Access to Recreation in Rural Communities: Municipal Recreation’s Approaches to Supporting Citizens Living with Low Incomes

Abstract

Rural communities often have fewer resources and supports to cultivate recreation participation, making participation in recreation less accessible for citizens with low incomes. Such barriers highlight the important role rural recreation practi-tioners have in terms of developing and delivering access provisions for these citi-zens. The objectives of this study are as follows: 1) explore the access provisions recreation practitioners design and deliver to rural citizens with low incomes, and 2) discuss the implications of the access provisions in relation to the rural con-text and citizens with low incomes’ participation in recreation. This paper focuses on research conducted in 2019-2020 in Atlantic Canada. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 16 municipal recreation practitioners. Through the social ecological framework, the results revealed three access provi-sions designed for and delivered to rural citizens with low incomes: 1) one-on-one support for programmatic processes; 2) flexibility with financial policies and programs; and 3) building reach, relevancy, and capacity: the role of community partnerships. Based on these findings, this study addresses the benefits of these provisions in terms of supporting access to recreation for citizens with low in-comes residing in rural communities. Considering the rural landscape, we recom-mend access provisions in rural communities encompass more personal, flexible, and community approaches to support access to recreation for citizens of limited financial means.