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Fairfax County Park Authority pilot lowers fees and uses outreach to boost camp equity, survey shows cost main barrier
Summary
FCPA presented a Sully Community Center sliding-fee pilot that increased nonwhite participation to 92% at the pilot site and a countywide survey of 2,400 respondents showing cost, distance and familiarity limit access to parks and recreation; staff will return in January with implementation options.
The Fairfax County Park Authority told supervisors on Oct. 15 that a sliding-fee pilot at Sully Community Center and a countywide outreach survey identified cost, distance and awareness as the main barriers keeping underrepresented households from park programs.
Jay Cole, FCPA executive director, said the authority began structured equity work in 2020 and used FY23 consultant funding to test hypotheses about fee reliance and participation. "Our recreational services are too expensive for some residents," Cole said, adding that fee-based recreation skews participation toward wealthier, whiter residents compared with general fund programs.
Sarah Baldwin, deputy director, described the Sully summer 2023 pilot: the Park Authority and Neighborhood and Community Services (NCS) implemented a sliding fee scale, provided transportation to summer campers and offered hands-on enrollment assistance in targeted neighborhoods. Baldwin said Sully’s pilot produced a very different racial composition than typical FCPA camps: "When you look at the Sully pilot, 92 percent of the individuals that were enrolled in the pilot were non white," compared with 34% nonwhite in FCPA camps generally.
Deidreya Grayson, division director for marketing and communications, summarized a brief February–April 2024 survey of 2,400 respondents. She said cost was the top participation barrier for households with incomes of about $75,000 or less, while distance and lack of familiarity were especially important barriers for Hispanic/Latino and Black households. Grayson also said swim programming appears to be a high-entry opportunity to broaden participation.
Board members asked for follow-up data — including current membership breakdowns, how many users take advantage of discounts or scholarships and the exact Sully sliding-fee schedule — and debated short- and long-term tradeoffs between expanding transportation and building more facilities. Staff said the primary cost driver for the Sully pilot was the revenue loss from the sliding fee scale; transportation leveraged existing busing programs and NCS staff supported outreach.
Cole said FCPA will return in January with a more detailed implementation plan outlining outreach, transportation and fee strategies. Supervisors and staff agreed many elements can be scaled in phased steps, starting with replicable outreach and enrollment assistance while the Park Authority and county consider longer-term facility or transit investments.
The committee did not vote on any items; staff committed to supply membership and fee-scale data requested by supervisors and to present an implementation plan in January.
