Taking them to task: Baltimore adds 100 new playgrounds to the city through a playground task force.

Today, children can swing through the air or slide to the ground on more than 100 safer play areas thanks to a special task force aimed at improving the conditions of Baltimore's parks, school lots and playgrounds.

"Playgrounds are an essential part of any community" says Mayor Martin O'Malley. "That's why it gives us great pride to be able to say that Baltimore's playgrounds are more attractive, more self-contained and safer than ever before."

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, at least 15 children die annually on public playgrounds. Playground injuries send some 200,000 children to hospital emergency rooms each year. More than 70 percent of these injuries occur on public playgrounds.

The most common cause of injury is falls to the surface below playground equipment. Other injuries result from strangulation by entanglement or head entrapment, impact of moving equipment and contact with sharp edges. During the last five years, Baltimore has made significant progress in keeping children safe on public playgrounds.

Creating Safer Play Areas

In 2000, O'Malley recruited representatives from Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks, Baltimore City Public School System, the Police Athletic League, Housing and Community Development and the Mayor's Commission on Disabilities. Non-profit representatives included the Neighborhood Design Center, Safe and Sound, Build, the Parks and People Foundation, and local early childhood and public health specialists. The group became known as the Playground Task Force.

"The goal of the task force was simple" explains O'Malley. "Every child in the city of Baltimore should have access to safer playgrounds."

By combining experts in recreation and leisure, neighborhood planning, ADA standards, health, playground design and safety, early childhood development, community outreach and fundraising, the task force development became more than an opportunity to provide safer playgrounds. It became an opportunity to expand the city's outdoor play spaces, which would encourage creative play, attract families and ultimately, become the focus of the community, says O'Malley.

During the winter of 2000, the task force convened to study the safety issues and the renovation needs of Baltimore's playgrounds. Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks' staff conducted a survey that found more than 50 percent of Baltimore's playgrounds needed renovations to meet the Consumer Product Safety Commission's guidelines and to comply with ADA laws.

The task force met about six times that year to develop a strategy for building safer playgrounds. They recommended the development of a city-wide playground network. Elementary schools would have playground areas, which included structures and spaces that encouraged interaction with nature. The second network of playgrounds would be established in parks to provide clusters of outdoor recreational facilities.

"The two-tier network was an instrumental tool in creating a system of citywide neighborhood playgrounds," says Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks' Capital Development Division Design Planner, Mary Porter.

Sites were selected for renovation funding based upon a defined playground criteria and a presentation made by sponsoring communities or schools, according to Porter. Priority was based upon the number of children served at each location as well as the condition of existing equipment.

Following site selection, the Department of Recreation and Parks' Capital Development Division worked with communities to design the equipment, develop construction drawings and manage the construction process. By May 2001, 49 sites were completed.

Playing Safe

The two-tier system called for 20 playground renovations annually at an estimated cost of $4 million per year. The task force was committed to competing for grants and raising public and private funds from city, state, local businesses and non-profit foundations.

"We [the Neighborhood Design Center] recognized that the need for safer playgrounds was far greater than what was being built" said the Executive Director of the Neighborhood Design Center, Mark Cameron. "This need lead to the development of the Playing Safe initiative."

During the late 1990s, the Neighborhood Design Center conducted a survey of more than 140 playgrounds sites. They found that a majority of those playgrounds were built on unsafe asphalt or concrete surfaces that posed safety risks to children. Playing Safe--a community-based safety initiative--was born out of the need to provide safer outdoor places for Baltimore's youth.

The group was comprised of the Neighborhood Design Center, the Safe and Sound Campaign, the local chapter of the International Facility Management Association, the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Civic Works and many local community-based organizations.

"Playing Safe was instrumental in helping to raise awareness of playground safety in Baltimore City and raising the bar of expectations of parents, administrators, teachers and community members," says Cameron.

Following the survey, a Request for Proposals (RFP) was sent out to community groups to apply for playground design and funding assistance. The Department of Recreation and Parks followed up with community meetings to revise designs and complete construction drawings.

The Neighborhood Design Center, through Playing Safe, raised more than $900,000 in public and private funds to rebuild nine playgrounds across the city. The work of the Playing Safe coalition, says Cameron, was a catalyst for the new administration to develop the task force.

With the development of the Playground Task Force, the Playing Safe program was eventually phased out. The program was no longer needed, according to Cameron, because the Department of Recreation and Parks was doing such a tremendous job with renovating or rebuilding playgrounds.

"We set an example and Recreation and Parks took the lead," explains Cameron. The Neighborhood Design Center, a group of volunteers and staff, support grassroots initiatives that improve the quality-of-life in local neighborhoods. They have continued to support communities in thinking about effective uses of open space and public parks.

Boundless Playgrounds

According to the U.S. Health & Human Services, more than six million children in the U.S. have some type of disability that makes it hard or impossible for them to play on traditional playgrounds.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), which established standards for public playgrounds, provides extensive guidelines, including details of design, materials and the spacing of play elements. In addition to general safety requirements, public playgrounds also had to meet the accessibility guidelines developed by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Among other accessibility needs, the act requires that ground surfaces have accessible routes, clear floor or ground spaces, and maneuvering spaces within play areas.

"In order to comply with the safety and accessibility guidelines, most playgrounds built before 1985 had to be completely removed and replaced" says the Executive Director of the Mayor's Commission on Disabilities, Dr. Nollie P. Wood, Jr. "By aggressively working toward accessible play areas, we [Baltimore] became one of the leading cities in the nation to create playgrounds for children of all abilities."

There were more than 100 playground sites that needed ADA and CPSC upgrades. The task forced joined forces with the Maryland-based National Center for Boundless Playgrounds, a nonprofit organization that works with communities to comply with ADA accessibility guidelines.

In May of 2002, the Great Oaks and Little Acorns Playground was open to the community. Sponsored by the Department of Recreation and Parks, the National Center for Boundless Playgrounds, the Neighborhood Design Center and the local PTA, the project began when the task force determined that the existing playground at Garrett Heights Elementary School was no longer safe or accessible.

In addition to accommodating all children's imaginative play, the playground includes a reading garden with oregano, chocolate mint, lemongrass, spearmint, lamb's ear and basil from the community and the local PTA. The project cost $190,000. There are now four playgrounds in Baltimore that go beyond the basic ADA requirement of a transfer deck to provide a more accessible ramped playground.

A Milestone in Playground Innovation

One Sunday afternoon in October 2005 children from across the city assembled on the playground at historic Druid Hill Park. Joining them were O'Malley, Playground Task Force representatives, city officials and the citizens of Baltimore to mark the milestone of the 100th "newly renovated" playground.

Since 2000, Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks has built 113 (40 in parks and 73 at elementary schools) new playgrounds.

Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks, with input from various neighborhood associations, designed and constructed 80 percent of the new playgrounds.

"Playgrounds have evolved from gray structures made from metal into bright red, green and blue units made from strong plastic" says Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks Director, Connie A. Brown. "Not only has the equipment become safer, the surface is covered with inches of soft fill, which is easier on the children who fall."

For information on playground safety visit NRPA's National Playground Institute at www.nrpa.org/nspi.