Recreation Aotearoa highlight support offered by outdoor providers during COVID-19 crisis

Recreation Aotearoa advise looking to New Zealand’s outdoors, keeping health balanced and highlight that outdoor providers and schools are monitoring daily updates to advice and conditions. At this time of unrest, they are “extending allegiance to all their communities.”

The Outdoor Education Sector is a group with substantial history of risk management all while keeping focus on the health and wellbeing of clients.

Recreation Aotearoa’s work is concerned with building communities, growing young people, developing resilience and supporting healthy lives. They are ready to tailor solutions to help.

The benefit of the diversity in the offer, location and delivery from these outdoor and recreation organisations is their ability to adapt and continue.

In a statement released today, Recreation Aotearoa advise “We reach out to Auckland region as local council announce the two-week closure of their facilities. Let’s look to the outdoors and keep our health balanced.

“Recreation Aotearoa members including those working with school and community groups want to highlight our openness to working with groups to deliver the educational outcomes through many different models such as smaller groups, delivery at schools or locations of their choice.

“That may mean support relief teaching, providing exercise, time out in the local park, in-school leadership, adventure therapy, social and emotional development and so on.

“While there is so much disruption to our world, when you look around, you see people using recreation and seeking nature to reset, keep the balance and smile.”

The providers, all Recreation Aotearoa affiliated, have developed their own appropriate procedures for dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak. These groups are monitoring the various sources of information, WHO, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and the wider media and adapting their procedures as new information becomes available to maximise the safety of participants and the wider community.

Image: Rotorua Redwoods Treewalk