Everyone Swims

Abstract

Well-known disparities exist in rates of obesity and drowning, two public health priorities. Addressing these disparities by increasing access to safe swimming and water recreation may yield benefits for both obesity and injury prevention. Everyone Swims, a community partnership, brought community health clinics and water recreation organizations together to improve policies and systems that facilitated learning to swim and access to swimming and water recreation for low-income, diverse communities. Based in King County, Washington, Everyone Swims launched with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant funding from 2010 to 2012. This partnership led to multiple improvements in policies and systems: higher numbers of clinics screening for swimming ability, referrals from clinics to pools, more scholarship accessibility, and expansion of special swim programs. In building partnerships between community health/public health and community recreation organizations to develop systems that address user needs in low-income and culturally diverse communities, Everyone Swims represents a promising model of a structured partnership for systems and policy change to promote health and physical activity.

Adolescent Water Safety Behaviors, Skills, Training and Their Association with Risk-Taking Behaviors and Risk and Protective Factors

“…Thus, families and schools may provide protective factors to prevent drowning. One next step in water safety promotion could be to encourage protective factors, like prosocial involvement and family involvement, to potentially reduce engagement in risk-taking behaviors and thus reduce drowning risk [25].…”

Promoting Equity, Social Justice, and Saving Lives with Life Jacket and Clothing Policies

“…A request for swim access by Somali mothers led King County, Washington, and other cities with large Muslim populations to develop Women only swim sessions at public pools where they could be fully covered [ 34 ]. Latina and Somali mothers reported the importance of their daughters being able to wear T-shirts or other clothing and not swimming suits for modesty reasons [ 3 ]. Lastly, those who are obese represent a group that would benefit from aquatic exercise.…”

“…Evidence-based interventions that could increase water safety among high-risk populations have been identified; they include learning to swim and wearing a properly fitted life jacket [ 2 ]. Swim communities have responded with drowning prevention programs geared towards culturally, linguistically, and ethnically diverse communities (CLED) (i.e., Black and African American, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latinx [ 3 ].…”

“…Recreational aquatic sites have been the setting for the turmoil of social justice, water safety, and public health in the past. With CLED communities continually lacking access and having limited to no water safety education and/or drowning prevention programming, it is essential when engaging CLED communities, with policies and safety messages, that attempts be made to ensure policies and educational experiences work for all [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ].…”

Soziale Determinanten der Schwimmfähigkeit von Kindern und Jugendlichen in Deutschland

“…In der MOBAQ-Studie lag der Anteil komplett schwimmunerfahrener Kinder bei 11-Jährigen mit muslimischen Wurzeln mit 25% am höchsten (23). Auch in anderen Ländern wie den USA oder Kanada bestehen deutliche Unterschiede nach ethnischer Herkunft, sowohl in der Verbreitung der Schwimmfähigkeit als auch in der Ertrinkungsstatistik (14,17,20,44,46). In den USA wird die gesellschaftliche Diskussion darüber, dass Schwarze und Latinos deutlich seltener schwimmen können als Weiße unter dem Schlagwort "minority swimming gap" geführt (18).…”