British Columbia’s SportSafe program was introduced in 1998 to create a safer environment for kids in sport. SportSafe is designed to address safety issues such as harassment and abuse, violence, and sport and recreation injuries. SportSafe resources help clubs, individuals, coaches, volunteers and organizations create a safer environment for sport and recreation.
Positive and safe experiences in sport for children and youth can lead to lifelong participation and/or achievement in sport - which helps them benefit from the important health and social benefits that sport provides. Injury prevention is a collective effort and includes safety practices such as using protective equipment, increasing education and awareness about risks and how to manage them, developing and enforcing sport rules and regulations that promote fairness and safety, having qualified and competent coaches and fitness leaders.
Provincial sport organizations provide information about safety practices for their sport. As well, these websites have information about specific sport and recreation injury prevention:
BC Injury Prevention and Research Unit
Parachute (Canadian Injury Prevention groups such as ThinkFirst, SmartRisk, SafeKids)
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