Your Centerville-Washington Park District is serious about providing the park and recreation opportunities you want! CWPD perpetually seeks resident and stakeholder input to build strategic plans, master plans, programming plans, capital improvements plans and budgets. This allows us to align resources with community priorities.
Our most recent Community Needs Assessment was conducted in 2022 — and in 2019 before that! Resident feedback generates great ideas and opinions, and we would like to share the many improvements that are a direct result of your input. So, every two weeks from July to November, we will post a short message about what’s been added, fixed, improved or expanded to meet your requests!
Making the Outdoors Inclusive
Improving park access and inclusivity is a key priority. Since 2020, we have installed two all-inclusive playgrounds at your large community parks, one at Schoolhouse Park and one at Yankee Park. The public was able to choose the playground design, and the end result goes beyond minimum accessibility to welcome children and adults of all abilities to play and interact together!
Staff have also strategically added over 2.5 miles of paved paths to create connections to countless park amenities, such as ballfields, playgrounds, tennis courts, natural habitats, as well as neighborhoods. To enhance the visitor experience, we have also installed over a dozen inclusive play features at neighborhood park playgrounds. In 2022, the community benefited from a generous $20,000 donation from the Centerville Noon Optimist Club. The funds enabled the Park District to purchase 23 accessible swings. With this purchase, we are proud to say all 41 Centerville-Washington Park District playgrounds have an accessible swing!
Inclusive programming is also important to the Park District. Over the past few years, we have added countless options to prioritize access to parks and recreation opportunities. Adapted programming has been added to the line-up, including the award-winning Adapted Action Day, Adapted Archery and the Rainbows and Raindrops Adapted Fun Run. The staff has also created an early arrival option for popular special events to make them a sensory-friendly experience, such as the Fairy & Gnome Home Festival and Truck or Treat.
Roughly 30% of programs are offered at no cost or low cost to residents, and for those programs requiring higher fees, we have implemented a process for requesting financial assistance to further remove barriers to participation.
While not every part of every park can be fully accessible, it is our desire to make every type of experience available to all. Suggestions and ideas are most welcome. If you have a thought to help make any part of the district more accessible, please let us know. We would like to invite you to attend an inclusion focus group. Help us continue to promote inclusion and accessibility for all at your Centerville-Washington Park District parks and programs!
Tuesday, September 19
6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Activity Center Park, Community Room
221 N. Main St., Centerville
If the date and time don’t work for you, but you have feedback to share, please RSVP and we will email you questions to answer as your schedule allows!
As a thank you, all participants will receive a $15 household credit for future park programs. (One credit per household.)