‘PARTNERING WITH THE NDPA’
By Emily Wujcik
As the sun sets on another summer season, it’s easy to say good-bye to swimming lessons and water activities until the next warm spell arrives. However, there is a compelling reason to keep swimming lessons in mind during the colder months. Keeping swimming lessons going during the non-swim season helps promote one of the layers of protection — water competency. This is one of the five layers of protection from National Drowning Prevention Alliance (NDPA).
Safety is Always a Priority
Regardless of the weather, accidents can happen any time of the year. Even during the colder months, there are still water sources like hot tubs, bathtubs, rivers, ponds, and other water sources can still pose a threat to children who lack water safety skills. Therefore, providing swim lessons year-round can help to mitigate the risk of drowning and promote water safety awareness. Encouraging your clients to continue with swimming lessons can help them keep their family engaged in water safety. This is a great opportunity for you to cross-promote local businesses that offer year-round swimming lessons.
Swimming is a skill that requires consistent practice and improvement. By continuing lessons throughout the year, children can maintain and improve their swimming skills. This helps to continue to build their endurance in the water and allows them to continue to practice being safer in and around water. It also ensures that when the warmer weather returns, they are going into the water as a stronger swimmer. Children are then more likely to be excited about reopening their pool.
Boosting Physical and Mental Health
Swimming is an excellent way to stay physically active, even when the outside temperatures drop. It provides a full-body workout, strengthens muscles, and helps to improve cardiovascular health. Swimming also has mental health benefits. It can help to reduce stress and promote relaxation. By encouraging yearround swim lessons, you are also promoting a healthy lifestyle for your clients.
NDPA Swim Lesson Checklist & Other Resources
NDPA has multiple resources you can share with your clients. One of those resources is the water competency page online that is available in both English and Spanish. There is also a swim program poster that helps families walk through how they go about finding the right swim program for their family. You can dive a little deeper and share the swim program checklist. This checklist is a great resource for families. It goes into further detail about what questions to ask like what the length and frequency of lessons are. The checklist also helps parents compare facilities and programs to find the best fit. It allows for families to be able to ask the same questions and gather the same information from different programs. Both the swim program poster and swim program checklist are available in Spanish.
By promoting your swim school partners and year-round swim lessons, you can create a network of safetyconscious organizations that work together to educate the community about water safety. This not only creates a relationship between you and your customers, it also benefits the children and families you serve and strengthens the collective effort to prevent drowning incidents.
Water safety is a year-round concern, and promoting swim lessons during the colder season is essential for maintaining skills, preventing accidents, and fostering a healthy lifestyle. Remember: Safety knows no season, and by working together, we can make a lasting impact on water safety awareness and education.
