California State Parks, the largest state park system in the country with 280 locations statewide, has announced a new multiyear partnership with The Unity Folks to implement their signature Unity Blaze ROI+ Training Program (Return on Invitation + Unity = Participation & Revenue) for park staff across California, The Unity Folks said in a recent release.
This strategic agreement reinforces a simple but powerful belief: The outdoors is for any and everyone.
While this partnership marks a significant new chapter, it is built on a strong and intentional foundation, The Unity Folks said. For years, California State Parks has been advancing initiatives designed to expand access, representation, and belonging across its system. Programs such as Outdoors for All, the Reexamining Our Past Initiative, the Relevancy & History Program and heritage month celebrations have helped reshape how the department connects with diverse communities across the state.
This next phase — aligned with the department’s broader “Common Ground: Cultivating Unity Across California State Parks” vision — represents the natural evolution of that work, moving from foundational efforts to a scalable, system-wide strategy for invitation and welcome.
The partnership comes at a pivotal moment for the outdoor industry and public land agencies nationwide, The Unity Folks said. While outdoor recreation generates more than $1.2 trillion annually and supports over 5 million U.S. jobs, participation among communities from emerging demographics remains underrepresented relative to their share of the U.S. population.
At the same time, the next phase of growth in visitation, workforce development, stewardship and revenue is expected to come from these emerging audiences. By partnering with The Unity Folks, California State Parks signals a measurable commitment to modernizing invitation strategies, strengthening visitor engagement and building a stronger, more resilient outdoor future.
The initiative represents a strategic investment in data-driven training designed to increase participation, improve the visitor experience and drive long-term sustainability across the park system, The Unity Folks said.
The Unity Blaze ROI+ Training Program equips outdoor professionals with knowledge and practical tools to:
- Understand lived experiences and historical context that shape participation in the outdoor lifestyle
- Improve how staff greet and engage visitors
- Design programs that resonate with new and returning audiences
- Communicate rules and policies in ways that feel clear and welcoming
- Create environments where visitors feel comfortable returning again and again
The training will begin with executive leadership and expand across districts and divisions, ultimately becoming part of the department’s broader training ecosystem — bringing consistency and clarity to how invitation and welcome are delivered statewide.
This effort also aligns with complementary initiatives at California State Parks such as the Waterway Connections Initiative, which aims to expand access to outdoor experiences for communities that have historically lacked meaningful connection to nature.
To date, The Unity Folks said it has trained nearly 10,000 outdoor industry professionals nationwide and partnered with five state governments to deliver Unity Blaze ROI+ Training & Certification Programs, including:
- Indiana Department of Natural Resources
- Arizona State Parks
- Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
- South Carolina State Parks
With California joining the network, the Unity Blaze now reaches America’s largest state park system — accelerating national momentum around data-driven invitation and welcome strategies that drive participation and revenue.
At the center of this work is the Unity Blaze, symbolized by a campfire in The Unity Folks’ logo. The campfire represents invitation, warmth, shared experience and community.
“The campfire has always been a place where stories are shared and strangers become neighbors,” said Earl B. Hunter Jr., founder and president of The Unity Folks. “By partnering with California State Parks, we are expanding a measurable strategy that helps parks better invite and welcome more families, first-time visitors and emerging audiences so they can see themselves here, feel comfortable showing up, become stewards of the land and build their own outdoor memories.”
Unity Blaze Certified Partners display Unity Blaze flags, staff wear Unity Blaze lapel pins and each certified location is added to the Unity Blaze Partner Map, a public resource helping families, campers and adventurers identify outdoor spaces and businesses committed to invitation and welcome, The Unity Folks said. The Unity Blaze is the symbol unifying the outdoors and beyond. When visitors see the Unity Blaze at State Parks and other outdoor destinations, it signifies that they are sincerely invited and welcomed.
As America’s largest state park system, California State Parks’ participation represents more than a partnership. It represents a data-driven commitment to expanding participation, strengthening workforce pipelines, increasing stewardship and building sustainable revenue growth across the outdoor community.
For visitors, the impact is clear:
- More places where the invitation is visible.
- More spaces where the welcome is real.
- More opportunities to create lasting outdoor memories.
About The Unity Folks
Founded in 2019, The Unity Folks is an outdoor-industry strategy-firm and brand ecosystem dedicated to increasing participation, stewardship, workforce development and revenue through data-driven ROI+ strategies. Through its Unity Blaze framework, the firm partners with state parks, government agencies, colleges and universities, and private-sector leaders to create sincere, meaningful, measurable and sustainable growth across the outdoor community and beyond.
