Building Collaboration and Partnerships

Performance Element III: 4C's Philosophy--Building Collaboration and Partnerships

DO-#75 Civic Engagement

NCR has engaged the public in dialog and decisions about NPS parks and programs through Green Infrastructure Demonstration Project. The project, a partnership with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments--17 major units of local government, has involved more than 775 representatives from over 440 local, state, regional, and federal government agencies and private groups and businesses to discuss topics such as park management, geographic data for decision-making, recreation access, building design, friends groups, fundraising, land protection, interpretation, and volunteerism.


NCR created the senior-level District of Columbia-NPS Parks & Recreation Roundtable to improve communication, coordination and decision-making about NPS and DC parklands. NPS and DC directorate and park managers and staff, as well as representatives from 55 other federal government and community, neighborhood, non-profit and business organizations, meet four times a year, and communicate electronically on a regular basis, to discuss common interests and issues such as a DC-NPS Recreation Use Management Plan, the Watts Branch Plan National Seamless System Demonstration Project, a presentation at the 2003 Joint Ventures Conference, Geographic Information System data to overlay DC and NPS parks to assess opportunities for collaboration, coordination of special park interpretation events, and a Citywide inventory of street trees being led by Casey Tree Endowment.

FY 2004 NPS Budget Initiative on Partnership/ Volunteer-In- Parks Program Coordinator

NCR implemented the 2004 budget initiative through a collaborative effort called "Building Better Partnerships for the Greater Washington National Parks". The NCR Partnerships Office and Volunteers-In-Parks Program (VIP) developed and implemented a Strategic Action Plan that increased the use of volunteers and partnerships to accomplish work that was not currently being completed.

NCR began the "Trails Forever" project to attract park visitors to raise greater awareness of the parks as a way to encourage them to use the parks and contribute to their stewardship. This effort has linked NCR's 14 park units, 88,500 acres of parkland,110 square miles of open space, 3,059 historic structures, 717 miles of trails and bike paths, 250 miles of riverfront, 85 major friends groups, 300 VIP's and 20 major fundraising campaigns.

All NCR parks participated in this effort and funds from the budget initiative were matched with VIP monies for park restoration projects, including watershed clean ups, trail repair, historic structure repair, historic landscape rehabilitation, native plant revegetation, and exotic plant removal.

Every park used volunteers and partnership monies in their regular interpretive, living history programs or visitor services programs, natural or cultural history interpretation or special events to accomplish work not currently being completed. Some parks used these monies to expand their park formal and informal interpretive programs and special events to reach new audiences about their park’s meanings and significance. Overall VIP's donated over 272,000 VIP hours within the 14 NCR park units.

Special events were held on Public Lands Day; the Potomac Watershed Cleanup; Justice Douglas Hike; Life and Death on the C&O Canal; Rock Creek Park Day; Battle of Fort Stevens observance; the battles of Manassas, Monocacy, Antietam; all regionwide and park-specific cleanups; and all concert series.

VIP monies were used to expand the recruitment, training, support, and recognition of volunteers. Parks purchased software to expand park websites that promoted volunteer opportunities and communication.

Volunteers received park-specific training in safety, interpretation, administration, maintenance, and natural and cultural resource management. Volunteers assisted in new or expanded archeological field projects and natural resource monitoring.

Volunteers received new VIP uniforms or new, or repaired, costumes or tools that enhanced living history programs and special events.

New programs funded through this initiative included: Antietam’s Battlefield Ambassadors Program; Monocacy’s interactive children’s program about Civil War Life; expanded informal interpretation on the C&O canal; music program on the C&O canal living history boat tours; and a arts trail at Wolf Trap, which involved a partnership with a local elementary school.

NCR assisted the National Partnership Office in the design and implementation of the "Building Better Partnership Projects" effort to ensure that work by volunteers and partners is effectively and efficiently planned and directed toward NPS mission goals. NCR designed the evaluation methodology to assess the status of fundraising efforts, track activities and funding commitments for 125 partnership construction projects and fundraising efforts nationally and their consistency with DO-21.