It’s Time to Focus on Keeping Children Safe Around Water
There is a list of basic life skills all parents instinctively know they must teach their children to keep them safe and healthy. It includes habits like looking both ways before you cross the street, washing your hands with soap and water and eating the right amount of fruits and vegetables every day.
For too many parents, safety in and around water is not on the list; and that’s something we need to change.
Fatal drowning is the second-leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children ages one to 14 years old. The problem is particularly acute among minority communities. African American children ages 5 to 14 are three times more likely to drown than their white counterparts. The disparity is partly due to the lack of swimming experience among these children.
According to a recent national research study conducted by the USA Swimming Foundation and the University of Memphis, 70 percent of African American and 60 percent of Hispanic children cannot swim, compared to just 40 percent of Caucasian children. Almost 40% of the approximately 15,000 children enrolled District 186 are African American.
As part of the swim lesson program, the Springfield Y provides scholarships to children from low-income and underserved communities to participate in lessons. The lessons teach young people valuable skills like what to do if they find themselves in the water unexpectedly, a situation every child should be equipped to handle. In District 186 alone, 67% of children come from economically disadvantaged homes.
These classes are just one of the many swim programs that millions of people from toddlers to adults take advantage of at the Y’s more than 2,200 pools across the country. In 2015, the Springfield Y taught swim lessons to 2,026 children. Through swim lessons from beginner to advanced, parent/child classes, the Special Needs Aquatics Program, and the Strong Kids Scholarship Fund, the Y hopes to further bridge cultural and access gaps that can prevent some children from learning important water safety skills.
If you know how to stay safe in and around water, swimming can be a lifelong source of fun and exercise. Instead of keeping your children away from water, help them learn fundamental water safety skills by enrolling them in lessons. These classes can provide them a new, exciting way to keep active and meet new friends.
To learn more about the Y’s swim program, please visit www.springfieldymca.org.
