STATE COLLEGE — Pennsylvania Recreation and Park Society (PRPS) invites applicants for 10 to 12 Recreation & Parks Technical Assistance Program (RecTAP) grants.
Funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), RecTAP serves as a community recreation and parks consulting service. It provides up to $2,500 for the management-related technical services of experienced professionals to help develop a community project to improve local recreational facilities, parks and trails.
“What distinguishes these grants is the support they offer communities,” says PRPS CEO Tim Herd. “We match each grantee with a team of professionals who have extensive training, knowledge and experience in the issues related to their proposed project.”
This professional connection was the spark Bowmantown, a rural borough of 937 in Carbon County, needed to begin creating an accessible walking trail connecting residents to critical services. Neighbors and leadership spent years grappling with how to develop two parcels of land that were donated for the good of the residents; one included the town’s only post office. With a high population of residents with mobility issues and a hilly terrain, the plan needed to increase accessibility and connection.
“Our RecTAP grant was the jumpstart we needed to get this project underway,” said Kara Scott, president, Bowmanstown Area Residents Connected (BARC), a local community group dedicated to improving Bowmanstown by increasing community participation and communication. “We had been talking about how to use this land for more than a decade. This grant enabled us to develop a concept design with a flat walking loop near area amenities, trees, benches, bike racks, ADA parking and more to connect people to nature and each other.”
PRPS draws upon a broad list of park, recreation and trails professionals with expertise in planning, management, development, partnership, sponsorship and more. This team provides technical assistance that increases the value of the grant.
Unlike many grants, RecTAP is non-specific, allowing grantees the freedom to choose what is most important to their community.
“RecTAP can help smaller nonprofits or municipalities get started on a project that seems daunting because they are under-resourced,” says Herd. “Many of these organizations, who are responsible for providing park and recreation services, lack the capacity for the planning or the resources to pay for it.”
RecTAP grants are specifically designed for small, deliverable projects which can be completed within six months. The only other requirement is that they be used to improve a local park, recreational facility or trail. PRPS has received applications from park and rec departments, municipalities and community groups.
“The goal is to empower communities to improve the recreation of their citizens, by helping them realize the potential of their local parks and recreation facilities and solve discrete problems or issues that will improve the facilities or access,” says Herd.
PRPS has awarded more than 75 RecTAP grants over the past 20 years to nonprofits and municipalities across the commonwealth for projects as diverse as lifeguard recertification and youth sports training, strategic planning, trail construction, and playground and site planning with community input.
An application can be downloaded from the PRPS website, prps.org. For more information, contact Herd at herd@prps.org.
