Tag Archive for: water safety advocates

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10 New Year Resolutions That Will Make You A Water Safety Champion

Education and knowledge is the key for everything and definitely something we should focus on in the new year. 

According to the CDC, an average of 10 fatal drowning incidents happen in the USA every day and is the leading cause of unintentional injury deaths for children 1-4 years, the second leading cause of unintentional injury deaths for children 1-14 years, and is the fifth leading cause of unintentional injury deaths for all ages in the United States.  The WHO has reported that drowning is the 3rd leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide, accounting for 7% of all injury-related deaths. 

This makes drowning a very serious issue that should be addressed throughout the year in order to avoid and prevent fatal and non-fatal drowning incidents. The beginning of a new year is the best time to plan exactly how we can do this in the form of water safety resolutions.

Here are ten to get you started:

1.- Learn the Five Layers of Protection

The term “layers of protection” is one used to classify the majority of strategies directly affecting aquatic environments. Parents, caregivers, residential pool owners, aquatic facility owners, managers and operators should use “layers of protection” to provide a system of increased security to prevent unauthorized access to bodies of water, especially important for children. This means that multiple strategies or devices are used constantly and simultaneously.

Click here to learn the Five Layers of Protection to prevent drowning.

2.- Practice water safety at home

  • Never leave your child alone in the bathtub—even for a moment. Many bathtub drownings happen (even in a few inches of water) when a parent leaves a small child alone or with another young child. Also, bath seats are just bathing aids. Bath seats can tip over and your child can slip out of them, so they won’t prevent drowning.
  • Empty water from containers, such as large pails and 5-gallon buckets, immediately after use.
  • Keep bathroom doors closed. Install door knob covers or a hook-and-eye latch or other lock that is out of the reach of your small child.
  • Keep toilets closed. Always close the toilet lid, and consider using a toilet lid latch.

Find more ways to be water safe at home in our blog post Home Water Safety Tips.

3.- Teach your children about water safety

Families have always played a vital role in teaching kids how important it is to learn to swim and behave safely in and around the water. If your child isn’t able to take formal swim lessons right now, you can still help them learn to be safer around backyard pools, ponds or other natural bodies of water.

These are some great resources to help you get started.

4.- Actively support the NDPA to promote water safety and drowning prevention all year long.

The mission of the National Drowning Prevention Alliance is to reduce the incidence of drowning and aquatic injuries in the US and abroad. United, we can reach our goal of 0 drownings.

Whether you join or support the alliance in other ways, you can empower your communities to take more action, touch more lives, and make an even greater difference. Check out 5 Ways You Can Support The NDPA for more ideas.

5.- Promote water safety and ways to prevent drowning in your community.

Find information, actions and resources to get your community involved in water safety advocacy efforts whether they be in person or online at the NDPA Resource Center.

Then call a neighborhood gathering to get started!

6.- Enroll your children in swimming lessons.

Swim skills add a layer of protection to prevent drowning incidents. Formal swimming lessons reduce the risk of drowning among children 1-4 years by 88%. This is the only sport that can actually save lives and can also reduce the risk of drowning among older individuals.

Water competency and swim lessons should be continuous, and not taken for just one season – skills need to be developed and maintained during the entire year. Identify the right swim program for your child by downloading our Swim Program Decision Chart and our Swim Program Checklist!

7.- Learn CPR with rescue breaths. Compression-only CPR does not treat drowning.

Anyone who lives in a home with a pool should learn CPR and rescue breathing. CPR training and certification should be refreshed every one to two years, depending upon the certification agency, or more frequently if there have been recent changes in recommendations.

You can’t predict when an emergency will strike, so knowing how to prepare for a water-related incident can mean the difference between life and death.

8.- Invest in a life vest for each member of the family.

A life jacket is a very effective life-saving strategy in the quest to reduce the number of fatal drowning incidents in the country, especially in open water.

U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) tested and approved life jackets should be worn by everyone, when in or around open/natural bodies of water, and when boating. Life jackets should be sized appropriately for the wearer.  When other layers of protection may break down, life jackets can help prevent unintentional drowning. Learn more about it here.

9.- Register for the 2023 National Water Safety Conference

The conference is a great fit for anyone involved in child safety advocacy, injury prevention, safety education, water safety, drowning prevention, first response, public health, public policy, aquatics, and many more areas!

This year the #NWSC2023 will be offered from February 13 – 16, 2023 in-person and virtually, co-located with the 2023 AOAP Annual Conference at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, CO.

We have 80+ speakers lined up this year, and with the ALL ACCESS PASS you won’t need to worry about missing sessions or trying to soak in the education all at once! Get access to every keynote, live session, workshop, and training for up to 5 months after the conference!

Register now!

10.- Join the NDPA Water Safety Warriors Group and sign up to become a Water Safety Champion!

The NDPA has the goal of bringing everyone who has a vested interest in drowning prevention and water safety together. This way, we can provide education and resources to prevent drowning and aquatic injury by making water safer to enjoy.

By providing this space to connect to each other, access to the most current information, and share resources to help  be more effective in our efforts, we are sure can reach our goal to end accidental drownings! Just click to join!

Want to become a Water Safety Champion? Here’s how!

Total Aquatic Programming & NDPA Join Together To Improve The Collection Of Drowning Data

Total Aquatic Programming & NDPA Join Together On Drowning Data

People and organizations in the drowning prevention and water safety space are well aware of the limitation of drowning statistics. Drowning data is not universally collected or classified mainly due the sheer nature of drowning which makes counting on reliable data extremely difficult. Few organizations have taken on the task to gather and distribute data pertaining to drowning and Total Aquatics Programming LLC is currently one of the most well known, respected and reliable sources.

