The Swimming Gap
I posted earlier about a youth who died swimming. Tracey over at Black Gives Back posted on the Swimming Gap just a few weeks ago. The key statistic from the article:
“The USA Swimming survey also found that African-American and Latino children were six times more likely than white children to be from a family in which neither parent nor child can swim, and that only 13 percent of kids from non-swimming households learn how to swim.”
Close to 90% of our members are African-American or Latino. Many of the younger kids swim, but not a lot of teens, so we are going to work hard on that this fall. We’ll be checking out the free promotional materials from USA swimming that Tracey also referenced in her post. We’re also going to check out a concept called drownproofing. It isn’t a substitute for swimming lessons, but may be worth doing in the spring for those that haven’t taken lessons. What I’m excited about in our effort is that we have some teens who want to take the lead on it.
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