Key multicultural stakeholders share ideas for the future

This week key stakeholders in WA’s culturally and linguistically diverse community attended their annual Multicultural Steering Committee meeting with Royal Life Saving staff, at our headquarters in Mount Claremont.

These annual meetings are held to ensure quality Swim and Survive programs are run and meet our key multicultural community’s needs. The feedback we receive from those who attend assists us in developing and strengthening our programs into the future.

The latest meeting discussed several key programs and how we can best engage multicultural people across WA, to ensure we can take multicultural swimming and water safety to the next level, and give multicultural communities the opportunity to take part in key programs including:

Multicultural Women’s Only Swim and Survive Programs

These are culturally appropriate women’s only swimming programs which allow women from different backgrounds to come together and take part in beginner and advanced swimming and water safety classes. They are currently held at Balga, Cannington and Merriwa. 

Multicultural Youth Swim and Survive Programs

These programs provide an introduction to swimming for multicultural children. The classes allow children to practice and develop their swimming skills before participating in swimming lessons at school. These programs also introduce multicultural children to Swim Schools in their area.

Heartbeat Club

The aim of the Heart Beat Club is to develop the lifesaving skill of resuscitation and first aid in our community. The Heart Beat Club is a community education initiative of Royal Life Saving that aims to increase a participant’s skills and confidence in CPR and first aid, while also providing a water smart background.

Water Smart Award

These classes for school aged children provide participants with the knowledge, skills and attitude they need to be safe when they are in, on and around water. The Water Smart Award has been developed to teach students the vital components of: 

• Water safety (looking at different aquatic environments, dangers and key safety tips) 
• Safe rescue techniques (non-swimming rescue techniques: talk, reach and throw rescue) 
• Resuscitation and First Aid 

We’re thankful to all those who attended this week’s meeting, including:

• William Chi – Vice President, the Chung Wah Association WA
• Angie Davies – Swim School Coordinator, Balga
• Kaysha Gardner – Cannington Swim School Coordinator 
• Chloe Were-Spice – Cannington Swim School Coordinator Assistant
• Nicole Toia – Get Active Project Officer, Communicare 
• Sally Bower – Manager Family Support Program, ISHAR
• Jan West – Acting Associate Principal, Highgate Primary School 

All of these key stakeholders play a vital role in helping us to reduce drowning statistics in WA’s CaLD communities.

We’re keen to further strengthen our relationship with WA’s Chinese community, and as such we’re very grateful to Chung WA Vice-President William Chi for taking the time to attend this meeting. As a key community partner we look forward to providing programs that will increase water safety skills and knowledge in this key community.