Coachsafely Foundation

In april 2018 the coach safely act was passed by the Alabama legislature requiring unpaid or volunteer coaches of athletes age 14 and under participating in youth athletic associations of the state or political subdivisions therof to take courses approved by the department of public health in youth sports injury recognition and prevention. The organizers of the Foundation had developed several online training courses and were approved. To encourage participatation the act mandated that the courses be offered at no cost to the unpaid volunteers. The Foundation was established as a non profit organization so that it could raise funds to conduct the courses. The courses consist of 5 modules requiring 20-30 minutes study time with a test at the end.upon passing the test a certicate is issued with copies to the Alabama recreation and parks association which has members in local, county, state and private recreation organizations throughout the state of Alabama. As a by-product of the courses will be development of data driven research for improvement of youth sports community best practices in injury reduction. The initial activity was the setup online of the courses and partnership with Alabama recreation and parks association for certification purposes. The directors also set up means to deliver the courses to municipalties throughout Alabama.