scholarship programs ▪ Citylink bringing people to facilities? ▪ Hiking club for guided hikes ▪ Library system, don’t duplicate programs ▪ Businesses in community ▪ OSF ▪ Caterpillar ▪ Volunteer based organizations ▪ Peoria Garden Club ▪ Closing gifts from realtors (discounts to realtors to give to clients) ▪ Grants for health and wellness ▪ State funding ▪ Private partnerships ▪ City of Peoria and neighborhood groups for pocket parks (kids will have pride in neighborhoods) ▪ Gifts in the Moment ▪ Community gardens ▪ Neighborhood groups—when they know needs of neighborhood they would support ▪ Other governmental bodies ▪ Lodge at zoo, botanical gardens, Nature Preserve—bring in music venues and art fairs ▪ Convention and visitor’s bureau –attract tourists to zoo, museum, botanical gardens ▪ School district ▪ Large employers ▪ “Prescription park” link with OSF and others to get into spaces ▪ Health care and health care facilities ▪ Fundraisers with cancer society ▪ October—hang out if you do or don’t have cancer ▪ Miss Pink and Green in Peoria ▪ Animal shelter come to events and you could adopt them ▪ Schools could partner with PPD to clean up leaves and other things ▪ Parties and picnics at parks ▪ Schools that are close should come to local park and get to know kids from other schools ▪ All school field day at one of the parks ▪ Fundraiser at riverfront—talent show for all schools and public could watch ▪ Horse ranches for a camp or program ▪ Concessions in the parks ▪ Free time in the gyms and pools

[school districts, businesses, City of Peoria, churches, non-profits, private, medical organizations, municipalities] 10. What barriers exist that prevent people from participating in District services/programs?

▪ Transportation ▪ Kids aren’t getting family support from mom and dad ▪ Lack of knowledge ▪ Reaching families in low income neighborhoods


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▪ Parking limited at Safety Town ▪ Access to Safety Town for kids who don’t live close ▪ Geography—central locations for activities instead of decentralized, facilities need to be close

to people on Southside of Peoria ▪ Transportation ▪ Awareness ▪ Cost ▪ Competition for same activities ▪ Competition for entertainment dollar and time ▪ Historic facilities need updating ▪ Awareness ▪ Transportation ▪ Cost ▪ Niches don’t match needs or perceived needs ▪ Transportation ▪ Awareness for new people ▪ Awareness for existing community ▪ Cost ▪ Timing of programs ▪ Electronic/technology ▪ Ease of registration ▪ Transportation ▪ Lack of knowledge ▪ Registration is not user friendly ▪ Safety ▪ Perception of unsafe parks—need to dispel myths ▪ Hours of operation ▪ Gym intimidation ▪ Too far to go ▪ Not everyone has memberships ▪ Too expensive ▪ No transportation ▪ Too old for safety town ▪ Busses are dirty and not family friendly ▪ “Meanmugging” ▪ Need things for teenagers to do ▪ Swings are lowered at MLK parks and teenagers don’t like them

[transportation to facilities, lack of outreach and awareness, cost, hours, outdated registration process] 11. Is there anything else you would like to share?

▪ Should have term limits for Board

▪ Find ways to utilize the underutilized resource—River (boating, sailing, beaches)

▪ Provide fundraisers—people are wanting to donate to local causes

▪ Reach out to neighborhoods in this process

▪ Facilities should be useable for free for HOA’s since they are residents

▪ Free meeting rooms for Non-profits


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▪ Don’t let existing pools close, make the best of what you have

▪ Maintain what you have

▪ Keep programming more local instead of always having to travel

▪ Expose athletic programs in harder to reach programs—identify staff to run 61605 programs

▪ Outreach on the south end to provide consistency throughout city

▪ Opportunity with new leadership

▪ Different time

▪ New energy

▪ Community is engaged

▪ New hashtag #PPDPlaysinPeoria or something like that

▪ Heard that next Playbook that there will be changes—not opening up every opportunity to

every age. 50+ is for 50+ don’t want young people into older classes

▪ No age limits for any classes

▪ Programs for seniors get pushed to side

▪ Don’t stop offering 50+ programs—need time to themselves

▪ Senior programming has decreased

▪ Parent University for parents to be more informed to showcase the district—different places

▪ PPD can take the lead to teach people about sustainability and green initiative--education

▪ Growing population of seniors and we get kicked out for children’s programs

▪ Have something like Julians—bowling alley arcade and food

▪ Have something like Skyzone

▪ Have big no smoking sign at front of parks and enforce it


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District Staff Focus Group Meetings – Feedback Summary

As a follow-up to the staff workshops and work sessions that were faciliated at the start of the process,

all full-time employees were invited to participate in interviews or focus group meetngs providing them

an additonal opportunity, in small group settings, to share their thoughts and perspectives about the

District, its operations and future. These interviews and meetings took place the second and third weeks

of February 2017 with most occurring concurrently with Community/Customer Focus Group Meetings.

Participating staff were asked the series of questions listed below.


2. What do you believe to be the most important services the District provides to the community,

its customers and visitors?

3. What do you believe will be the most critical key issues the District will face in the next 3-5

years?

4. Where should the District focus energy and resources in order to have the greatest impact on

the common good and benefit the Peoria community as a whole? Essentially, what should the

District’s priorities be given competing demands and interests?

5. What are the strengths of the District and its services? What do you do well?

6. What are the weaknesses of the District and its services? What can be improved upon?

7. What opportunities exist for the District moving forward? What is it that the District can

capitalize on?

8. What barriers, challenges, and/or threats exist that must be addressed or overcome in order for

the District to continue to provide quality services to the community,

customers and visitors moving towards the future?

9. Are there any potential partnerships or collaborations that you believe would be beneficial for

the District to pursue moving forward? If so, what are they and what would be the reciprocal

benefits of such relationships?

10. What barriers exits that may prevent people from participating in District services/prorgams? If

yes, who are they and what are the barriers?

11. Is there anything else you would like to share?

A summary of all feedback received from staff focus group meetings is included on the pages that follow.


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Staff Focus Group Meetings – February 14 & 21 - 23, 2017

Feedback Summary 1. Who are the District’s customers?

