About us - Peoria Park District

The oldest park district in Illinois, the Peoria Park District encompasses nearly 60 square miles. The value we provide to the community can be found in the ease of access to our parks and recreational programs.

We are proud to be able to provide access to the great outdoors through our parks system and nature centers that host more than 50 miles of hiking and biking trails in and around Peoria.

Our variety of events and facilities throughout our community will keep you engaged and active. Glen Oak Park is home to Peoria Zoo, Peoria PlayHouse Children’s Museum and Luthy Botanical Garden. Throughout the District, we host all kinds of sports including softball, soccer, volleyball, tennis and more while Owens Center offers ice skating year-round! Annually, hundreds of concerts, festivals and special events are featured on the Peoria RiverFront and in our parks, in addition to fun activities at Franciscan, Lakeview, Logan and Proctor Recreation Centers. And, of course, the RiverPlex, our state of the art, medically-based fitness center focuses on healthy and active lifestyles.

The Peoria Park District… there’s more to explore!

The District operates with a full-time staff of 144 people (consisting of administrators, recreation programmers, police and facility maintenance personnel). In the summer and during other peak-activity periods, the Park District employs more than 1,400 people to fill part-time jobs. The staff at every level is extremely service-oriented, responding to the needs of the community.

Executive Staff:

Our Mission

We contribute to healthy and vibrant communities by responsibly using our resources to offer high quality parks, recreation, and education experiences to those who live, work, or play in our District.

Our Vision

Building on our commitment to our PRAISE model for customer service, we agree to uphold the following values in our work. We will be:

Professional: well-trained and proficient at all levels of our organization.
Respectful: considerate of others and honest in our interactions; focused on opportunities for collaboration.
Accountable: transparent and responsible for our decisions and their short- term and long-term impact on our District, our community, and our environment.
Innovative: open to new approaches that achieve better outcomes and that make our District more financially secure while promoting sustainability of our resources; as we support innovation, we will prioritize environmentally sensitivity in all of our activities.
Safe: proactive in providing safe spaces and places for those who work, learn or play in our District parks and facilities.
Equitable: focused on equitable access to parks, facilities, and programs that promote healthy and active lifestyles across our diverse community, while also prioritizing a workforce, both internally and through collaboration and contracting, that looks like the communities we serve.

Founded in 1894, our Peoria Park District was the first park district formed in the state and as the oldest district in Illinois, we are proud to serve our community and set the standard for what park districts should be across Illinois…. and across the country.

Our mission at the Peoria Park District is to contribute to healthy and vibrant communities by responsibly using our resources to offer high quality parks, recreation, and education experiences to those who live, work, or play in our District.

Parks and recreation are powerful. They impact you…. and me…. and us…. every single day, giving energy and support to all parts of our community. As with anything that has impact, our power must be focused to have a positive effect on those we serve. Our District has worked to prioritize our initiatives so that we can be the best stewards of the incredible resources we are charged with activating.

VIBRANCY.
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND ACCESSIBILITY.

Each of these principals serve as lenses through which both strategy and daily operations are evaluated and conducted in order to focus our work.

Within our three documents below, we lay out our commitment to progress in these areas, along with the strategies that we will allocate staff and financial resources to address.

Because of the volatility and transiency of the world we currently live in, our staff and elected board of trustees have determined that it is most impactful to build out annual action plans based on these commitments. Our progress is tracked monthly and reported out to the community at least quarterly.

Commitment to Vibrancy

Commitment to Environmental Sustainability

Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility

The Peoria Park District is committed to shaping a vibrant, inclusive, and sustainable community. Click below to explore our 2025-2027 Strategic Plan and discover the meaningful impact we achieved in 2024.

2025-2027 Strategic Plan

2024 Strategic Plan Review- Shortform 2024 Strategic Plan Review

In addition to strategy around our commitments and the way we support our community with programs, the District also needs a clear, consistent process for the spaces and places where that work most often takes place. To that end, our dedicated staff and Board have worked to develop an agile, engaging framework to guide the way we approach planning around development of park space to meet the needs of our changing community.

Accepted by the Board of Trustees in February 2023, our Implementation Guiding Principles provide a process for how we look at everything from public-private partnership opportunities to creation of new park amenities and experiences.

Implementation Guiding Principles

With over 60 square miles, we have a vast inventory of PDF maps. Whether you’re looking for park maps, trail maps, voting districts and more, we have a map for you! All our PPD maps are hosted on our Planning website, so click the button below to check them out.

PPD Maps Interactive Map

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