During Water Safety Month the Shasta Family YMCA offers Safety Around Water, a pay-what-you-can program designed to engage and educate parents about the importance of water safety skills and provide more of America’s youth access to water safety lessons. The program focuses on reaching underserved communities. 3 children die each day due to drowning, according to the CDC and USA Swimming Foundation. Drowning is the second leading cause of accidental death among children age 5-14, and rates of drowning are significantly higher in low-income communities.
Through Safety Around Water, parents and caregivers will be encouraged to help their children learn fundamental water safety and swimming skills. During the eight-day course, children will learn how to respond if they find themselves in unexpected water situations — from how to reach the water’s surface if they submerge to safely reaching a pool’s edge or exiting any body of water.
“All children deserve access to water safety resources and Safety Around Water is a great starting point to not only get kids comfortable in the water, but also develop a love of swimming,” said Rachel Forero, Aquatics Manage at the Shasta Family YMCA. “In many underserved communities, staying safe around water means keeping kids away from water, but water safety and swimming are important life skills that need fostering in all children.”
To help achieve its goal to make swim lessons more accessible for all children, this summer the Y will award 50 scholarships for free swim lessons to children in high-risk and underserved communities in Shasta and surrounding counties.
Families interested in learning more about Safety Around Water and how to enroll their child in local Y swimming and water safety classes should visit http://www.sfymca.org/aquatics/programs/safety-around-water
