Summer events teach teens about water safety

Royal Life Saving WA’s youth water safety initiative, Be A Mermate, aims to educate young people aged 15-24 years about the dangers associated with mixing alcohol with activities in and around different waterways. Alcohol continues to be an issue amongst this age group, contributing to 37% of drowning deaths in young adults.

In January, the Youth Water Safety team attended the Rockingham Youth Beach Party and the Mandurah Beats Under the Bridge festival thanks to support from Principal Community Partner BHP. Both of these drug and alcohol-free events were run by the local council, to provide young people an opportunity to connect with others, enjoy free activities and have some fun during the school holidays.

Royal Life Saving staff and volunteers ran an interactive stall with giveaways to promote water safety messaging. Young people used a spinning wheel to determine the resource they would receive but had to answer a water safety question in order to get that prize.

Youth Water Safety Coordinator Georgia Eaton said the event was a great way to promote water safety messaging to young people who live so close to the water. “The engagement with our stall was really great, with some young people having to wait in line for a turn to spin our wheel and win a prize. It was great to see a large number of young people engaged in the conversations around water safety.”

Around 300 young people attended each of these free events, enjoying inflatable games, music and food. Royal Life Saving WA would like to thank the City of Rockingham and the City of Mandurah for hosting these activities and inviting us to get involved.

If you would like to have our Youth Water Safety team attend one of your upcoming youth events, click on the below link to register your interest!