The National Recreation and Park Association is hosting a national summit April 17-19 at the Omni CNN Center in Atlanta to explore the role of parks and recreation services in advancing healthy lifestyles and livable communities for Americans. The summit will engage national, state and local leaders from the public, private, and non-profit sectors to share best practices, debate emerging strategies, and establish new alliances that can improve health and livability in our neighborhoods, communities, and nation.

IPRA’s Heather Weishaar, Development & Projects Director, will be representing the association in Atlanta next week. She will be attending sessions, sharing IPRA’s initiatives and networking with other leaders in the field. There are a number of great sessions and Heather is the staff liaison to the health and fitness taskforce where she will be working closely with the taskforce’s chair, LoriKay Paden of the University of Illinois. With the creation of the Camp Fusion toolkit and the LocateAPark.com site, in partnership with the American Cancer Society, IPRA has made strides in improving the quality of life for residents of Illinois. She hopes to gain a greater knowledge of what others in the country are doing to bring it back to the members of IPRA.

IPRA’s Matt White, Marketing & Communication Director, will be working with the NRPA to broadcast online video and audio interviews conducted with various attendees of the summit. He will be blogging about the sessions and interviews so if you have a free minute he’d like to meet up with folks from Illinois for a quick chat. It’ll be a great way for you to share your agency’s initiatives on a national level.

Please let us know if you’re planning on being at the summit next week. We’ll have to meet up in the evenings to recap our learnings…and maybe visit some local establishments! See you in Hot-lanta!  If you can’t make it be sure to check out their blog for some great resources.