The Benefits of Recreation
Community Recreation services provide a number of benefits to our community. These benefits help strengthen families, build healthy communities, improve the quality of life for the Canadian Forces.
Below, you will find 8 key marketing messages taken from the Benefits of Recreation Catalogue.
Recreation is Essential to Personal Health
- Recreation helps people live longer
- Recreation prolongs independent living for seniors - keeping seniors vital and involved in community life
- Recreation and fitness significantly reduces the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke
- Recreation and fitness combat osteoporosis
- Recreation and fitness combat diabetes
- Recreation and fitness help in preventing specific types of cancers - particularly in the colon, breast and lungs
- Recreation and fitness help prevent and rehabilitate back problems
- Recreation and arts/culture contribute to mental health
- Recreation and arts culture enhance overall health and well-being
- Recreation is a proven therapeutic tool - helping to restore physical, mental and social capacities and abilities
Recreation is Key to Balanced Human Development
- Recreation is essential to the development of our children and youth:
We learn motor skills (physical) through play and sports
We learn social skills through play and sports
We learn creativity through play and arts/cultural activity
We develop intellectual capacities and concepts through play - and many other life skills - Recreation provides the opportunity for adults to develop their full and holistic potential
- Recreation and adult leisure learning provide exceptional opportunities
Recreation is Essential to Quality of Life
- Recreation and arts/culture build self-esteem and positive self-image
- Recreation and arts/culture enhance life satisfaction levels
- Recreation and arts/culture enhance perceived quality of life - for individuals, families and communities
- Recreation, sports and arts/culture nurtures growth, acquisition of life skills and independent living for those with a disability
Recreation Reduces Self-destructive and Anti-social Behavior
- Recreation, sports and arts/culture reduce self-destructive behavior and negative activity in youth - an antidote to smoking, substance abuse, suicide and depression
- Recreation and arts/culture can reduce crime
- Recreation and arts/culture can reduce racism - building understanding between diverse cultures
- Recreation reduces isolation, loneliness and alienation
Recreation Builds Strong Families and Healthy Communities
- Families that play together, stay together
- Recreation provides safe developmental opportunities for the latch-key child
- Recreation, sports and arts/culture produce leaders who serve their communities in many ways
- Recreation, sports and arts/culture build social skills and stimulate participation in community life
- Recreation is often the catalyst that builds strong, self-sufficient communities (ie sport groups, arts guilds)
- Art/culture helps people understand their neighbors, their history and their environment
- Recreation and arts/culture build pride in a community
Recreation Reduces Health Care, Social Service and Police/Justice Costs
- Fitness and well-being reduce both the incidence and severity of illness and disability - lowering healthcare costs
- Recreation supports families - reducing costs of social service intervention and foster care
- Recreation reduces crime and social dysfunction - reducing police, justice and incarceration costs.
Recreation and Parks are Significant Economic Generators in the Community
- Recreation and fitness improve work performance - increased productivity, decreased absenteeism, decreased staff turnover, reduced "on the job" accidents
- Recreation and arts/culture attract businesses to the community - prime economic development and relocation magnets
- Recreation, sports and arts/culture are the attractions that draw tourism - the third largest and one of the fastest growing industries in the world today
- Recreation, fitness, sports and arts/culture are significant economic generators on their own - providing many jobs
- Small investments in recreation, sports and arts/culture often yield large economic returns - money generated by events, capital development and providing ongoing services is spend several times in the community
Parks, Open Space and Natural Areas are Essential to Ecological Survival
- Green space protects habitat, biodiversity and ecological integrity
- Green spaces improve air quality - removing carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, and other pollutants from the air
- Outdoor recreation is one of the best approaches to environmental education - a key to long-term sustainability
- Protecting land from development (keeping it as open space) mitigates against potential environmental disaster (flooding, slip zone, aquifer depletion)
- Trail and pathway systems save energy and protect air quality by encouraging non-motorized transportation
- Arts/culture is one of the best ways to express the spirituality of the land, thereby encouraging stewardship ethics
The Benefits Catalogue -Canadian Parks and Recreation Association