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Community Vitality

What is Community Vitality?

Grounded in evidence, our unique Community Vitality Framework is a data-driven approach for communities to showcase the holistic benefits of investing in high quality play, recreation, and outdoor spaces.  The  innovative framework  was developed by industry, scholar, and practitioner thought leaders to ensure relevant terminology, a tested structure, and robust data sources to define a healthy and vital community.

The Community Vitality Framework consists of seven distinct Indicators along with a variety of topics and subtopics within each category for a comprehensive and flexible data-storytelling model that can be used in a variety of ways to advocate and demonstrate impact.  

CV Wheel

 

Social & Emotional Health
Physical Health & Lifestyle Behaviors
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
Community Engagement
Public Services
Environment
Education

Our Unique, Data-Driven Approach

Building upon PlayCore’s commitment to help communities turn research into practice, this framework serves as a guide to curate and showcase the many values of investing and reinvesting in high quality environments.

Each of the seven indicators represent a critical influence that outdoor play and recreation spaces have on overall Community Vitality. Topics and subtopics within each indicator can be used to help prioritize, focus, and organize data into evidence-based insights that can be used to inform project planning, target funding, advocate through case making, and showcase outcomes to demonstrate the many ways outdoor play and recreation spaces bring vital and essential services to communities.

Resources to Help You

Explore all our resources, through our Center for Outreach, Research, and Education, that align to the Community Vitality Indicators to support your project planning and advocacy initiatives. Look for the color-coded icons throughout our website and across our resources to help you easily identify the area(s) of specialization and how it aligns to the Framework. 

View Our Resources
A video of the different products shown through Playcore at parks.

Using the Framework

We can assist planners, decision makers, funders, and community members to uniquely apply, share, and showcase the research-based benefits of their work and to translate data stories that demonstrate meaningful impact. Our National Demonstration Site program leverages the Framework to generate customized data reports to help communities plan, prioritize, and promote their work.

Learn more about how we can support your next project by contact us

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