WA Swim and Survive Fund offers opportunities to all

Royal Life Saving WA’s Swim and Survive Fund aims to make swimming and water safety education accessible to all to ensure everyone has the opportunity to learn these vital skills.

The Fund provides support to various community groups with a focus on those facing barriers to participation. This includes people experiencing social or economic disadvantage, children and adults with special needs, regional and remote communities and community groups identified as being at greater risk of drowning.

Several grants are awarded each year from the WA Swim and Survive Fund to swim schools across the state. For the current 2021-22 financial year, a total of $10,000 in grants was distributed among 12 swim schools. These included Fremantle Leisure Centre, Waterponyz Swim School, Kwinana Swim School, Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre (MARC), Just Add Water Swimming, Gingin Aquatic Centre, 4 Fun and Health, Alkimos Beach Aquatics and The Swim School WA’s four swim school centres.

Fremantle Leisure Centre was approved a grant to support its Infant Aquatics students whose families had experienced a loss of income due to COVID shutdowns. “Fremantle has many low-income families who had children in our programs and were forced to cancel lessons due to their workplace shutdowns and loss of income,” said the Centre. “Many of these students were making good progress in their levels and it was sad to see them withdraw due to uncontrollable circumstances. Offering them to come back with grant funding is an amazing gesture.”

Waterponyz Swim School was facing a similar situation with its students. “We have a number of families on payment plans trying to keep their kids swimming here…this would help them out so much and allow us to be able to continue swimming,” the school said.

Just Add Water Swimming used its grant to offer sponsorships to families with multiple children to ensure siblings weren’t missing out. “We have a lot of out-of-town families (some of them travel over one hour one way) but having multiple children in lessons is not feasible,” says the swim school’s coordinator, Emma Zampino. “Sponsorships ensure that all siblings have the opportunity to participate, as (for example) some families tend to pick one or two children in Term 4, then the next two in Term 1 of the following year. Whereas we can give all four children a place in lessons and reduce the total cost for families, ensuring all can learn to swim.”

Learn more about how the Swim and Survive Fund is helping to provide an aquatic education to those who would otherwise miss out at the link below.