By Pamela Fuselli
President and CEO, Parachute

Since July 2017, Parachute has been leading a National Injury Prevention Day to raise awareness about the prevalence, high cost, and preventability of serious injury in Canada. 

What started as a small social media campaign has grown into a national health awareness day recognized by Health Canada. Across the country, landmarks now light up “Parachute Green” on July 5 (or the Monday following if July 5 falls on a weekend) and governments issue proclamations. In 2025, more than 330 organizations joined in promoting National Injury Prevention Day online.

Other activities associated with National Injury Prevention Day over the years:

  • The Hospital Challenge: supporting hospitals across Canada to raise awareness about injury prevention with on-site outreach to staff and patients.
  • Flag-raising ceremonies at Toronto City Hall
  • Webinars on injury prevention
  • Media appearances
  • Local awareness events run by local organizations
  • Local news conferences and media events promoting a variety of injury prevention issues tied to National Injury Prevention Day

Next year, 2026, marks the 10th anniversary of this awareness day. And we are evolving to become Canadian Injury Prevention Day.

When our injury prevention awareness day’s name was chosen in 2017, regrettably there was not an awareness that the acronym NIPD was starting to be used in Canada by National Indigenous Peoples Day, held annually on the summer solstice in June. This commemorative day, prior to 2017, was called National Aboriginal Day and its new NIPD name came into effect in 2017.

While we used #ParachuteNIPD as a hashtag to differentiate, we have been uncomfortable with intruding upon and causing any confusion with this important national day of reflection and celebration.

Additionally, in 2020 an organization in the United States called Injury-Free Coalition for Kids set up a National Injury Prevention Day of its own. The coalition operates from the outreach division of the Columbia Center for Injury Science and Prevention in New York, and brings together hospital trauma centres, as well as supports injury research. This organization initially reached out to Parachute for information on our NIPD, which we provided, and we invited them to join us in a July 5 observation. The U.S. coalition chose another date – November 18 – and copied our programming of green light-ups, proclamations and hospital activations. Due to the size and volume of the U.S. efforts, “National Injury Prevention Day” there now overshadows Canada’s work and presence online. As well, this organization, as their name spells out, is committed to an “injury-free” approach. At Parachute, we accept that minor injuries are part of an active life and our focus is on presenting serious, life-ending or life-altering injuries.

On social media, we will still be using our secondary hashtag #TurnSafetyOn and our primary hashtag will evolve from #ParachuteNIPD to #CIPD2026.

NIPD reach

  • Landmark lightups: Average of 90 annually over five years
  • Safety partners: More than 300 organizations, have participated annually in our injury prevention awareness campaign in July over the past five years by creating unique posts or reposting our messaging.
  • Social media impressions: Average of seven million annually over five years
  • Traditional media impressions: Average of 39 million annually over five years.
  • Proclamations: moved in recent years to province-wide proclamations; in 2025 these came from Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
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