"Virtually impossible without Hub, the way it's set up now."

Parks Tacoma Uses ACTIVE Hub to Turn Data Into Action

For more than a century, Parks Tacoma has served the Tacoma, Washington, community with a mission centered on access, equity, and community well-being. As an independent metropolitan park district established in 1909, the organization provides programs, services, and spaces that enrich the lives of residents across the region.

The Challenge

Like many organizations, Parks Tacoma had access to large amounts of operational data but struggled to turn that information into timely insights. Analyzing community center usage required staff to manually extract data and manipulate it through Excel and Power BI. The process was labor-intensive, time-consuming, and often made comprehensive analysis difficult when leadership needed answers quickly.

As reporting needs grew, the team needed a more efficient way to access, organize, and analyze data across memberships, programs, financial operations, and facility usage.

The Solution

Parks Tacoma implemented ACTIVE Hub as the foundation of a comprehensive data strategy. By combining Hub data with Power BI dashboards, the organization created a centralized reporting framework that provides visibility into critical areas of the business, including:

• Membership statistics and risk tracking
• Activity enrollment monitoring
• Front desk operations
• Financial auditing, including overdue payments, charge matrices, and financial assistance usage
• Community center utilization, including memberships, activity participation, drop-in visits, and room usage

The result was a streamlined reporting environment that made trusted data readily available to staff and leadership.

Turning Data Into Confident Decisions

ACTIVE Hub’s value became especially clear when Parks Tacoma faced budget planning discussions that required evaluating community center operating hours.

Leadership needed accurate data to understand usage patterns and assess the potential impact of any changes. Using ACTIVE Hub data connected to Power BI dashboards, Ava Jakusovszky developed visual reports that revealed:

• Peak visitation times across community centers
• Usage trends among key demographic groups, including youth and seniors
• Historical patterns that helped model the impact of potential schedule adjustments

The dashboards showed that community centers experienced peak visitation at 9 a.m. in both 2025 and 2026, providing valuable insight into how residents were utilizing facilities.

Instead of scrambling to gather information from multiple sources, leadership had access to clear, reliable data that supported informed discussions and recommendations for both executive leadership and the parks board.

The Impact

ACTIVE Hub has helped Parks Tacoma shift from reactive reporting to proactive decision-making. Staff spend less time building reports and more time analyzing trends, answering strategic questions, and supporting organizational goals.

What once felt nearly impossible is now part of the organization's everyday workflow.

"Virtually impossible without Hub, the way it's set up now." – Amy Johnson, Parks Tacoma

By centralizing data and making insights more accessible, ACTIVE Hub has empowered Parks Tacoma to make faster, smarter decisions that better serve its community.