Regional Parks Equity Tools

Supporting more equitable use of regional parks

Four youth posing in front of pine trees.The Met Council has published three general equity data tools to help support and inform regional parks and trails planning work. Equity means expanding access to opportunity for people of all races, ethnicities, incomes, abilities, and national origins. These tools are designed to help support regional park planning, programming, and operations to advance more equitable use of regional parks and trails.

We want to underscore that alone, no dataset is complete or adequate for advancing regional equity in the regional parks system. These tools need to be paired with community engagement and other qualitative methods to tap into and bring forward the wisdom of community members and groups. We recommend users of these tools recognize these limitations and pursue other, valuable ways of understanding community needs.

Regional Parks and Trails Equity Tool

Regional Parks and Trails Equity Tool

Provides an interactive interface to explore demographic data to help make choices on regional park agency planning, outreach, programming, and research. It is available for anyone who wants detailed information about demographic and housing data surrounding existing and future regional parks and trails. We encourage its use in completion of the Equity Analysis Requirement for park and trail master plans (PDF, Question 1 Project Data).

Dataset and user guide on place-based equity

Dataset and user guide on place-based equity

These materials offer guidance for place-based equity research best practices and general (not parks-specific) data about place-based racial equity in the region.

Parks Equity Toolkit

Parks Equity Toolkit

A series of questions that regional park implementing agencies answer to clarify how proposed park and trail projects advance equity. It represents some of the earlier work with regional park implementing agencies and community partners to advance equitable use of the regional parks system.