▪ Everyone ▪ Moms and Dads, kids, grandparents ▪ Taxpayers ▪ Seniors ▪ Tourists ▪ Internal customers ▪ Public and social agencies ▪ School groups ▪ Non-residents ▪ Arts organizations ▪ Special interest groups (disc golfers, trail users, mountain bikers, drone users) ▪ Environmental groups ▪ Public ▪ Families with kids looking for programming ▪ Seniors ▪ Vagabond tours participants ▪ Internal staff ▪ Scout groups ▪ No group we don’t provide for—something for everyone ▪ All are welcome at festivals ▪ Disadvantaged communities ▪ Anyone within our reach – central Illinois residents ▪ Taxpayers ▪ All ages – cradle to grave ▪ Anyone in Central Illinois ▪ Anyone within a 3-hour drive ▪ Taxpayers ▪ All Central Illinois ▪ Tourists ▪ Internal customers ▪ Tax payers and non-residents ▪ People outside the community ▪ All counties come here ▪ Low income and underprivileged ▪ Children ▪ Family groups ▪ Potential customers ▪ Teenagers are potential customers (12-17) ▪ Volunteers ▪ Older adults (Vagabond) –both the retired and non-retired ▪ Camps until age 12 ▪ Families


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▪ Regional draw ▪ General public ▪ Seniors ▪ Taxpayers ▪ Park users—in or out of tax base ▪ Central Illinois—regional draw ▪ Live work and visit ▪ Kids ▪ Adults ▪ Teens ▪ Across the river ▪ Outside Peoria visitors ▪ Everyone ▪ Families, individuals ▪ Seniors ▪ Tiny tots ▪ Internal customers ▪ Anyone who walks through facilities ▪ Internal ▪ Businesses ▪ Community ▪ Surrounding areas ▪ Visitors ▪ Any users, not geographic ▪ Regional ▪ Central location draws people ▪ Vagabond tours draw from outside ▪ Internal customers ▪ Small towns don’t have amenities ▪ General public ▪ Facility users ▪ Live here, work here, travel here ▪ Internal customers ▪ Vendors—supply services ▪ Boaters ▪ Tourists ▪ Golfers ▪ Zoo visitors ▪ Taxpayers ▪ Parents and kids ▪ Grandparents and kids ▪ Out of town visitors ▪ School districts ▪ Day care centers ▪ ISRA ▪ Internal customers ▪ Public


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▪ Internal customers ▪ Program participants ▪ Youth

[taxpayers, tourists, non-residents (surrounding communities), internal, public, families, potential customers] 2. What do you believe to be the most important services the District provides to the community and

its customers? ▪ Green space ▪ Affordable recreation ▪ Friendly interactions ▪ Customer service ▪ Recreation in low income areas ▪ Zoo ▪ Ice rink ▪ Museum ▪ Green space conservation (thousands of acres of wooded land) ▪ Educational experiences (formal and informal) ▪ Summer programs/camps (daycare) ▪ Storm water infiltration ▪ Special events and cultural festivals ▪ Employment ▪ Volunteer opportunities ▪ Parks ▪ Affordable recreation programs ▪ Open space, trails ▪ Stewardship of the environment ▪ Education ▪ Work opportunities/employment ▪ Special events ▪ Health & wellness ▪ Opportunity to enjoy all facilities (programs for all) ▪ Scholarship program ▪ Provide many services (support all areas, not just one important service) ▪ Green space ▪ Gathering places for special events. Wedding venues, birthday venues, family gatherings,

reunions, after proms, group lock-ins ▪ Sports—youth and adult ▪ Childcare services (camps in summer) ▪ ISRD (kids with disabilities) ▪ GED and tutoring ▪ Outdoor spaces and plants ▪ Educational programs ▪ Forest preserve district ▪ Preservation of habitats ▪ Low income programs and access for low incomes ▪ Opportunities for social programs (low incomes and seniors)


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▪ Health and wellness ▪ Family outings and programming ▪ Gathering places ▪ Green space, zoo ▪ Social services---GED program, adult literacy ▪ Unique experiences (get kids out of their 3-mile comfort zone) ▪ Extracurricular education for kids and families ▪ Zoo ▪ Variety of programs ▪ Camps ▪ Golf ▪ Natural areas ▪ Programming (reentry, elite youth outreach) that other districts don’t offer—collaboration with

organizations and businesses) ▪ Opportunities for families with low incomes, exposure ▪ Camps for kids with working parents ▪ Green space ▪ Walking trails ▪ Open spaces and opportunities, play be with family for free ▪ Safe environment for inner-city kids after school and summers (Proctor Center) ▪ Special events not provided by private sector (fireworks) ▪ Affordable programs ▪ All kids have opportunity to participate (most intro classes) ▪ Place to try new programs for low cost/free with limited commitment ▪ Wide variety of offerings ▪ Recreational opportunities ▪ Social ▪ Educational opportunities ▪ Gathering places, designated areas ▪ Green space and parks ▪ Ice skating ▪ Zoo ▪ After school and summer camps ▪ Affordable programs—accessible ▪ Scholarship programs ▪ Education ▪ Child care ▪ Recreation opportunities ▪ Parks ▪ Affordable entertainment ▪ Relationships ▪ Safety ▪ Open and green space ▪ Values ▪ Green space and maintenance of spaces ▪ Recreation ▪ Green space


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▪ Safe community centers ▪ Jobs—full part seasonal ▪ Wide variety of programs ▪ Opportunity to experience variety without traveling far ▪ Clean and safe facilities ▪ Open spaces ▪ Playgrounds ▪ Trails ▪ Classes for youth (swimming) ▪ Customer service ▪ Sports and recreational opportunities ▪ Trash pickup ▪ Golf courses ▪ Pools ▪ Everyone has special interests, high expectations ▪ Restrooms and snow removal ▪ All services are expected ▪ Everything to everybody ▪ Provide clean and safe parks ▪ Day care facilities ▪ After school programs ▪ Golf ▪ Greenspace ▪ Playgrounds ▪ Garbage pickup ▪ Digital era losing touch with nature—provide avenue to get kids with nature ▪ Pools ▪ Parks ▪ Green space ▪ Good stewards of tax dollars ▪ Entertainment ▪ Financial assistance ▪ In-kind check for books ▪ Scholarships for Riverplex ▪ Sports programs ▪ Summer camps/childcare ▪ Seniors ▪ Educational programs ▪ Safety ▪ Beautify ▪ Stewardships of parks ▪ Keep things running

[green space, natural areas, trails, affordable and accessible recreation, education, camps (childcare), clean and safe facilities, programs and experiences for low income families] 3. What do you believe will be the most critical key issues the District will face in the next 3-5 years?

▪ Facility maintenance


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▪ Balancing budget ▪ Operational deficits ▪ Shrinking tax base ▪ Infrastructure ▪ Right sizing offerings ▪ Saying no to some people ▪ Board ▪ Selling reduction of service to the community ▪ Haven’t make budget cuts ▪ Education ▪ Child care ▪ Landscape of the community changing ▪ Shrinking tax base; EAV decline ▪ Regulations (e.g., minimum wage) ▪ Tax caps; property tax freeze ▪ Recreation opportunities ▪ Parks ▪ Affordable entertainment ▪ Relationships ▪ Safety ▪ Open and green space ▪ Values ▪ Green space and maintenance of spaces ▪ Visible ▪ Hard to staff with layoffs—staff stability ▪ Make do with staff we have—doing more than before ▪ Legal complexity of downsizing land ▪ Taking care of what you have ▪ Minimum wage increases ▪ Regulations ▪ Relying on part time staff ▪ Caterpillar changes ▪ Perception of health of Peoria ▪ Money ▪ Allocating money to current and new programs ▪ Capital improvements- take care of what we have ▪ Modernize facilities (interactive for kids) ▪ Pending retirements (absorb some duties, rehire others) ▪ Continued restructure ▪ Don’t duplicate services already in the community ▪ Donations from Caterpillar ▪ Participation declining ▪ Kids into electronics, need to focus on getting kids outside ▪ Balanced budget ▪ Diverse park district—everything to everybody ▪ Identify strengths and focus time and energy there ▪ Maintaining aging infrastructure


