By 1998, many public elementary playgrounds in Hawai‘i had been closed due to safety concerns. In the years since, many state agencies and community organizations have responded to the need to raise awareness about playground safety, replace unsafe playground equipment, and build new playgrounds for the children of Hawai‘i. Efforts to provide safer environments have included the following:
The Injury Prevention and Control Program (IPCP) co-sponsored playground safety training (i.e., National Parks and Recreation Association (NPRA) and National Program for Playground Safety (NPPS)) for state and county agencies, the military and childcare facilities.
The Department of Education (Facilities and Support Services Branch) led the planning and installation of new playgrounds in almost every public elementary school statewide.
The City and County of Honolulu installed playgrounds for parks island-wide.
The IPCP participated in a strong collaborative model for building and maintaining a safe play environment for children, to serve as a guide for other community-built playgrounds statewide. With the support of other partners involved in the project, the IPCP produced Honowai: Creating a Community-Built Playground, a resource guide with step-by-step instructions and lessons learned from the Honowai Project.
Since completion of the project, IPCP staff has continued to work with other agencies, providing education to teachers and early child development personnel as well as sharing the community-built model with interested communities both in Hawai‘i and in other states.
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