Parks Advisory Board Adopts Community Engagement Goal; Members to Staff Outreach Events

At its March 10 meeting, the Buncombe County Parks & Recreation Advisory Board agreed on an annual community-engagement goal and assigned members to represent the department at public events to boost park visitation and advocacy.

“Develop a community engagement action plan,” staff said, describing a goal that asks each advisory board member to participate in at least one outreach or public-engagement program per district per year and to solicit feedback while there. The department offered to supply materials — table cloths, flyers, QR codes and T-shirts — to help board members staff tabling events.

Board members discussed practical outreach tactics: attending farmer's markets, setting up a parks table at community events, and using CORE (a mobile outreach van) to reach underserved parts of the county. One member said, “We need to go to a farmer's market or something where the community is,” and staff volunteered to provide collateral and coordinate volunteers.

Members volunteered for upcoming events: several agreed to staff a Parks table at the Owen Park engagement meeting scheduled for March 30 at Owen Middle School, and staff said they would brief volunteers beforehand and supply T-shirts. Staff also encouraged members to identify two events each to attend as their outreach homework before the board's May meeting.

The board discussed the department website and materials as primary information sources and asked staff to add clearer content on major programs (for example, CORE and Greenways) so members can confidently direct the public to more information. The meeting concluded with staff outlining next steps for distributing materials and scheduling a brief pre-event meeting for volunteers.