Total Aquatic Programming and National Drowning Prevention Alliance Board of Directors have joined together to improve the “The Drowning Report” data. 

TAP has been collecting drowning data since 2008. This process involves about 1100-man hours per year plus cost for programs and support. They have recently faced the following challenges which have impelled them to rethink and reconsider the process in order to be more effective:

  • Some of the thousands of websites visited to gather report data have now  started charging subscription fees. While these are only .99 cents a week, they add up over the period of a year. 
  • Due to the number of sites consulted to gather information and download reports, TAP has been exposed (multiple times) to viruses and have had to move to enterprise grade protection. 
  • TAP users have requested many features that the organization was not able to offer before and is currently preparing to do: possibility of custom reports, online searchability features, ease of access and more.

It is time for TAP LLC to update the way they not only collect but also present the data gathered. This has a cost that they cannot totally absorb, and after talking to many users it is too important to just lose! They are nearly ready to move to a subscription-based model with an cost of $99.95 per year that will offer subscribers all the information they are used to plus:

  • Report filtering options
  • Custom reports (emailed on a customer set schedule)
  • Ability to submit drownings (requires approval)
  • Online and accessible 24/7 – no more waiting for the first of the month
  • Enhanced field logic
  • Alert notifications (new drownings in your area)
  • Much, Much More!

The new membership model will become effective by June 2021 with May 2021 featuring the last free version of drowning reports. NDPA premium members & all partners will be able to access the new database through their existing NDPA membership.

We hope this is a valuable service that you will continue to use. The new features will also allow members to more easily extract local data and customize reports.

Sign up is coming soon so be on the lookout!

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The Zac Foundation Announces Three New Appointments To Its Board Of Directors

Diversity in Aquatics CEO Miriam Lynch, Communications and Engagement Director Danielle Veira, and Strategist and Social Innovator Michael Golden Join Board Of National Water Safety Nonprofit

GREENWICH, CT – September 16, 2020 – The ZAC Foundation, a national nonprofit dedicated to improving water safety by funding advocacy, education, and effective programming to safeguard children and their families, today announced the appointment of three new Board members: Diversity in Aquatics CEO Miriam Lynch, communications and engagement director Danielle Veira, and strategist and social innovator Michael Golden. The appointments are effective immediately.

“We are pleased to welcome Miriam, Danielle and Michael to our Board, and look forward to having their invaluable perspectives and leadership,” said Karen Cohn, co-founder of The ZAC Foundation, which has provided water safety programming to more than 20,000 children in at-risk communities nationwide and is spearheading the development of drowning prevention plans in four U.S. communities in the hopes of reducing the national drowning rate. “Each of them will serve a key role as we continue our work to prepare children and their families for a lifetime of water safety.”

Lynch is an advocate for increasing aquatic opportunities and water safety education to all. She collaborates with several aquatic organizations to raise awareness, create community partnerships, and develop solutions to reduce the “drowning gap.” As the CEO of Diversity in Aquatics, Lynch, along with a team of volunteers, works to educate, promote, and support swimming, water safety, and healthy aquatic activities in traditionally underrepresented populations.

“I am excited to join the Board of The ZAC Foundation, which is committed to creating equitable opportunities in aquatics by increasing access to swim lessons and water safety education for children and families in communities that have been impacted by historical and social barriers,” said Lynch. 

Veira is the director of communications and engagement at A Better Chicago, a nonprofit venture philanthropy fund fighting poverty by investing in opportunities for Black and Latinx low-income youth. She leads the organization’s strategic communications, digital marketing, and thought leadership efforts. Prior to moving to Chicago, Veira spent more than a decade in Washington, DC working in nonprofit communications, most recently as the senior manager of public relations and advocacy communications at the American Diabetes Association.

“It is an honor to be appointed to the Board of The ZAC Foundation,” said Veira. “I have been inspired and impressed by the Foundation’s work for years and lucky enough to see the impact ZAC Camps make firsthand. Children who look like me face a variety of disparities whether it’s access to health care, quality education or water safety training. As a child of the Caribbean and a lover of swimming myself, I am thrilled to have this opportunity to work alongside my fellow Board members to further the Foundation’s outstanding work to eradicate systemic inequities related to water safety and drowning prevention.” 

A social entrepreneur, former award-winning journalist, campaign strategist and political reformer, Golden is president of Golden Mean Strategies in Chicago. He has dedicated the bulk of his career to launching social enterprises that create opportunity in underserved communities. In 2006, he co-founded One Million Degrees, a breakthrough scholarship support program that has empowered more than 1,800 low-income community college students to succeed in school, work and life.

“Joining the Board of The ZAC Foundation is more than an honor for me — it is personal. I loved Zachary, and the entire Cohn family is like my own family. I am tremendously proud and in awe of what they have built in Zach’s name: a huge-hearted water safety organization that works to save lives in every corner of this country. It will be a genuine thrill to contribute to their mission as a new member of the Board of Directors,” said Golden. 

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About The ZAC Foundation

The ZAC Foundation was established in 2008 by Karen and Brian Cohn after the loss of their 6-year-old son Zachary Archer Cohn in a pool drain entrapment in their backyard swimming pool. Through education and advocacy, the Foundation has educated more than 20,000 children and their families on the importance of water safety and is dedicated to continue preparing more for a lifetime of water safety. To learn more about The ZAC Foundation, connect with the organization on Facebook and TheZACFoundation.org.