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The Interpretation and Education Program
provides key strategies for providing experience, revealing
meaning, establishing relevance, and connecting people and
communities to their national heritage. This is the time for
all Interpreters to carefully examine program goals and needs,
to share ideas, and to participate in setting the course for
the future.
The Centennial Interpretation and Education
Renaissance is the NPS commitment to build on and evolve existing
success. The Renaissance is field generated. It adjusts to
circumstances, evolves, and acts through the contributions
of interpretation and education practitioners at all levels
of the organization. The Renaissance is approved and sponsored
by the NPS senior leadership. The Renaissance gives managers
and practitioners the resources, training, and both short
and long term strategies and actions to: engage the diversity
of all audiences, encourage visitors access to personal meanings
and park experiences through the use of emerging technologies,
multiply the effects of interpretation and education by facilitating
the development and delivery of interpretation and education
services and products by partners, articulate a measurable
and accountable direct connection to NPS mission by creating
core function and performance standards, and continually improve
interpretation and education services and products through
innovation, experimentation, and evaluation based decision
making.
- The survival of the National Park System
in the 21st Century depends on how it interacts with society.
- Since 1950 our population has grown
from 152 million to 299 million people and is predicted
to double by 2050. In spite of this, recreational visits
to national parks have remained almost constant since 1990
and we have severely reduced the workforce assigned to serve
park visitors.
- Approximately 75% of the US population
lives in urban and suburban areas. People are becoming increasingly
separated from the natural landscape and children are often
more inclined to play indoors than go outside.
- Minority groups represent an ever growing
place in the population—we are becoming a minority
majority nation. However, park visitation and park staff
do not reflect the face of America.
- Advances in technology have changed
the way Americans communicate, find community, learn and
think—yet NPS interpretive media are outdated by an
average of 20 years.
- The work of conservation has changed
as well. It is impossible to build walls around ecosystems
and expect them to survive. The very existence of parks
depends on an American public who values their collective
natural and cultural heritage and wants to preserve it.
Yet many fear society is becoming less civically engaged,
less committed to community, shared values, and an understanding
of the lessons of the past.
Pillars or Tenets of the I &
E Renaissance:
- Engage All People To Make Enduring Connections
To America’s Special Places
- Use New Technologies
- Embrace Strategic Interpretation and
Education Partners
- Develop and Implement Professional Standards
- Create a Culture of Evaluation
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