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America's youth have long enjoyed the benefits of public playgrounds. The challenges found on a playground are a great asset for the physical, emotional, social and intellectual development of the children at play. Many of today's adults remember hours of fun and adventure spent on the playgrounds of their childhood. But, all too often, these memories are mixed with pain.
It is estimated that every two-and-a-half minutes a child is treated in an emergency room for a playground-related injury. This does not include the children whose injuries receive treatment outside the emergency room. Typically on an average, 15 children die every year simply because they want to play. It shouldn't take a death or debilitating injury for adults to realize that providing safe play environments should be a top priority.
In 1995, the University of Northern Iowa established the National Program for Playground Safety (NPPS) with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Injury Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. Since that time, NPPS has become the premier non-profit organization dealing with playground safety information in the United States.
Program Services Both playground professionals and the public have direct access to an ongoing array of program services. Some of these include:
