Our Co-Founders
Jo Burns - Jo Burns Connects, LLC
Brian Kates - Meadows Community Center, City of Colorado Springs
Barbara Joyce - Professor Emeritus, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
ABOUT US
The Colorado Public Health/Parks & Recreation Collaborative is a group of multi-sector professionals seeking to improve the health of all communities in Colorado through education, connection and collaboration.
Our Global Vision - We want Colorado communities that are healthy, active, happy and safe.
The Colorado PHPR Collaborative utilizes a "collective impact" model as a foundation for our networking collaborative.
The CPHPR Collaborative brings together parks and recreation professionals, state and local public health staff, and community organizations to promote health equity and improve community health through increased access to quality parks and recreational programming.
A Little History: The PHPR Collaborative was born out of a disconnect between parks, recreation and public health, both striving for health in our communities and talking different languages. We connected over the desire to eliminate childhood obesity in Colorado and the conversations and collaborations blossomed from there.
The Colorado Community Center Collaborative (CCCC) was off and running in Colorado Springs working to reduce obesity, teen pregnancy, substance abuse and violence. They brought together recreation, academia, public health nurses and non-profit organizations for a healthy life course.
The CCCC crashed into another recreation professional striving to connect public health, parks and recreation around physical activity, healthy eating and active living. Oh, how the fun conversations started. With the support of Colorado Parks & Recreation Association the group began to grow, share presentations about collaborative programs at conferences and focus discussions around health in our communities.