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▪ Changes from Caterpillar—losing expendable money ▪ Fear of funding loss from Caterpillar ▪ Major donor levels aren’t going to be donating ▪ Storm water mitigation issue is unclear and PPD will get charged and have to deal with the

affects ▪ Marketing ▪ Technology—need to reach everyone without focus on one demographic ▪ Ecophobia ▪ Facilities that had field trips, don’t have them anymore due to school cuts ▪ Internal competition ▪ Money ▪ Staff retirements, losing knowledge ▪ Customer base changing ▪ Variety of Marketing efforts—market to all areas ▪ Awareness ▪ Website needs to be enhanced ▪ Social media and hard media ▪ Collaboration for kids’ programs—transport from school to programs ▪ Training programming for staff ▪ Finances (even now) ▪ Repairs for facilities ▪ Trying to keep prices low ▪ General maintenance ▪ Resize maintenance correctly ▪ Provide what we can provide at a good quality ▪ Laws about disposing property ▪ Took on properties that now need maintenance ▪ Divided Board—each has their own agenda and decisions are always split (not voting for

District’s best interest) Line of division in the community (board mirrors) ▪ Public wants something until they have to pay for things ▪ Caterpillar moving will increase economic issues ▪ Regional facilities need to remain regional draws to continue with revenue ▪ Economy ▪ Financial stability ▪ Customer demand increasing ▪ Technology ▪ Demographics changing ▪ Generational shifts (Baby Boomer different from new generations) need to look at all

generations ▪ 12-16 yr. olds need the most help ▪ Elite program is only program for tweens ▪ Continuing affordable and quality programs ▪ Revenue coming in and expenses don’t match ▪ Maintaining facilities ▪ Aging infrastructures ▪ Large land owner ▪ Aging equipment


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▪ Staffing—people leaving Illinois; retirements ▪ Caterpillar leaving Peoria ▪ Resources changing ▪ Shrinking tax base ▪ Increasing maintenance cost ▪ Safety for parks ▪ Money ▪ Staff—maintaining good quality staff that want to stay here ▪ Economy—lower paying jobs—crime will increase ▪ Location of facilities—center of city is moving farther north ▪ Allocation of taxpayers’ money ▪ Relocation of Caterpillar—loss of memberships and participation ▪ More affects if more Caterpillar employees get transferred ▪ Political changes ▪ Taxpayers are getting old ▪ Demographics changing—different clientele ▪ Leisure time activities is changing ▪ Competition ▪ Evaluate partnerships--Maintaining facilities that other organizations use ▪ Overbuilt ▪ Take care of what we have ▪ Reflect society—throwaway society---everyone loves new facilities, but don’t take care of

existing ▪ Budget ▪ Communication throughout the whole district ▪ Timely communication ▪ Weekly meetings with staff workgroups/facilities ▪ All-inclusive planning ▪ Economic instability from Caterpillar leaving ▪ Disposable income decreasing ▪ Income gap ▪ Different weather patterns, seasonal operations need to plan for good weather ▪ Reverse pyramid as PPD growing, a lot of admin, not many maintenance ▪ Rely on part-time, but some expectations, but not valued or appreciated ▪ Retention of part-time staff ▪ Fill vacancies with part-time staff ▪ No lack of work ▪ Miscommunication--Playbook is great, but no communication from programmers to participants

or night supervisor ▪ Lack of marketing—used to be bad, but now it’s not even here ▪ Use existing staff to help move projects forward ▪ No follow through on marketing needs, asked to have approval, but no response ▪ Lack of marketing reflected in attendance ▪ Outsourcing vs staffing ▪ Lack of finances ▪ Infrastructure aging without budget ▪ Cut corners on buildings that require unforeseen expenses


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▪ Invest upfront in technology for savings ▪ Building with grant money without additional maintenance budget ▪ Take maintenance opinions into consideration when building ▪ Outsourcing vs staffing (support service system) ▪ Review support service system—bottom line is all that matters—staff aren’t getting things done

because worried about bottom line ▪ Infrastructure maintenance delayed ▪ Staying relevant with trends and community needs ▪ Historical programming and maintenance ▪ Marketing and social media ▪ Technology ▪ Staffing ▪ Lose control, quality and flexibility with outsourcing ▪ Lose accountability with outsourcing ▪ Loss of revenue ▪ Provider of everything for everybody ▪ Fiscally responsible spending ▪ Public not aware of budget issue ▪ Special interest groups ▪ Loss of employees ▪ Outsourcing won’t provide quality ▪ Unknown fallout from Caterpillar leaving ▪ Real estate prices declining ▪ Expansion in outer town—families moving out of Peoria ▪ Peoria more urban, others more community—but still using Peoria systems ▪ Eliminations by attrition, not filling jobs, absorbed in others ▪ Inherit land and taking care of it ▪ Lost most of City of Peoria’s contracts and financial support ▪ Retirements ▪ Outsourcing ▪ Educate staff on expectations ▪ Staffing appropriately ▪ Provide accountability to taxpayers of how leadership is spending money ▪ Staffing--Foremen and part-time crews (parks full-time staff has decreased) ▪ Losing skilled workers ▪ Monetary issues ▪ More people coming in ▪ People moving to Dunlap or out of Illinois ▪ Caterpillar ▪ No budget in place from state

[take care of what we have (facility maintenance), financial sustainability, appropriate staffing, staff development, Caterpillar changes, keeping up with technology, marketing, aging infrastructure, changing demographics, outsourcing vs staff] 4. Where should the District focus their energies and resources in order to have the greatest

impact on the common good and benefit the Peoria community as a whole? Essentially, what should their priorities be given competing demands and interests?


