Playground Safety
Quick Facts:
- A child is rushed to an emergency room with a playground injury every 2.5 minutes
- More than 200,000 preschool and elementary school children are injured on a playground each year
- On average, a child dies from a preventable injury on our nations playground each month
Playground Safety Campaign
In 2003 the Keenan’s Kids Foundation developed a project aimed at ensuring the safety of Atlanta’s children on city playgrounds. Through this project, the Foundation seeks to establish a basic standard of safety and maintenance for Atlanta’s playgrounds that will reduce needless injuries suffered each year by children at these sites.
In the spring of 2003, the Keenan’s Kids Foundation selected 25 Atlanta metro-area playgrounds from diverse geographic and socio-economic areas to be included in the initial safety report card. With the help and guidance of Dr. Frances Wallach, a leading expert in playground safety for over 30 years and a team of volunteers, KKF evaluated and graded each playground based on several safety standards. Out of the 25 playgrounds that were inspected, all contained serious safety threats.
After completing our initial safety campaign in 2003, The Keenan’s Kids Foundation saw the need to expand the Playground Safety Campaign into an ongoing effort. Every year since, KKF has surveyed new Atlanta area parks for unseen safety hazards and aided in playground repairs as itemized by our volunteer task team with the goal of raising public awareness of safety on playgrounds.