The Benefits and Economic Value of Community Recreation: Proposal for an Analytical Framework Based on an Exploratory Study

Abstract

This article presents the results of an exploratory study on the impacts of a program provided by a community recreation centre. The study proposes an analytical framework to assess the impacts of recreation on young people and refers to product and impact concepts developed by Marée (2005). The proposed framework includes dimensions that are sufficiently precise to grasp the impacts of community recreation centres (benefits, savings, impacts on individuals, life settings, and society), yet also sufficiently broad to allow for the evaluation of the impacts of other social endeavours.