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▪ Cut facilities and programs ▪ Look at usage and keep programs that serve the most people ▪ Recreation services provide to low incomes ▪ Need a better look of mission to know where we should focus ▪ Eliminate duplicate services ▪ Depend on outside groups to provide services—are they keeping public’s interest ▪ Be careful to not provide free marketing for private services ▪ Access to green space and activities ▪ Education of benefits ▪ Green space is free, access throughout town ▪ Peoria community has expectation, need to educate on why Peoria is so lucky ▪ Promotion in marketing—rebranding ▪ Become more efficient internally, quit competing internally ▪ Offer services that aren’t offered elsewhere in the community ▪ Continuing to do a good job with maintenance (people only complain when something isn’t

done) ▪ Update equipment instead of funding on repairing old equipment ▪ Summer camps (more families with 2 working parents) ▪ Partnership with schools to identify low income kids, for summer meals ▪ Improving training in safety and risk management—new videos ▪ Zoo ▪ More teamwork ▪ Grouped facilities ▪ Market to preschools---take kids to the different facilities by combining resources ▪ Educating the community on offerings and facilities ▪ Coordinate website, social media, and other outreach ▪ People don’t know zoo has event spaces ▪ Have centralized location for what’s available ▪ Internal marketing and training ▪ Centralize events if there is enough training and knowledge to find the right venue ▪ Similarities between multiple facilities—safety, policies, gift shops ▪ Marketing ▪ Zoo ▪ Paying attention ▪ Fragmented Board – 7 different perspectives and visions ▪ Right-sizing our District ▪ A greater focus on revenue generation ▪ The necessity to work with other providers to best use our finite resources ▪ Prioritizing ▪ Determining where to focus our resources ▪ Focus on where the private or not for profit sectors are not ▪ Financial sustainability – revenue decline ▪ Aging workforce – no succession planning ▪ Contraction ▪ Focus on customers—what they need, habits, interests ▪ Look at trends and competition ▪ Retaining seasonal staff


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▪ Communication between departments—especially registration ▪ Make it easier for public to register ▪ Customer service ▪ Depends on goals that come out of strategic planning effort ▪ Free services—green space, trails, what benefits the most people ▪ Erosion problem in parks (Grandview, Detweiler, Bradley) ▪ Revenue production ▪ Grant and partnership opportunities ▪ Streamlining programs to offer what’s not offered everywhere ▪ Don’t have to offer everything to everyone ▪ Maintain what we have ▪ Make the best use of current spaces, offer new programs with new spaces ▪ Cross utilization with businesses ▪ Collaborations ▪ Maintain what we have ▪ Improve current facilities ▪ Awareness—people need to know what the PPD offers; branding ▪ Marketing ▪ Continue affordable quality programs ▪ Stop internal competition ▪ Internal collaborations—staff working together ▪ Consolidate Easter hunts—like World Wide Day of Play ▪ Streamline events ▪ Outreach to parents to participate ▪ Maintain what we have and not expand to other areas ▪ North of 150—golfers want affordable and maintained well ▪ Improvements of facilities ▪ Communicate with public about what facilities cost to run ▪ Generate awareness of facilities ▪ Marketing ▪ Education of where tax money is going ▪ Affordable teenagers and young adult’s recreation ▪ Invest in infrastructure ▪ Allow facilities to follow individual mission statements, instead of all being the same ▪ Need more specific mission to know where to focus ▪ Offer too many programs and facilities ▪ Don’t want to compete with other local golf courses ▪ Fine line for benefit of competition ▪ Natural areas are in wealthier areas and not accessible to people who have cars ▪ Maintain what we have instead of building more ▪ Know what we’re building and why (sports fields without irrigation, but irrigation in places you

don’t need) ▪ Not regional, but tri-county ▪ Ask staff about impacts of outsourcing ▪ Review support service system ▪ Stay relevant with current trends—what’s growing, what’s declining ▪ Equipment replacement instead of repairs


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▪ Bonded money for equipment replacement isn’t enough for all needs ▪ Budget extra bonded money for new facilities (Riverplex on line, means less money for others) ▪ Bonds should go to equipment and maintenance instead of debt ▪ Debt service will retire, budget money appropriately ▪ Taking care of what we have before expanding ▪ Facilities is contact point, should be where resources go, last place for cuts to take place ▪ Inherit land, but can’t sell it ▪ Look at policies related to land—disposing or trading (some don’t have revenue attached) ▪ Maintenance budgets—equipment replacement ▪ Preventative maintenance ▪ Do away with supportive service charge system—should be able to work in various places if

work needs to be done (carpenters need things to do and places need things done, but can’t pay for)

▪ Fill open positions in maintenance ▪ Positions are disappearing but work not disappearing ▪ Make it a place where staff want to stay and not move on to other districts ▪ Employees—enhance staff ▪ Take care of what we have first ▪ Look at private sector and provide other/better ▪ Marketing—web and tv ▪ Baseball program (keep up with Notre Dame) ▪ Need to balance between social media and hard media

[diverse program portfolio, improve outreach, awareness and education, improve marketing, maintenance (take care of what we have), equipment replacement, professional development and training] 5. What are the strengths of the District and its services? What does the District do well?

▪ Customer service ▪ Well maintained parks ▪ Variety of services ▪ Managers keep buildings clean ▪ Flexible on internal maintenance (support service) ▪ Quality staff (part-time and fulltime) ▪ First job for many—stay on as fulltime ▪ Retention of part-time seasonal employees ▪ Conservation – regional leader ▪ Green paces ▪ Safe facilities ▪ Various programming ▪ Staff who care ▪ Role model – the way we are organized, etc. ▪ Employees who are good role models ▪ Identifying collaborative opportunities ▪ Collaborating better internally ▪ Trusted—people are willing to donate time and land ▪ Emotional bond with each other and pride with job ▪ Supportive of each other


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▪ Idealists, able to put up with negative because of benefits ▪ Benefits good for staff, but expensive for PPD ▪ Excellent leadership in place ▪ Historical knowledge ▪ Maintain parks ▪ Variety of recreational opportunities (walk, run, airplanes, bike trails, entertainment, zoo,

bicycle safety town) ▪ Pay bills on time ▪ Festivals and Special events ▪ Employees get great benefit package (access for free to facilities) ▪ Cast a broad net, the things we do well, people don’t know it PPD ▪ Current leadership willingness to try new things, moving away from “we’ve always done it this

way” ▪ Customer service—staff willing to find answer if we don’t know ▪ Riverplex website is good ▪ Diversity of programs ▪ Passionate staff ▪ Diversity of staff ▪ Dedicated, well rounded staff ▪ Land holdings—number and quality of ▪ Quality part-time staff ▪ Strong volunteers ▪ Diversity of support staff ▪ Employment benefits ▪ Outreach ▪ Collaborate with organizations to provide outreach opportunities ▪ Long standing partnerships ▪ Welcoming facilities—sense of community ▪ Provide experience for kids at affordable prices ▪ People are passionate and want everything ▪ Variety of affordable programs ▪ Excellent customer service ▪ Quality facilities ▪ Amount of acreage ▪ Access to open spaces ▪ Events ▪ Riverfront ▪ Talented, dedicated staff ▪ Teamwork ▪ Trustees are interested in parks ▪ Volunteers and seasonal jobs ▪ Teamwork, help each other out ▪ Knowledgeable staff ▪ Exceptional staff ▪ Dedicated staff; staff does a lot with a little ▪ Breaking down silos, more openness ▪ New administration encouraging breaking down borders


