Vaughan's Recreation and Culture app wins award for innovation
Free RecApp receives 2015 Parks and Recreation Ontario Innovation Award
A City of Vaughan mobile app – called RecApp that offers up-to-date community leisure information – recently received a 2015 Parks and Recreation Ontario (PRO) Award of Excellence for Innovation. The award recognizes exceptional innovation in design, presentation and implementation in the province’s parks and recreation field.
Recognizing that a majority of Canadians are smartphone users, the City’s Recreation and Culture department invested in the mobile app as a way to provide residents and visitors with the most current information about programs, activities and events. The app is accessible on both iOS and Android devices.
The RecApp, which has more than 13,000 users, has a number of features:
- Integration with Vaughan’s interactive Recreation eGuide with links to online registration
- Swim, aquafitness, fitness, sports, skating and shinny hockey schedules and facility information, as well as trail systems and park locations with GPS mapping
- Event information and photo galleries
- Social media integration and Vaughan news feed
The success of the app has led to a 180 per cent increase in activity on the Recreation and Culture social media sites, a 50 per cent increase in youth participation in youth week and youth arts week activities, and a 35 per cent increase in resident attendance at special events.
The PRO award comes a few months after the Learning Resources Network (LERN), the world’s largest continuing education organization, named the City’s Recreation and Culture department the top winner for its marketing practices among lifelong learning providers.
The RecApp is available for free download at vaughan.ca/RecApp. For more information, contact the Recreation and Culture department at 905-832-8500 or email rec@vaughan.ca.