Cost, distance and limited awareness are keeping many Fairfax County residents from taking advantage of county parks and recreation programs, a recent survey by the Fairfax County Park Authority found.
In response, the park authority is drafting a strategy to bridge the gaps and improve accessibility for underserved communities, focusing on both immediate and long-term solutions.
“Cost remains the top participation barrier for households with an income of $75k or under,” FCPA Executive Director Jai Cole told the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors at a health and human services committee meeting on Oct. 15. “When we look at specifically race and ethnicity, for Hispanic … and Black households, distance and lack of familiarity also are key barriers that we should work to overcome.”
The survey builds on years of work by the park authority to address equity gaps, which started with its first equity action plan in 2020, Cole noted.
In 2021, then-acting executive director Sarah Baldwin and her team found that the county’s park programs tended to serve wealthier, whiter residents.
A deeper analysis in 2022 by the D.C.-based consulting firm HR&A Advisors confirmed that the FCPA’s reliance on user fees — which fund 58% of its operating budget — had created affordability challenges, often pricing out lower-income families from popular programs like summer camps and recreation centers.
The study also found that Fairfax County invests less per capita in parks and recreation compared to other similar regions, such as Minneapolis.
“FCPA’s reliance on fees means that some of our agencies, especially recreational programming, charge more than other local jurisdictions and more than a lot of our county residents can afford,” Cole said.
In response to the study’s findings, the park authority has tested some new initiatives, including a sliding fee scale that adjusts service costs based on income. The results of a summer 2023 pilot at the Sully Community Center were encouraging, according to Baldwin.
Coupled with increased outreach from staff and offered transportation assistance for families in need, the implementation of the sliding fee scale lead to a 92% increase in non-white campers at Sully’s summer camp, compared to 34% across the park authority’s camps overall, she said.
“Based on the survey results, 70% of the families that participate in the program said that if they did not have access to our program, their children would have stayed at home and not participated in [the] enriching, safe summer camp program,” Baldwin said.
Following the success of the pilot, HR&A released a second report earlier this year recommending a county-wide multi-tiered fee system and sliding scale or voucher options to expand access to camps and recreational programs.
The report also suggests lowering cost-recovery targets for high-value programs like swim lessons and camps — a change that would require an increase of $26.6 million in the park authority’s operating budget.
HR&A suggested that funding for these solutions could come from dedicated tax streams used by other jurisdictions, such as a special property tax levy, a sales tax allocation or a dedicated tax district for parks and recreation.
Officials said they plan to incorporate the findings into an implementation strategy focused on equity, which may include sliding fee scale expansions, transportation options, and stronger outreach efforts. The plan is expected to go before the park authority’s board in January.
“We service a lot of people, but they’re still in a community that we may not reach, and we have an opportunity to explore exactly how much we have available to reach beyond our current audiences,” Cole said.
Despite general satisfaction with the progress reported by FCPA officials, Board Chairman Jeff McKay urged them to clearly differentiate short- and long-term goals in their implementation plan.
“As we’ve talked before around this board table, fixing a problem that has existed for a long time is not going to be a one or two or three-year fix,” he said. “… What is the low-hanging fruit and implementation plan that can immediately be addressed? And what are the things that have to go into a longer range plan?”
