Play and Words – Taking the Stage for High Performance Recreation & Library Partnerships

Session Description: Recreation Departments and Libraries are both integral to community quality of life, with a natural overlap between services provided and populations served. However, recreation operations and facility management practices often are very different from those of their library counterparts – creating rich opportunities for joint facilities that increase service, expand capacity, and enhance connections. The new joint use City of Yorba Linda Library and Arts Center opened in 2021 and by its very existence has broken out of traditional public service silos by strengthening the community through new partnerships and new models of service. Taking a community first – customer perspective, it is already delivering results.

Session participants will learn about how this 2022 CPRS award winning facility is operating in a new highly collaborative service and operational model. Just as important as what goes on inside, is the approach to what goes on outside, with shared parking and multiple outdoor rooms, as well as new linkages to revitalized town center retail and entertainment district. We will explore how this partnership helped facilitate the opening during the pandemic and what has worked and is still in progress.