Vitalitätstraining für Jung und Alt - Playground@Landscape

FEPI-SANTE partnership
Establishing building codes and urban geographical
planning with regard to play areas
For many years now, one of the top priorities of
FEPI has been to promote physical activity and to
raise awareness on the importance of play. When
tackling health issues, it is a topic that can not be
overlooked, as play contributes massively to the
general fitness of children and adolescents. Over the
NEWS
by Simon Vandekerckhove, FEPI assistant
FEPI, the federation of the European Play Industry, is currently involved in a partnership with the SANTE
(Sport Action Network of Europe) project, which has been accepted by the European Commission and has as
its main goal to promote health enhancing physical activity. In the light of this partnership, FEPI is currently
involved in the process of creating a set of guidelines establishing what is needed to create well-being and
physical as well as social fitness for children, with the ultimate goal of developing a building code with
rules as to the space allocated for children’s playgrounds within urban and rural communities.
years, FEPI has made many valuable contributions
to this end and the federation continues to do so today.
As part of the cooperation with SANTE, FEPI is
now trying to understand from a scientific, academic
and medical standpoint what is the importance of
play for children and adolescents. Through a thorough
fact finding and literature research, the importance
of play will be assessed with the aim of developing
voluntary guidelines including clear variables
on for instance time of daily exercise and the number
of urban play areas per geographical square
kilometre or per number of population. In the final
stage, FEPI will aim at influencing policy makers of
all levels with the intention of establishing national
and / or European building codes and urban geographical
planning with the inclusion of play areas
according to the forementioned guidelines.
As part of the partnership with SANTE, FEPI is taking
part in the MOVE2010 European Congress on
Sports for All and Health, which will be held from the
20th untill the 24th of October in Frankfurt am Main
in Germany. FEPI hopes that through this partnership
and through the initiative of trying to establish
building codes, it will contribute to creating an increasingly
child friendly environment within cities
and rural communities, where every child has the
possibility to engage in active play and where no
child is left behind.
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