Equity in parks and recreation

We believe that all people and communities in Vancouver, regardless of their ethnicity, gender, religion, race, financial status, sexual orientation, abilities, or age deserve the right to access quality parks, recreation and nature, and the opportunity to partake in social, cultural and recreational activities to acquire physical literacy skills, to express and enjoy culture, and to connect with community.

We're dedicated to co-creating city building processes and systems that intentionally create and hold space for empowerment and honour the needs of the most excluded, on their terms. In order to carry out this work, it's essential to acknowledge existing injustices, biases, racism, and oppression—and to not only ask who is not at the table, but why aren’t they and how can they be?

Equity is a global challenge that bears responsibility at all levels of government and in our community. Through a systemic view of equity, we aim to support and inform a citywide framework, to develop Park Board policies and to catalyze local action.

To reduce barriers to parks and recreation, we work alongside community partners who strive to meet the needs of the individual and the neighbourhood. 

These partners include community centre associations, internal city partners, other social infrastructure facilities, community groups, and many more service providers.

Examining parks and recreation through an equity lens reveals the inherent privilege in access and enjoyment of parks and recreation held by some populations, and opens up opportunities to support and welcome populations without this privilege.

Due to patterns of development and investment over the history of the city, the distribution of trees, parks, lot sizes, land use, and infrastructure such as transit is uneven. These patterns of service provision, and resultant quality of life, have been tightly tied to class, race, gender, and other systems of power. Consequently, the conditions of social and environmental injustice persist.

The City’s community benefits from development program ensures provision of amenities for a growing population. However, funds for addressing historically underserved areas, aging infrastructure and changes in neighbourhoods that are not growing, are scarcer.

To understand how we can target historically underserved areas we can: 

• Identify priority areas (initiative zones)
• Address inequity by applying an intersectional lens as we work to fill those gaps in an inclusive way (equity analysis factors)

Geographic analysis at a city-wide scale is one tool that will allow us to:

• Identify patterns of uneven service and resource distribution
• Inventory existing amenities
• Prioritize investment
• Ask better questions
• Catalyze transformative change

Three indicators were chosen to describe broad patterns of parks and recreation service provision on a city-wide scale:

• Park provision: showing areas of the city with low amounts of park space per person. Measured as areas with less than 0.55ha/1000 people within a 10 minute walk.
• Demand for low barrier recreation: showing areas of the city where the there is an existing high demand for recreation amenities and programs with reduced barriers. Measured as areas with three times the median registration to the Leisure Access Program.
• Access to nature: low canopy cover from street trees, park trees, and green private open space. Measured as areas with less than 5% canopy cover.

These three indicators are not intended to be comprehensive. Equity analysis factors can be used to get a deeper understanding of community needs. The list of potential equity analysis factors is long and could include data sets such as demographic patterns, vulnerability indicators, crime frequency, and distribution, survey results, operational spending, past capital investment by location, and other factors that could influence access to parks and recreation.