Making Recreation Inclusive, One Mile at a Time
January 29, 2018
The Lerner Center’s mission is to improve the health of the community through service, research, education, advocacy and policy. To bring this mission to life, Lerner Center staff and graduate fellows took part in a 10-hour online inclusivity training. The InclusionU training and certification program offered through the Inclusive Recreation Resource Center at SUNY Cortland focuses on evaluation metrics anyone can use to assess the inclusivity of particular recreational spaces. An online database collects information about the accessibility of everything from trails and parks to bowling alleys. People of all abilities can check out the database before heading to a place of recreation to ensure they will be able to access and participate in the activities. The ultimate goal of these assessments is to help all people, regardless of ability, to play wherever they choose.
Here at the Lerner Center, we believe that accessibility is important and have strived to make our Monday Mile routes inclusive. With over twenty-five Monday Mile routes around Onondaga and Madison Counties, our goal is use the Inclusivity Assessment Tool offered through the InclusionU training to assess our miles. More specifically, the fellows measured the slope, terrain, and obstructions within a given Mile as well as the parking, signage, and amenities offered to a participant.
Assessments of Barry Park and DeRuyter Fairground Tracks (and others!) can be found in the Recreation Database. Stay tuned for inclusivity assessments of our other Monday Miles!
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Healthy Monday Team at the DeRuyter Monday Mile[/caption]