View from My Park Bench – Jesse Enriquez, CTRS

Tell us the View from YOUR Park Bench? What are you looking at as a recreation professional right now?

The figurative view from my park bench is unique because I am a frontline worker providing essential mental health services during an unprecedented global pandemic. This experience has forced me to become more focused and creative in my approach to help our patients reach optimal holistic health outcomes at a time when their mental health is worse than ever. I’ve had to dig deep to help them as best as I can through Recreation Therapy services, while being mindful of my own mental health. I’ve learned a lot about myself both professionally and personally by staying goal oriented and striving to become the positive light that I’d like to see in the world. This approach has shifted my literal view from my park bench as I recently saw my biggest initiative to date start to bear some real tangible progress. I successfully lobbied our corporate office and helped secure the funding to remodel our old and inaccessible  playground and this past week we opened our brand new state of the art playground that has been deemed as a National Demonstration Site for research and data collection.

Who was your mentor and what was the most important thing you learned from him/her?

Allie Thomas is one of my first mentors in the profession. She taught me to find honest silver linings in the most difficult of situations. Marcus Mercer taught me that I have to change myself first before I’ll ever see any real change in the world. Christina Coleman taught me that it’s not easy to make change but that there’s always something to be learned during periods of difficulty.