Vital water safety skills for multicultural children

At-risk children in the City of Stirling are learning vital swimming and water safety skills as part of a term three Swim and Survive program at Leisurepark Balga. The program is a partnership between The Edmund Rice Centre WA and Royal Life Saving WA to engage vulnerable children from multicultural communities and ensure they have access to learn these important life skills.

A review of drowning statistics over the past ten years shows that in WA 40% of drowning deaths involved people who were born overseas. Migrants also record lower participation in swimming and water safety programs after arriving in Australia due to a number of cultural, personal and financial reasons.

The current program at Balga is part of our Access and Equity Swim and Survive program, supported by BHP, which aims to break down these barriers to participation by providing subsidised, culturally appropriate water safety education for at-risk groups.

20 children aged 4-12 are taking part in the program on Thursdays after school and will attend the lessons at Leisurepark Balga across the ten weeks of the school term. The lessons are being delivered by qualified instructors following the Royal Life Saving Swim and Survive curriculum.

If you’d like to find out more about the work we are doing to engage multicultural communities in water safety education please click the link below.