Swim for Charlie, the Dr. Charles van der Horst Water Safety Initiative

Mission

To equip children with life-saving water safety skills by providing a high quality water safety program to second grade North Carolina students.

Vision

The Initiative envisions a community where water safety programs are available to all school-age children. We foresee a day when all children are safer around the water and strive for a time when our participants will be those teaching and helping to keep safe both their peers and future generations of children.

Swim for Charlie is a community partnership bringing together NC school districts and area pools to provide free water safety/swimming skills education to 2nd grade students.

The goal of this partnership is to address the public health concern of lack of swimming skills leading to high risk of drowning which is the second leading cause of death in school aged children.

80% of children living in low income households have little to no swimming ability. 65% of Black, 45% of Latino, and 40% of White children have no swimming ability. This problem affects the entire community, disproportionately affecting Black and Latino children.

The schools transport to local pools the students during the school day where they receive 8 40-minute lessons over a 2-week period. The students also view a water safety video and are introduced to an aquatic career by their teacher at the school prior to going to the pool. The pools provide pool space at no cost to the program.

The lessons are taught by community volunteers who go through a training with Swim for Charlie staff and are given a detailed Instructor Handbook.

Swim for Charlie staff manage the logistics of the program, recruitment/training of volunteers, orientation of teachers and parents, collection of statistics, and assure funding by soliciting donations and submitting grants.

The Initiative operates using the values embodied by Charlie:

• Social Equity
• Compassion
• Integrity
• Collaboration
• Confidence
• Courage