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▪ Good partnerships (Riverfront works with different society’s) ▪ Good neighbors—clean, safe, hold to standard required of public ▪ Variety of quality programs ▪ Education, Athletics, Fine arts ▪ Customer service—leave good lasting impression on people ▪ Range of facilities ▪ Riverfront facilitates events and festivals ▪ Events provide community gathering space—all cultures ▪ Child care—camps ▪ Variety of Recreational services—ice rink, zoo ▪ Land and open space ▪ Education—children programs ▪ Good and knowledgeable staff ▪ Knowledgeable ▪ Communication to public ▪ Long term dedicated talented employees—full and part time ▪ PPD is good place to work ▪ Customer service ▪ Facilities ▪ Land ▪ Land isn’t all developed ▪ Diversity of programs and events ▪ Staff is dedicated, takes ownership and pride in work ▪ Knowledgeable staff (historical knowledge) ▪ New staff provide opportunities ▪ Good mix of staff ▪ Good support system—teamwork in maintenance ▪ Variety of facilities and services ▪ Maintenance at parks and facilities ▪ Get most out of what we have ▪ Do more with less, but don’t acknowledge the hard work ▪ Change in leadership (old leadership wouldn’t make changes) to fix things ▪ Abilities of staff—talent ▪ Parks give public what they want ▪ Peoria Parks reputation (awards)—take care of everybody ▪ Provide a lot of services ▪ Parks and clean and looking good ▪ Part-time staff do a good job mowing ▪ Dedicated returning part-timers

[customer service, clean and well-maintained parks, leadership, variety of affordable services and programs, knowledgeable, dedicated staff, land holdings, wide range of welcoming facilities] 6. What are the weaknesses of the District and its services? What can be improved upon?

▪ Have too much—don’t say no ▪ Getting land comes with a cost ▪ Do programs because we always have (3rd of July fireworks) ▪ Poor past decisions behind us—need to assess why


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▪ Have a hard time prioritizing ▪ Planning hasn’t had a chance to do much planning ▪ Lack of retirement of Board members ▪ Recruiting new board members ▪ Excitement of new leadership not at all levels ▪ Disconnect between managers and staff ▪ Residual suspicion, not trusting management ▪ Fear of unknown ▪ People don’t know what park districts are ▪ Lack of knowledge about park district services ▪ Internally- retirements losing base knowledge, jobs haven’t been documented ▪ Training needs to be improved and more opportunities ▪ Lack of written documented procedures ▪ Communication within department—siloed as district ▪ Part-time staff working at more than one facility ▪ Incoherent trail system ▪ Trail maps not easily accessible ▪ Lack of training—new employees and part-time staff ▪ Lack of training for full time staff ▪ No procedure manual ▪ Not keeping up with technology ▪ Repetition of programs and competition internally ▪ Get caught up in budget without looking at changing part-time staff into full time staff ▪ Stress on part-time staff with full-time expectation ▪ No dedicated staff to manage natural area ▪ Lack of proofreading PlayBook ▪ Programmers are recreating the wheel ▪ Reduced costs when not needed ▪ Awareness ▪ Trustees ▪ Lack of training, including diversity ▪ Too many meetings ▪ Lack of accountability ▪ Performance evaluation system not standard—can’t all fit in same format ▪ Lack of vision ▪ “we’ve always done it this way” mentality ▪ New computer system not working out for zoo ▪ Managers not in touch with what’s going on at bottom level ▪ Generation gap with older staff and newer staff with technology ▪ Technology ▪ Enter each timesheet manually ▪ Saying no—resulting in more land and no extra money ▪ Not good at branding facilities and programs as PPD or specific park ▪ Communication to public ▪ Staff is stretched thin—core functions are suffering ▪ Jobs aren’t standardized (coordinators); expectations are different for different work groups ▪ Misperceptions of what other people do


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▪ People hired for jobs that weren’t qualified for the jobs---creates hard feelings across divisions ▪ Division between part-time and fulltime staff (part-time devalued) ▪ Need to differentiate between part-time and seasonal staff. Part-time is looked at as seasonals ▪ Part-time staff in some areas is incompetent—focusing on the wrong aspects in hiring process

(police) ▪ Retention is important to not have to train new people ▪ Affordable programs relate to lower salaries and staff leave for more money ▪ Administration thinks you can keep training new people instead of retaining people for more

money ▪ We are a large and aging system ▪ Our financial position is poor ▪ We’ve lost the ability to be flexible ▪ Keep digging the hole deeper ▪ Lack of trust amongst staff ▪ The trustees need to stop giving in to special interests ▪ Conflicting decisions – we cut services or staff and then we build ▪ Continuing education—have to fight for it ▪ Time off for continuing education is inconsistent—some people have to take vacation, others

don’t ▪ Worry about where money is coming from and going to ▪ March madness—pay for people to sit around when hiring others ▪ Finance and business never have to cut ▪ Diversity ▪ Latino community not reflected in attendance ▪ No bathrooms at many parks ▪ No awareness for Riverfront as PPD facility ▪ Lack of awareness of programs to current customers and potential customers ▪ Marketing—can’t just do Playbook ▪ Keep up with technology ▪ Historical programming regardless of changes in community and needs ▪ Duplicating services ▪ Communication ▪ Aging facilities ▪ Not taking care of what you do have ▪ Too much land to take care of with current dollars ▪ Chemicals on grass ▪ Money is allocated to some facilities and not others—what is the prioritization ▪ Large district for size of community ▪ Website ▪ Support services ▪ Communication with public ▪ Too much land to maintain, not enough money ▪ Marketing ▪ Organizational structure—top heavy, short on workers and other places—opposite ▪ How money is allocated and spent ▪ Time spent with employees ▪ Feedback from employees


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▪ More interaction with public ▪ Outreach with public ▪ Competition instead of collaboration ▪ Don’t promote independent facilities enough ▪ Technology ▪ Support services system is keeping staff from getting projects done ▪ Run out of money in October, projects don’t get done ▪ Other organizations are making money off park land (events charge for parking) ▪ Staff is spread thin ▪ Used to feel valued, not sure of jobs now ▪ Knowledge input and voice doesn’t seem to matter ▪ Untapped talent with staff ▪ Outsourcing print and other services ▪ Clean up our own backyard—use what we have before ordering new supplies ▪ Class registration software ▪ Stopped using newspaper, need to have different ways to reach different audiences ▪ Outdated equipment ▪ Inefficient ▪ Forced to hire board members’ kids ▪ Bureaucracy hurts purchases ▪ Focus on bottom line instead of final product ▪ Financial reports aren’t updated often enough ▪ Morale is down ▪ Don’t’ feel trusted by supervisory staff ▪ Keeping up with the Joneses ▪ Don’t involve maintenance staff or supervisors in decisions ▪ Outsourcing costs individual budgets more ▪ Using inaccurate information when considering outsourcing ▪ Not charging real costs (equipment costs) when doing work for City of Peoria ▪ Variety of facilities and services—compete with ourselves ▪ Not financially stable ▪ Lack of political courage on Board!! ▪ Reactive maintenance—don’t think things through ▪ Lack of communication with event staff ▪ Focus on financial mark instead of final product ▪ Top heavy—some superintendents only supervise 2-3 people ▪ Board micromanages ▪ Some support service crews have more work than they can get done ▪ Talent not used efficiently ▪ Parks staff give so much and are starting to be spread too thin ▪ Disconnect between board on down ▪ Communication is poor ▪ Have more land than we can maintain ▪ Can’t manage finances ▪ Not enough dollars to support what we offer (like living off credit cards) ▪ Wasting money on radio ▪ Morale is declining


