Promoting Aquatics Programs to Your Community

Training your staff, developing programs, recruiting lifeguard trainees, ensuring the safety of your patrons-with so many responsibilities, it makes sense to find a trusted resource to help you meet your goals. But chances are you don't have the time to evaluate and "mix and match" the programs offered by some organizations. That's why so many aquatic facilities choose the American Red Cross as their complete source for lifeguard training, learn-to-swim programs, water safety instruction and more.

By choosing the Red Cross as your source for aquatics training, you're leveraging more than 90 years of experience and a name that is trusted by your staff and patrons. Research has demonstrated that parents prefer swimming and other training programs for their children that come from the Red Cross. And you'll also benefit from a wealth of marketing support to help you promote aquatics training in your community.

Lifeguard and Water Safety Instructor Recruitment and Recognition

If your area is like many, you may be finding it more and more difficult to recruit and build staff. Some of the reasons identified to be the cause of the lifeguard shortage are:

• Low pay for lifeguards;
• Lack of funds for training and uniforms;
• Health issues such as sun exposure;
• Little or no prestige connected to being a lifeguard; and
• Many lifeguards must leave for college/school prior to the end of the swimming season.

In order to ensure that you have enough lifeguards to keep your patrons safe during the next swimming season, make sure your facility does the following:

• Ensure your facility has an appropriate number of Lifeguarding instructors and at least one Red Cross Lifeguarding instructor trainer.
• Offer the American Red Cross GuardStart program to prepare 11- to 14-year olds to take Red Cross Lifeguarding certification programs and for future work as lifeguards.
• Establish a job hotline that connects schools and colleges with your lifeguard program.
• Schedule and conduct aquatic schools that include Lifeguard Training classes during school breaks and at the end of the school year. Conduct a testing session for pre-requisite skills weeks in advance, then funnel those who lack the needed skills into remediation. Collaborate with other facilities and the Red Cross in conducting aquatic schools.
• Plan, promote and conduct a special "April Pools Day" to recruit lifeguards. Involve local news media, radio stations, etc. and turn it into a major event that promotes aquatics, and in particular, is positioned as a job fair for potential lifeguards.
• Begin promotion of lifeguarding as a job during the winter months, extending into spring.
• Implement the "aquatic career ladder" at your facility, beginning with the Learn-to-Swim program. Encourage parents to have their children complete all levels of the program to avoid losing many potential lifeguards, as well as to ensure that youth truly know how to swim. Then move them into GuardStart until they reach the minimum lifeguarding age of 15.
• Start age-group swim teams to build competent swimmers who represent future lifeguards (and water safety instructors).

The following event ideas are a great way to recruit lifeguards and water safety instructors:

• Host a Recruitment Fair or Open House-Showcase your program and send out invitations to local high schools and youth organizations. Offer interviews and screenings on-site. Be sure to have your training schedules set. Include all full- and part-time opportunities. Send information about the event to local newspapers and radio stations to promote the event.
• Create a Lifeguarding Traveling Display-Collect pictures from local libraries, former guards and your current lifeguards. Visit local shopping malls, schools and libraries and share your historical display. Be sure to have class and schedule information available.
• Teen Night at a Local Theater-Schedule time with your local theater, school or library to have a movie night. Invite youth groups and schools to come. The theme of the movies should be centered around aquatic activities. Provide lifeguarding and water safety instructor information that youth can take home with them.

Promotional Materials Available from Your Local Red Cross Chapter

Through your local American Red Cross chapter, aquatic authorized providers can receive a free marketing toolkit to assist aquatic facilities in their promotion of Red Cross Lifeguarding, Learn-to-Swim and water safety programs. These toolkits include a CD-ROM with downloadable images and customizable flyers, advertisements, recruitment resources and more. Red Cross chapters also off free posters, flyers and recruitment postcards to help you spread the word about the courses you offer. Recruitment postcards and posters target the potential lifeguard directly with the theme: “Show the World What You’re Made of…Be a Lifeguard.” Additional products are available to recruit water safety instructors, promote your Learn-to-Swim program, and to let your patrons know that your staff is Red Cross-trained.

