Community Collaboration - Experience Pass Program

The Experience Pass Program was a three month pilot project focused on expanding access to community activities by reducing financial barriers. Free entrance passes to seven area museum, art and recreation organizations were available to Rochester Public Library visitors. Passes were available to check out in Children’s Services and on the Bookmobile. Library staff created a system to randomly release the passes throughout the week to ensure fair access. Customers that checked out passes had 7 days to redeem the passes at partner organizations and were limited to checking out passes from one organization per day. To promote the program and our partner organizations, the Rochester Public Library offered four special educational programs in partnership with Rochester Civic Theatre, Chester Woods Park, Heritage House Museum of Rochester and Rochester Art Center in the library auditorium. Two partner organizations had to change their commitments to the program. Minnesota Children’s Museum, Rochester was unable to provide the in-kind support outlined in their letter of support, so they dropped from the program in March. Hadley Creek Golf Course found that the utilization of passes at their facility was creating a hardship, so they asked to be dropped from the program after the 8th week (reimbursement for Rochester Parks and Recreation was adjusted to reflect this change). RPL contacted Heritage House Museum of Rochester in March and they generously agreed to partner with us on the program. They opened their museum earlier in the year in order to better accommodate our timeline. Six family passes (for six people each) were available for six weeks of the program at a discount of 50%. 3 Family Passes (5 People Each Pass) Per Week from the Rochester Area Family YMCA (Total Family Passes 36 for up to 180 individuals) 4 Adult Passes & 6 Children Passes Per Week from the History Center of Olmsted County (Total Program Passes 120) 4 Vehicle Passes Per Week from Chester Woods Park (Total Program Passes 48) 5 Adult Passes & 5 Children Passes Per Week from the Rochester Art Center (Total Program Passes 120) 1 Adult Pass & 1 Child Pass Per Week from Hadley Creek Golf Course through the Rochester Park and Recreation Department (Total Program Passes 24) 4 Skating Passes and 4 Swimming Passes Per Week from Rochester Recreation Center through the Rochester Park and Recreation Department (Total Program Passes 96) 4 General Passes Per 4 Shows from the Rochester Civic Theatre (Total Program Passes 16) In addition to the free day passes available to area museums, art centers and recreation facilities, RPL hosted four educational programs developed to complement and promote the Experience Pass Program. During the 12-week program timeline, representatives from four of the partners presented one-hour programming in RPL’s auditorium. The programs highlighted aspects of a partnering organization such as fitness, nature, art, theater, etc. RPL Staff developed reading lists and purchased new materials to complement the Experience Pass Program.