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▪ No offer of retirement package for early retirement ▪ Staff don’t want to be in these meetings or process ▪ Leadership needs to hold people accountable ▪ Nobody holds HR accountable ▪ Some staff didn’t have email at time of signing required document ▪ Always have job fairs in same place ▪ Job fairs aren’t necessary ▪ Quality of supervision and treatment of staff ▪ Waste of equipment (police)

[can’t say no (too much inherited land), historical programming and processes, poor communication, lack of awareness and outreach, weak training and professional development, outdated technology, low staff morale, poor marketing] 7. What opportunities exist for the District moving forward? What is it that the District can capitalize

on? ▪ Saying “no, not now” ▪ Limits on Board members ▪ Educate value of being on Park Board ▪ Convey excitement of new leadership to all staff ▪ Help people at every level get information that’s relevant ▪ Strategic planning provides opportunity about boards level of responsibility (not micro) ▪ Strategic planning process looking toward future goals, working together ▪ Opportunity to open the doors to introduce yourselves to each other ▪ Get out of silo mentality ▪ Collaborate on inter-district efforts ▪ Economic circumstances in community will help focus on what’s important and need board to

be involved ▪ Tremendous opportunity to be great at what we choose to be ▪ Stop being all things to all people ▪ Capitalize on partnership opportunities ▪ Maximize our Foundation ▪ Sponsorships and naming rights ▪ Providing more education about District issues and what is happening in the community ▪ Budget cuts provides opportunity to make programs better ▪ Newer leadership in district 150 ▪ City of Peoria leadership changing, share resources ▪ Untapped opportunity for scholarships and grants ▪ Keep up with fleet replacement ▪ Training should help with new staff coming on and jobs not being documented ▪ Developing plans for next person—procedure manuals ▪ Cross training to help for times of transition ▪ Improve communications ▪ Opportunities for learning more about district staff and who does what ▪ Maintenance staff and others should have identification when going to other facilities ▪ Revisit programming and see what’s necessary, make marketing easier to get through ▪ Cancel classes that are less traditional and low enrollment ▪ Streamline offerings instead of offering so many classes at so many times


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▪ Reach people other ways besides the book ▪ Improve website—clunky ▪ Silo staff don’t have time to go other places (zoo can’t get to banquets) ▪ Move around staff events (potlucks, parties) to other locations (zoo) so all get a chance to

participate ▪ Use one pass to get you into all facilities ▪ Use Riverplex email for upcoming events and services ▪ Customer service training ▪ Training for full time staff as it relates to each position ▪ Create procedure manual for fulltime staff ▪ Use technology—app on website for facilities and programs ▪ During planning, consider plants instead of buildings for retention ▪ Use permeable parking lots ▪ Comprehensive environmental plan ▪ List of facilities to get people out to experience ▪ Use technology to educate public and staff on locations and amenities of facilities ▪ Data analysis--collect data to help identify where we need to market and spend resources ▪ Marketing plan ▪ Identify users that use multiple programs so facilities can plan together ▪ Teen camp ▪ Have registration proofread PlayBook ▪ Survey community about needs ▪ Host dance competitions ▪ Registration staff wants to know who teachers are ▪ Include part-time in all meetings—front line staff ▪ Improve registration process—PIN process ▪ More trainings, including diversity ▪ Hold staff accountable ▪ Be willing to make change ▪ Sharing of resources (payroll spreadsheets) ▪ Staff incentives ▪ Digital bulletin boards ▪ Always talking about expenditures, need to focus on where we can make money ▪ Brainstorm for facilities (about how to get amphitheater back and help the gardens) ▪ Have land and facilities—could offer any type of event ▪ Chances to work together ▪ Outsourcing causes money to leave Peoria when we still have people around who can do the

work ▪ Revisit Support Services--chargebacks are paralyzing the system ▪ Opportunity to have better teamwork by creating a different accountability system ▪ Enhance outreach for Diversity for programs and staff—let them know how they can use PPD ▪ Outreach to everyone—need to brand and market ▪ Need to serve entire community ▪ All decisions from strategic plan are all opportunities ▪ Branding and awareness ▪ Streamline services and events ▪ Take care of what you have will show the positive side of the district—district image


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▪ Restriction of facilities and programs—efficiencies ▪ Need long term goals for staff promotions ▪ Find good staff by word of mouth--branding ▪ Promote independent facilities more ▪ Make sure leadership is qualified ▪ Stay up to date on technology ▪ Review and change Support Service system ▪ Better relationships with other police departments with upgraded technology ▪ Keep up with the times (Pokémon Go, trampoline center) could have capitalized on ▪ Keep ahead of trends (Tough Mudder) ▪ Collaborations, partnerships---revenue opportunities ▪ Provide events within PPD instead of outside organizations ▪ Internal collaboration ▪ Charge $1.00 for free programs to get more investment ▪ Don’t outsource when you have talented staff ▪ Provide financial reports ▪ Support service is broken—staff avoids getting work done because you have to pay more

(Payroll maintenance) ▪ Increase meetings and improve communication between maintenance and programming staff ▪ Term limits for Board; follow Bylaws ▪ Board should see all facilities and look at district as a whole ▪ Better education of Board ▪ New Executive Director has done a good job so far ▪ Virtual opportunities in parks ▪ IT department getting on board with tech users ▪ Changes with administrative structure, but do it correctly ▪ Manage Budget correctly—debt load will be paid off and can reallocate to equipment and crews ▪ Create efficiencies as debt load money comes available ▪ Offer retirement packages for early retirement ▪ Hold job fairs in different locations and advertise better ▪ Lost City contracts, could reinstate them ▪ Opportunities for advancement ▪ Invest in employees—be flexible about schedules ▪ Train on new equipment ▪ Involve maintenance in decisions on equipment ▪ Provide aggressive professional development, tuition reimbursement ▪ Invest in training with younger staff as retirements

[new leadership, enhance teamwork, follow strategic plan, improve communication, training and professional development, improve marketing, outreach, technology, support service structure] 8. What barriers, challenges, and/or threats exist that must be addressed or overcome in order for the

District to move towards the future? ▪ Change management is key to the success ▪ Public will be impacted and board needs to be supportive ▪ Micromanaging from Board ▪ Board has fear of not being reelected ▪ People not knowing PPD services and facilities


