About Miami-Dade Parks

• Purpose:To deliver health, happiness, and prosperity to residents and visitors to parks.
• Mission: We create outstanding Recreational, Natural and Cultural experiences to enrich you and enhance the quality of life for our community for this and future generations.
• Vision: Connecting people and parks for life.

Core Values
Customer Focus
Placing customer needs first and exceeding expectations.

Integrity
Honesty and accountability in all our work and interactions.

Leadership
Strong leadership with a focus on trust, collaboration and ethical behavior.

Innovation
P.R.I.D.E. culture of continuous learning and improvement, creating the environment that is open to new ideas and solutions.

Inclusiveness
providing equal access to park and recreation opportunities for the most vulnerable in our communities: kids, the elderly, and people with disabilities.

Stewardship
caring for parks, facilities, and natural resources through responsible conservation management, operations and stewardship education.

Teamwork
working together and helping each other successfully achieve our goals.

Excellence
commitment to excellence through a focus on workforce and operational leadership to achieve the highest quality of results.

PRIDE (Parks and Recreation Improving the Delivery of Excellence) is the culture of how we conduct business at Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces (PROS) that embraces a “passion for excellence”. It is about continuous learning and improvement that drives us to be the best and maintain a competitive advantage based on our core values of excellence, leadership, teamwork, customer focus, integrity, innovation, inclusiveness and stewardship.

P.R.I.D.E. Programs Include:
Sterling Leadership Program (SLP)
Implemented to sustain this culture of continuous improvement, the PRIDE Sterling Leadership Program (SLP) is an exciting leadership opportunity designed to identify and develop employees who are interested in participating in future leadership of the department by being mentored to become PROS ambassadors, participate and contribute to critical Department-wide strategic objectives. Employees who are selected to participate in PRIDE SLP will do so over a minimum of 12 months, and will be paired with someone from Management, who will act as their mentor. This mentor will provide them with coaching and advice to assist them in developing their administrative, management and leadership skills while providing them a better understanding of department-wide goals. PRIDE participants will be expected to dedicate an average of 16 hours per month to work side by side with their mentor. Employees who are selected to participate in PRIDE will contribute to the department’s success in various areas including Placemaking, Health & Fitness, Conservation & Stewardship, Sustainability and Performance Excellence.

Employee and Volunteer Recognitions
Miami-Dade County’s Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces (PROS) department operates a robust employee recognition program guided by Administrative Order 7-30. The initiative aims to motivate staff by highlighting outstanding service, teamwork, volunteers and multi-year career milestones on both the departmental and countywide levels.

Key Recognition Categories

• Quarterly Honorees: PROS recognizes standout individuals and groups, including the Employee of the Supervisor of, Volunteer of and Team of the Quarter
• Service Awards: Personnel receive milestone recognition every five years. Thirty-year service awards are presented at Board of County Commission committee meetings
• Special Recognition Increases: Department directors can nominate qualified staff for additional pay steps and formal recognition

Job Explore
The Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces (PROS) Job Explore provides park employees with the opportunity to shadow park professionals colleagues at various park sites and facilities. Through hands-on observation and interaction with experienced staff, participants gain valuable insight into the daily responsibilities, career pathways and essential services that park professionals provide to the community. This experience offers a unique behind-the-scenes look at park operations, recreation programming, environmental stewardship, customer service and public space management, helping individuals explore potential careers while learning how PROS enhances the quality of life for Miami-Dade County residents and visitors.

Miami-Dade County Parks is supported by The Parks Foundation of Miami-Dade a non-profit 501(c)3 organization supporting the Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department's efforts to further develop Miami-Dade County's world-class parks system for residents and visitors.

Its mission is to create a healthier, more livable and sustainable Miami community by ensuring the implementation of the Parks Open Space Master Plan and the development of year-round park and recreation programs for local children, adults and people with disabilities

In 2008, three of Miami-Dade County's largest public parks-Tropical, Tamiami and Goulds began providing free wireless service to residents and visitors as part of a pilot program. Since then, over 100,000 users have logged on. Due to the success of this pilot program, wireless service will be included in select future parks and in some parks being upgraded.

The success of the pilot program has reinforced the goal of Wireless Miami-Dade - to create an environment that is technologically appealing to residents, visitors and businesses; to establish and maintain a sense of community safety; and to reach out to underserved residents. So far, we've concentrated on providing municipal Wi-Fi to residents to shrink the economic obstacles associated with access and deployment. But, more importantly, we want to improve residents' experiences when utilizing County services. So, we began to ask ourselves: what else makes sense today?

Based on our successful pilot program, we decided to expand our pilot to Metrorail and Metrobus. Since the pilot launch, wireless access has improved the transit experience for commuters, transit workers and has been an added convenience for the residents of Miami-Dade County. Wireless routers have been installed on four coaches serving a total of 20 trains throughout the entire rail network and in two 95 Express Buses.

Today, riders can hop on a train or bus, and check e-mails, read the newspaper online, or just surf the web on laptops, hand held devices, Kindles and iPads - for free - before they even arrive at the office. It's all about convenience and making the Miami-Dade transit experience better.

We're moving forward… embracing new technology and improving service for our residents.

Miami-Dade Parks began as a Division of the County Road and Bridge Department in 1929, planting trees along our community's highways. A.D. Barnes, a leader in the National Parks, Recreation and Open Space movement, persuaded Commodore Matheson to donate 80 acres of land for, the first county park, Matheson Hammock Park.

Miami-Dade Parks now manages more than 13,500 acres and has more than 280 parks, recreational facilities and greenways. It continues to provide outstanding recreational facilities and programming to more than 2.5 million residents and visitors, making it one of the nation’s largest and busiest leisure service agencies.

A three-time national Gold medal winner for excellence in Parks administration, it is the only municipal park system of its size to be awarded National Accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Parks, Recreation and Open Space Agencies.

Heritage Parks
Parks are significant assets of a community's heritage. They are places of social and cultural gatherings, places of nature's beauty and places where we simply play.

In Miami-Dade, we have 75 years of parks that have enriched our lives and environment. Miami-Dade Parks is proud to preserve that heritage. We have designated seven parks that have played a vital role in this community's history, environment and recreational and cultural experiences.