In 2018, Paradise, California, was devastated by the Camp Fire, leaving the community with the enormous task of rebuilding. Rec is proud to work with Paradise Recreation and Park District, which has shown extraordinary resilience in helping the community recover, one program at a time.

With a staff of just 14 people, the district runs everything from Tiny Tots to adult softball leagues to kayaking trips on Paradise Lake. It has also grown an outdoor education network that has taken students on more than 250 field trips. But outdated registration software kept getting in the way of families signing up for the programs they wanted, making it harder for the team to drive participation.

Paradise now runs 7 different programs and 75 rental options across 10 parks and facilities, all on the Rec platform. In a recent webinar, Recreation Supervisor Scott Amick walked through his approach to running outdoor education programs at Paradise, and what’s changed for his team since adopting Rec. 

Check out highlights from our conversation below, and you can watch the full recording here.

During the webinar, we discussed the impact of Rec’s partnership with Paradise:

• Over 2x enrollment increase in their outdoor teen program
• Reporting and admin: 6 reporting workflows consolidated into 1
• Public feedback: "not a single complaint" since launch

Over 2x increase in outdoor youth program enrollment

Paradise runs incredible youth programs, including Elements, its outdoor adventure program for 16- to 20-year-olds. However, teens and their parents struggled with the old registration software, especially on a phone. Families often dropped off at the last step, and Elements struggled to fill spots. "They couldn't figure out how to make it all the way through the registration process, and they never showed up because of that limitation," Scott said.

Now, with Rec, a teen can find a program on their phone and share it straight to their parent, who finishes signing up in a few taps. "The little share button was everything," Scott said. Elements now has 25 participants, an over 2x improvement, and the program fills up almost instantly. “If we didn’t have Rec to increase access, nobody would show up,” Scott said.

Rec has also helped fill Scott’s evening kayaking and stargazing program called Astronomy at the Lake. The program now draws nearly 50 people each session.

6 reporting workflows consolidated into one

“I used to have to pull reports from six different software programs: some from QuickBooks, some from our old registration software, some from the website that we used for signups,” Scott said. “Now that all of that is in one place, there are fewer mistakes.” For Scott, fewer mistakes means "more bandwidth for the people providing the services."

For the Paradise team, setting up new sessions is quick: "It's effortless to create new templates and sessions to receive information that we want." The public noticed the difference, too. "The biggest win of bringing Rec on has been that we've heard not a single complaint, which is rare," Scott said. "Now, we get more compliments than ever before." 

"The biggest win of bringing Rec on has been that we've heard not a single complaint, which is rare. Now, we get more compliments than ever before."

— Scott Amick, Recreation Supervisor, Paradise Recreation & Parks District

Improved communication means families come back

Paradise's outdoor program runs across several sites, each with its own logistics and directions. That information used to go out by email, where it was easy to lose. With no single way to reach families, many didn't return. "Attrition was brutal for us," Scott said. 

Now, every site's details live on one program page, and communication is simpler. "We can communicate with both the parent and the student at the same time, and then we know what they've seen or what they haven't seen yet. So it's made our trips even safer and more accessible," Scott said.

After the first session, families could easily sign up again for the next one. As Scott shared, good recreation software "makes programs easier to find, registration easier to complete, and communication easier to manage."

If we didn’t have Rec to increase access, nobody would show up."

— Scott Amick, Recreation Supervisor, Paradise Recreation & Parks District

What's next for Paradise

With these early results in hand, Paradise is focused on scale, including bringing in more instructors and supporting community members who want to run programs of their own. Watch the full webinar to hear more from Scott, including how Paradise builds partnerships with schools and local nonprofits. 

And keep in mind Scott’s great advice for other agencies: "Get your systems in place so you can get out there. The job is not the desk. The job is the people.”

‍Interested in building a fairer, more connected recreation experience for your community? Reach out to the Rec team to learn more.