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▪ People are tuned out to local government, need to get people involved ▪ People aren’t participating to be forgotten ▪ Technology is outdated—attention span is short, message needs to be quick ▪ POS system at zoo and playhouse ▪ The loss of Caterpillar executives; the weight they carried in the community is now lost ▪ Fear of change and what it means ▪ Racial discourse - affects board discussion, staff engagement, the community fragmentation (we

sometimes feel like we have two park districts) ▪ Perception versus reality ▪ Trust issues amongst staff and between staff and board ▪ Internal communication is fragmented ▪ Relationship between board and staff is unhealthy ▪ Board term limits ▪ Board personal agendas ▪ Board interests in golf operations and other operational areas that they wish to influence ▪ Leadership didn’t appreciate technology, now we do. Playing catch up now ▪ Old infrastructure not being maintained ▪ Employee push back for those who can’t see end game--disengaged ▪ New decisions can’t keep changing—need to feel like they are on solid ground ▪ State regulations make it hard to dispose ▪ Support service chargeback system needs to be addressed ▪ Competition—external ▪ People don’t always want to think of things of all being PPD, but separate entity—what should

be PPD general and what is specific ▪ Silo staff don’t have time to go other places (zoo can’t get to banquets) ▪ Mindset of employees—staff are leery about future ▪ Improved Communications with public ▪ Prioritizing what we can and can’t do ▪ Boards intentions aren’t known, board doesn’t know what we do—how can they make decision ▪ Technology—don’t have funds to update ▪ Hard to get PINs for registration ▪ Make PPD feel more cohesive ▪ Gap from new staff to retiring staff ▪ People working from “it’s how it’s been done” ▪ Community is barrier (lack of support from community when you make change) ▪ A lot of people in community have been here a long time, not wanting changes ▪ Hold donations if you don’t do it my way ▪ Provide many, but not master of any ▪ Look at what programs are working well, don’t compete ▪ Internal and external competition (swim America competes) ▪ Aging infrastructure ▪ Lack of education of internal programs--Need to understand what other work groups do ▪ Hard to find amenities at parks when searching ▪ Lack of expendable income in the public and PPD in financial trouble and raising prices could

keep people from coming ▪ Active recreation groups ▪ Maintaining diversity of parks, facilities and program with finance struggles


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▪ Staff ▪ Lack of vision ▪ Spending capital on projects that aren’t important ▪ Not communicating processes and procedures with new hires ▪ Tough to track trainings for new hires ▪ Too much paperwork, encourage direct deposit ▪ “we can’t do that” is keeping PPD from moving forward ▪ New laws keeping from appropriate staffing ▪ Part-time staff not valued ▪ Understaffed at zoo ▪ Internet issues—have to pay for them to fix ▪ Revisit support services—chargebacks are creating. ▪ What is administrative expense—getting charged twice ▪ Common practices—keep from opening golf courses earlier than normal (missed opportunity) ▪ Follow through with recommendations from strategic plan ▪ Outside competition (travel leagues) ▪ Try to fix broken things ▪ Creativity being stifled ▪ Continue to provide services with limited budget ▪ Time management ▪ Too many meetings and surveys ▪ Hard to register for programs ▪ Programs have been reduced in some areas (lock ins) ▪ Rising cost of insurance ▪ Staff not feeling secure in positions ▪ Creating positions for someone’s kid—not qualified or needed ▪ Staffing –eliminating full time and filling with part-time ▪ Lack of staff in some areas—some things can’t wait (zoo) ▪ Qualified people aren’t getting passed on to hiring supervisors ▪ Retaining part-time staff—need to pay more to keep them ▪ Liability for some opportunities ▪ Money ▪ Correct use of services ▪ Organizational structure ▪ Let people know our parks are safe ▪ Park ordinance are committed north of 150 ▪ No pools or bathrooms north of 150 ▪ Competition ▪ People don’t feel safe at Riverplex—jurisdiction challenges ▪ Client of community isn’t middle class—less money ▪ Aware of actions of people in community (safety) ▪ Mental illness/homeless awareness ▪ Not listening to input and follow through ▪ Support service ▪ Board ▪ Revenues vs expenditures ▪ Laws that prevent us from selling land (ditches)


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▪ Accept property that we shouldn’t ▪ Reactive management and maintenance ▪ Don’t charge what the actual costs are ▪ Finance structure (support service payment and billing) ▪ Strive for cohesive mindset ▪ Board isn’t focused on the correct things (all about pet projects and special interest groups) ▪ Outsourcing could jeopardize quality ▪ Shrinking tax base and no reserves ▪ Corporate money from state is gone, grants are hard to come by ▪ Paying other agencies to take care of their land ▪ Technology—minds are focused away from nature ▪ Following policy manual ▪ Losing knowledge with retirements ▪ Some staff are the only ones who know what they’re doing ▪ Communication ▪ Money ▪ Marketing ▪ Staffing vs outsourcing ▪ Motivating employees ▪ Tech equipment needed to keep up ▪ Outdated equipment ▪ “that’s the way we’ve always done it” ▪ Contracting work isn’t going to work

[aging infrastructure, lack of awareness, support service chargebacks, competition, outdated technology, Board intentions, financial unsustainability, low staff morale] 9. Are there any potential partnerships or collaborations that you believe would be beneficial for the

District to pursue moving forward? If so, what are they and what would be the reciprocal benefits of such a relationship? ▪ Intergovernmental agreements (fair and equal) ▪ Other professionals in the field (IT) ▪ Social and private agencies to provide larger net of recreation ▪ School district(s) in Peoria and outside of Peoria ▪ City of Peoria and outside municipalities ▪ Know what collaboration means (they need to know what our offerings are) ▪ Identify difference between partnership and collaboration ▪ Working with local NGOs (e.g. Ducks Unlimited) or other regional Park Districts to address

conservation efforts – via MOUs or JUAs; share volunteer resources ▪ District 150 School District could be improved upon; they have a captured audience ▪ Police Department partnership; youth engagement and involvement ▪ City/County partnerships ▪ Bradley University; senior capstone projects to do work for the District ▪ School district ▪ Scholarship participants ▪ Non-profits ▪ Churches (some help with soccer already—use as model) ▪ OSF hospital


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▪ DCSF and Foster care agencies ▪ Active recreation groups ▪ Internal partnerships ▪ Hospitals ▪ Build on existing OSF partnership ▪ School District (veggie garden, teen moms, teens) ▪ Bradley University for research projects ▪ Schools in Peoria and beyond ▪ Nonprofits ▪ Outlying park districts, other municipalities ▪ Look at other communities for how they partner ▪ City of Peoria and County ▪ Businesses ▪ Collaborate/outreach with other cities to get information to them about PPD programs ▪ Youth groups ▪ Churches ▪ Partner with Vern ▪ Sponsorships—there’s money in Peoria ▪ Limelight (they make ticket sales, we make concession revenue) ▪ Build on current partnerships ▪ Medical community ▪ Training facility at OSF ▪ School Districts (150 and Dunlap and others) already park users—want access to schools and to

their kids ▪ Funding from other School Districts who use PPD facilities ▪ Sponsorship with big companies who are willing to pay for tv advertising ▪ Internal collaborations ▪ More staff meetings on different levels (programmers) ▪ Learn more about staff and what they do to figure out internal opportunities ▪ Vet practices ▪ Grocery stores ▪ Schools ▪ Sports leagues ▪ Health and wellness ▪ Feed the kids in the summer time—cooperative extension ▪ Farmers to use PPD land ▪ Opportunities to be engaged with other staff ▪ Limelight, travel agencies ▪ Schools ▪ Internal collaborations ▪ Identify what a collaboration is before doing more ▪ Surrounding districts and businesses ▪ Partner other times other than Thanksgiving and Christmas ▪ Library for events and reciprocal services ▪ Internal partnerships ▪ Better service for community through collaborations ▪ Schools –creates new customers


