Safety Around Water is a program designed to reduce children’s risk of drowning by teaching them basic water safety skills. Given that two children drown and die every day in the United States, a commitment to water safety is as important as ever. Drowning is responsible for more deaths among children 1-4 than any other cause except birth defects and the second leading cause of injury-related death for children ages 5 to 14. In ethnically diverse communities, the youth fatal drowning rate is 2-3 times higher than the national average. 60% of African-American, 45% of Hispanic/Latino and 40% of Caucasian children cannot swim. In underserved communities, 79% of children who live in households with incomes less than $50,000 have no/low swimming ability.
At the CDYMCA, we offer our Safety Around Water Program free of cost to elementary students around the Capital Region. Our program focuses on the following:
- Basic swim skills, like floating and blowing bubbles.
- Safety skills, like CPR, identifying a safe place to swim, and water rescue techniques.
- Survival swim skills, like pushing off the bottom of the pool to resurface.
Donate today to help us continue to keep the children of the Capital Region safe!