Pool & Water Safety

Be educated. Be smart. Be prepared. Be safe.

Teaching children how to be safe around water is not a luxury; it is a necessity. The YMCA’s Safety Around Water & Swim Lessons program can help you make sure they learn essential water safety skills, which can open up a world of possibilities for them to satisfy their curiosity safely.
 

Help Keep Your Children Safe

Drowning can happen nearly anywhere with standing water. But, as a parent or caregiver, you can’t keep your children sidelined. You need to equip them with the tools they need to be confident in and around water so they don’t lose out on the health benefits of exercise, the opportunities to bond with family and friends and the sense of accomplishment when they learn new skills.

Water Safety Tips

READY, SET, SAVE!

READY

• Create layers of protection between the water and your children.
• Install alarms on doors and windows that lead to the pool.
• Build a non-climbable five-foot fence between the house and the pool.
• Use self-closing fence gates that open outwards with latches out of the child’s reach.
• Have rescue equipment mounted by the pool.
• Learn CPR
• Talk to adults that are caring for your child around water.
• Enroll children in swim lessons.

SET

Watching is the most important thing to remember. Never leave your child alone near a pool, spa, bathtub, toilet, bucket or any standing water in which a child’s nose or mouth may be submerged.

• Assign an adult “water watcher,” who is committed to supervising the pool area.
• Have phone access near the water area.
• Wear PFDs that are Coast Guard approved.

SAVE

• Call 911
• Throw! Don’t go.
  Throw rescue equipment to the victim
• Begin CPR