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▪ Schools—need to get kids outside ▪ Schools for facilities ▪ Capture money in the community with donations ▪ Collaborations need to be collaborations ▪ Private sector ▪ Sponsorships for programs or events (financial, time, product) ▪ Youth organizations ▪ City of Peoria—but need to be cautious with bad publicity historically ▪ Interdepartmental collaborations—facility to facility, webpages ▪ Enhance School district relationships ▪ School district comes to zoo, museum, etc. ▪ Corporate sponsors other than Caterpillar ▪ Medical community (wellness programs) ▪ Revisit partnership with City of Peoria ▪ Work with bus service for access to all locations ▪ City of Peoria ▪ County ▪ Intergovernmental ▪ Use local instead of outside ▪ Police ▪ District 150

[intergovernmental agreements, identify what collaboration means, school districts, hospitals and medical community, internal partnerships, businesses] 10. What barriers exist that prevent people from participating in District services/programs?

▪ People don’t know what we offer ▪ Registration process ▪ Cost ▪ Time ▪ Prioritizing what to spend money on ▪ Public parks can be used by everyone, but distance could be a barrier ▪ Transportation ▪ Family participation hard at some locations ▪ Not pedestrian friendly ▪ Fear of some parks at some times during the day ▪ Perceptions ▪ Transportation; distance many people must travel to our sites ▪ People do not know about our services; getting the word out about what we have and do ▪ Competition that overwhelms customers – too many options ▪ Safety concerns ▪ Small mindedness ▪ Financial barriers – affordability ▪ Entitled community who expect low fees, etc. ▪ How we use our media—expect people to attend when people might not be getting

information (newspapers not being read) ▪ Public restrooms not always available ▪ Spend time on problems we can solve that are issues for more people


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▪ Timing of some of the events (working parents hard to get kids to events) ▪ Competing events on each side of river ▪ Duplication of service ▪ Have people that can’t pay for private services ▪ Foster care ▪ District 150 and other district barrier, but is changing ▪ Perception of safety at facilities ▪ Accessibility (finding online) ▪ Getting PIN ▪ Making things easier for public ▪ Resident vs non-resident issue ▪ Eliminating resident discount for some ▪ Reframe communication with customers—all are welcome ▪ Park Board pushes back if not their special interest ▪ Park Board micromanages and are combative ▪ No bus service to get to parks ▪ How to get into Luthy parking lot ▪ Parking ▪ Park safety ▪ Fear of nature ▪ External competition ▪ Not enough staff—could do more events ▪ Hours of operation don’t match visitor’s schedules ▪ Lack of marketing to educate the public on changes or addition of hours ▪ Time offerings ▪ Knowledge ▪ Transportation ▪ Cost ▪ Outdated information (theaters have old information) ▪ No outreach ▪ Communication and marketing ▪ Too many offerings, many are cancelled ▪ Knowledge of facilities and programs ▪ Money ▪ Transportation ▪ Air conditioning keeps people inside ▪ Internet, screen time ▪ Ability and willingness to spend money ▪ Safety of neighborhoods ▪ Perceived value of services ▪ Unaware of the programs ▪ Times programs are offered ▪ Technology—collect demographics when people are available and want programs ▪ Safety ▪ Perception of unsafe facilities ▪ Lack of awareness ▪ Technology


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▪ Cost—competition for the dollar ▪ Marketing ▪ Competition ▪ Update what’s going on in facility ▪ Bus schedules ▪ Violence (bullying) ▪ Increasing crime and increasing media about crime ▪ Enforce rules (people not wanting to golf because of other uses) ▪ Lack of awareness of facilities and programs ▪ Marketing is tied to revenue producers, free things aren’t marketed ▪ Public perception ▪ Golfers are spoiled by low cost, any changes upset community ▪ Young, active seniors don’t want to be seniors ▪ Mentality of “it’s always been done this way” -- things need to change ▪ Offer what community wants instead of how it’s always been done ▪ Competition ▪ Awareness ▪ People are at home with technology ▪ Safety for some parks—inner city ▪ Financial barriers for some ▪ Bus system is good, but might not be able to get to all locations ▪ Price point is too high for some ▪ Limited scholarship programs ▪ Not advertising for junior golf ▪ Lack of knowledge ▪ Financial ▪ Competition ▪ Playhouse cost prohibitive ▪ Lack of advertisement ▪ Too much land ▪ Legal and financial ▪ Not having right activities to attract people ▪ Not being willing to change ▪ Maintenance of some facilities that are overprogrammed ▪ Not keeping up with the demand of sports

[lack of awareness and education, competition, cost, weak marketing, transportation, outdated technology, safety, hours, historical programming (too many offerings)] 11. Is there anything else you would like to share?

▪ Once strategic plan comes out, we still need to do our jobs and need to be able to look at jobs

with fresh eyes. Focus on not being resentful of changes, but be positive

▪ Riverfront and Festivals are a great thing we do and allows for marketing to a diverse group of

people

▪ Staff have positive hope

▪ Employees need to buy into change

▪ Need to make money—look at new opportunities (concessions during busy winter days)


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▪ Registration should do all registrations

▪ We’re getting new software, how will software work together or will be still be in silos.

▪ Everyone is doing own marketing, confusing and fragmented

▪ Some staff and areas are capable and willing to do their own marketing

▪ Listen to feedback and implement recommendations

▪ Update facilities

▪ New Leadership is hopeful

▪ If you assign us to do something, trust it will get done

▪ Board issues

▪ Get out of financial situation by doing more than outsourcing

▪ Teamwork and flexibility with sharing of equipment

▪ Set things up for the future

▪ Need to have manager meetings throughout the year

▪ Emerald Ash Borer infestation to thousands of dead trees and only a budget of $30,000

▪ Supportive services tracking needs to be addressed

▪ Reach out to retirees for input in this process

▪ Why do we need our own police department?

▪ Pools are deteriorating—only need 2 outdoor pools

▪ New board

▪ Support services needs to be looked at instead of paying other companies

▪ Implement recommendations of strategic plan ▪ Involve staff


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Facilitation of Peoria Park District’s

2018-2020 Strategic Plan provided by:

P.O. Box 538, Salida, Colorado 81201

www.110percent.net

2018 2020 strategic plan - peoria park district · opportunity for under resourced communities...

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