Facilitating recreation programs and services for low-income citizens: practitioners’ challenges and strategies

ABSTRACT

Rationale

Recreation practitioners in the public and non-profit sectors are key in supporting community residents’ well-being through the facilitation of recreation programs and services; however, practitioners are working under the influence of neoliberalism governance, which challenges practitioners’ ability to support low-income citizens’ participation in recreation. Through the lens of neoliberalism, this paper aims to explore practitioners’ challenges and strategies towards implementing recreation programs and services targeted at low-income citizens and discusses the implications it has on recreation programs and services for low-income citizens.

Method

Semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with 18 practitioners who design and implement recreation programs and access provisions for low-income citizens.

Findings

Practitioners faced multiple constraints while employing a variety of solutions to deliver provisions to low-income citizens, including (1) Limited resources: doing more with less, (2) Spreading the word, and (3) Enhancing program access through program relocation, and (4) Reducing program costs.

Implications

Facilitating access to and participation in recreation for low-income citizens is complex and requires multiple practitioner-led solutions that consider the broader structural factors of living in poverty.

Research contribution

This study provides insight into the challenges practitioners experienced as they employed different strategies to support low-income citizens’ participation in recreation, and more particularly, provides an understanding of how such strategies and challenges impact recreation programs and services for low-income citizens.

KEYWORDS:

• Canada
• low-income
• neoliberalism
• recreation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).