Parks and Recreation Ontario Awards
The Parks and Recreation Ontario Awards program recognizes and honours the achievements of people that contribute to the advancement of parks and recreation to enhance quality of life. These highly coveted provincial awards include recognition for communities, individuals, students and agencies.
2024 Awards
Awards applications for 2024 will open in November 2023. Please check back here for more information. Note that only current PRO members can nominate award recipients. If you have any questions please email pro@prontario.org.
Recreation Awards
Access and Equity
The Access and Equity Award recognizes individuals, organizations, and municipalities that champion equitable access to parks and recreation services through advocacy, infrastructure, and/or programming. Award recipients have demonstrated improved access for equity seeking groups.
Operational Excellence
The Operational Excellence Award recognizes the contributions of individuals, teams, and organizations in developing innovative or unique approaches to efficiently and effectively meeting a community’s needs. This can include programming, special events, marketing, evaluation, research, and human resource management.
Park or Facility Design
This award is presented for completed projects that demonstrate excellence in design of recreation and/or park facilities intended for public use. The park or facility must showcase uniqueness, innovation, and creativity for recreation use. Award applicants must demonstrate that they engaged in public consultation to determine the scope of the project and how the project was able to meet their community’s needs. Eligible projects include new builds and retrofits.
Emerging Leader Award
This award recognizes the outstanding achievements and accomplishments of a professional in the early stages of their career as a leader, instructor, supervisor, administrator, consultant, or a combination of these in the field of parks and recreation. Applicants must have between five and ten years of full-time employment in the sector and may apply at any stage in life.
HIGH FIVE Champion – Individual
The HIGH FIVE Champion Award is presented to an individual who has shown exceptional dedication to the HIGH FIVE principles in their organization. It recognizes the work done by the individual to support implementation and honours their commitment to ensuring the well-being of children. Applications should demonstrate the achievements of the individual in all four areas of the HIGH FIVE framework: training and development; program assessment; policies and procedures; and awareness.
HIGH FIVE Champion – Organization
The HIGH FIVE Champion Award recognizes organizations that are implementing the HIGH FIVE Quality Standard in a unique and innovative way. The Award honours their dedication to children’s health and their efforts to ensure quality programming. Applications and nominations should demonstrate how HIGH FIVE has been implemented at all levels of the organization, demonstrating a cultural shift and child-focused approach to developing and delivering children’s programs.
Bob Secord Leadership Award
Established in honour of the late Bob Secord, known to the sector as “Mr. Recreation,” PRO recognizes one college and one university student enrolled in their final year of full-time or part-time study in a recreation-related course of study. Recipients will have demonstrated positive attributes and leadership skills in the parks and recreation sector through their academic, employment, and voluntary pursuits. Recipients will receive a complimentary registration to the 2023 PRO Educational Forum and Trade Show and a one-year PRO membership.
NOTE: To be considered for this award, students must be nominated by a placement supervisor or faculty member.
Hugh Clydesdale Bursary
This annual monetary bursary is awarded to a promising female parks and recreation post-secondary or post-graduate student or practitioner in Ontario to pursue professional development or their education. This Bursary is funded by the City of Toronto: Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division.
Aquatics Awards
Access and Equity
The Access and Equity Award recognizes individuals, organizations, and municipalities that champion equitable access to parks and recreation services through their programming. Award recipients have demonstrated improved access for equity seeking groups.
Chair’s award
Aquatics Facility Design
This award is presented for completed projects that demonstrate excellence in design of aquatics facilities intended for public use. The facility must showcase uniqueness, innovation, and creativity. Award applicants must demonstrate that they engaged in public consultation to determine the scope of the project and how the project was able to meet their community’s needs. Eligible projects include new builds and retrofits.
Emerging Leader
This award recognizes the outstanding achievements and accomplishments of a professional in the early stages of their career as a leader, instructor, supervisor, administrator, consultant, or a combination of these in aquatics. Applicants must have between five and ten years of full-time employment in the sector and may apply at any stage in life. The candidate will have the qualities and skills needed to hold a leadership position in the public, private or not-for-profit sector.