Birmingham, AL — The National Center for Sports Safety (NCSS) launches the Parent Ambassadors for Sports Safety (PASS) program. PASS, a network for parents, was developed to empower individuals who want to ensure the safety of young athletes because youth safety can not be compromised for a minute, or even a second.
According to the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA), more than half of all sports injuries occur at practice. More than 3.5 million children ages 14 and under receive medical treatment for sports injuries each year according to the National SAFE KIDS campaign. Despite statistics like these and media coverage of the growing injuries in youth sports, athletes and their safety are still at risk. One reason is the lack of sports safety education requirements for coaches, particularly volunteer parent coaches.
Coaches should be sports safety educated so that they are PREPARED to recognize and respond to various situations until professional help arrives. That standard of care is available at every community swimming pool where lifeguards are on duty and on high school, college and professional level football fields where athletic trainers are present. Therefore, we should expect that same level of care for every athlete.
With the goal of raising the standard of care available at every sport facility, the NCSS, in conjunction with NATA, launched PREPARE, an online sports safety education course. PREPARE is aimed at educating coaches on how to prevent common injuries, how to recognize symptoms of potentially dangerous conditions, and how to respond in emergency situations.
“There is not one parent that would drop their child off at a local community pool if there were not a certified lifeguard on duty. That same standard of care should be available for every sports facility in this country,” says Lawrence J. Lemak, M.D., founder of the NCSS.
PASS members will be provided with information and materials needed to communicate the necessity of sports safety. These tools can help motivate local leaders and administrators involved in youth sports to adopt sports safety education. By creating awareness for the need for this education, members will bridge the gap between administrators, coaches, parents and athletes.
Membership is free and benefits include access to the NCSS' National Coaches Registry, a quarterly newsletter aimed at providing valuable information on a number of sport-related topics, a certificate of membership, a car decal, and most importantly, the ability to directly impact the safety of their children and other children in the community.
The NCSS is a non-profit organization founded to promote the importance of injury prevention and safety on all levels of youth sports through education and research.
PREPARE is an online sports safety courses that covers seven key topics including emergency planning; heat and cold illness; emergency recognition; medical conditions; principles of first aid, head, neck and facial injuries and warm-up & cool down. The course cost $28 and upon completion, participants receive a Certificate of Completion, a sports safety patch and their named will be added to the NCSS' National Coaches Registry.
Christy Johnson, Media Coordinator, 205-930-7154, cjohnson@sportssafety.org
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