18 November 2011

Wellington Research & Analysis Project Earns Top Honour

Wellington City Council and Lumin’s Searchlight: Community and Market Analysis project won the New Zealand Recreation Association’s (NZRA) 2011 Outstanding Research, Policy and Planning Award at Thursday night’s NZRA annual awards ceremony.

Wellington City Council (WCC), in collaboration with Lumin, continues its successful nominations with this research project, having won the NZRA Outstanding Research, Policy and Planning Award last year as well. The analysis identifies key community features, highlights consequences for recreation and presents opportunities and markets for exploration. It uses secondary research from a wide range of data, and the results are used by area, programmes and facility personnel to identify recreation markets, select opportunities and develop service and programme solutions.

“Searchlight research combines existing research and information with local and staff knowledge in the form of a meta-analysis. It identifies key features of each geographical community to ensure a close alignment of programmes and services with the needs of those communities,” said NZRA Chief Executive Andrew Leslie.

“Searchlight’s results have been immediate with new programmes and services developed as well as staff horizons broadened,” said Leslie. “WCC and Lumin have developed an effective way of pulling together information to identify not only the people in the communities, but also their barriers and needs. In this way, the judges felt that it was efficient, effective and relevant with staff putting it to good use,” he added.

The NZRA Outstanding Awards were presented during NZRA’s annual conference awards dinner, which was held at Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium. Recreation professionals from all around the country attended the conference, entitled “Recreation – we’ve got it covered”, which focussed on high level strategy, development, policy, and planning topics relevant to and across the range of sectors that make up the recreation industry. The key areas of this year's conference were: access, research, health, the impact of natural disasters and the future of the recreation industry.

“Recreation is essential to our physical and mental wellbeing,” said Leslie. “We are fortunate in New Zealand to have access to great outdoor parks and reserves, we have modern recreation facilities and a dedicated group of professionals who are committed to delivering innovative, safe, appropriate and entertaining recreational services.

“The awards are about thanking those people, and recognising those among them who raise the bar, develop original solutions and inspire New Zealanders to get active and healthy,” he said.

New Zealand Recreation Association is a not for profit industry member organisation committed to promoting recreation and providing professional services to the recreation sector.

NZRA represents professionals who work with public swimming pools, parks and open spaces, recreation facilities and recreation programmes. We believe recreation is vital to the wellbeing of New Zealanders.

ENDS

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