Exploring Community Capacities and Outdoor Recreation Grant Funding
Abstrak
Rural communities face significant challenges in accessing outdoor recreation grants. This funding, often used for infrastructure and maintenance of community assets like trails, plays a crucial role in enhancing economic development, promoting tourism, and fostering community well-being. This study investigated the relationship between geography, community characteristics, and municipal capacities and outdoor recreation grants in Maine from 2020-2024. Using a mixed-methods approach, grant data as well as interviews with municipal leaders were analyzed. We found that ATV grants were distinct, favoring inland communities with lower median incomes, while professional parks and recreation staff capacity influenced other outdoor recreation grants. Municipal capacity was also related to grant success. The findings identified differences in grant funding distribution, as well as barriers and opportunities to increase community access to outdoor recreation grants. These results offer strategies for targeted capacity building and equitable funding distribution.
Penulis (5)
Jessica Leahy
Kathleen P. Bell
Vanessa R. Levesque
Eileen Johnson
Kaleigh Kogler
Akses Cepat
- Tahun Terbit
- 2025
- Bahasa
- en
- Sumber Database
- Semantic Scholar
- DOI
- 10.18666/jpra-2025-13141
- Akses
- Open Access ✓