Course Descriptions

The following course descriptions can be used in your course catalog:

Lifeguarding* (15+ years old)
Ideal for lifeguards working at traditional pools. The course teaches professionalism, patron and facility surveillance, victim recognition, equipment-based rescues, and caring for head, neck and back injuries.
31.25 hours

Waterfront Lifeguarding* (15+ years old)
Ideal for lifeguards working at non-surf, open-water environments such as lakes and rivers, as well as traditional pools. The course teaches professionalism, patron and facility surveillance, rescue board techniques, emergency preparedness and more.
37 hours

Waterpark Lifeguarding* (15+ years old)
Ideal for lifeguards working at waterpark environments and traditional pools. The course teaches professionalism, patron and facility surveillance, recommended rules for park safety and spinal injury management for waterpark attractions.
33.25 hours

Shallow Water Attendant* (15+ years old)
Ideal for people working at shallow water attractions up to 4 feet deep such as catch basins at the foot of slides, winding rivers and kiddie pools. The course teaches professionalism, patron and facility surveillance, victim recognition, equipment-based rescues, and caring for head, neck and back injuries.
30.5 hours

GuardStart: Lifeguarding Tomorrow (11-14 years old)
GuardStart is a great first step toward a job as a lifeguard. The course includes lessons to develop aquatic knowledge and skills needed to successfully complete the American Red Cross Lifeguard program upon turning 15 years old.
Hours vary

Lifeguard Management (for head lifeguards, lifeguard supervisors, managers or aquatic facility directors)
Take the next step in your career as an aquatics professional. This course teaches the responsibilities of a lifeguard supervisor, the selection and training of lifeguards and team building principles of injury prevention, risk management and emergency response. Appropriate for line supervisors, managers and directors.
7.2 hours

* Lifeguarding courses include the following certifications:

Lifeguarding	Lifeguarding/First Aid (3 years) CPR/AED for the Professional Rescuer Certificate (1 year)
Waterfront Lifeguarding	Lifeguarding/Waterfront/First Aid (3 years) CPR/AED for the Professional Rescuer Certificate (1 year)
Waterpark Lifeguarding	Lifeguarding/Waterpark/First Aid (3 years) CPR/AED for the Professional Rescuer Certificate (1 year)
Shallow Water Attendant	Shallow Water Attendant (up to 4ft)/First Aid (3 years) CPR/AED for the Professional Rescuer Certificate (1 year)

American Red Cross Water Safety Instructor Course

If you are at least 16-years old and a proficient swimmer, you can be become an American Red Cross Water Safety instructor. This 30-hour course will help you—

• Teach skills that may save a life.
• Gain terrific work experience as an aquatics professional.
• Earn money-or join a volunteer team-while you help people learn valuable skills.
• Learn organizational and presentation skills that will help you in any career.
• Make a difference in peoples' lives.

Whether you want to splash around with kids and teach them to swim, help children and adults refine their strokes, or teach diving safety techniques, you can do it as an American Red Cross Water Safety instructor.

Prerequisites:

• Minimum age of 16.
• Successfully complete the instructor course written pretest with a minimum score of 80 percent or better.
• Successfully complete instructor course skills pretest consisting of water safety and swimming skills.

American Red Cross Parent and Child Aquatics

Developed for children 6 months to 5 years of age, American Red Cross Parent and Child Aquatics builds swimming readiness by emphasizing fun in the water. Parents and children participate in several guided practice sessions that help children learn elementary skills, including water entry, bubble blowing, front kicking, back floating, underwater exploration and more.

American Red Cross Learn-to-Swim
Our new Learn-to-Swim offers something for everybody. A unique six-level instructional approach is unlike anything offered by other aquatic training programs. Plus our instructors are trained and certified by the American Red Cross, so swimmers of all ages and abilities are in good hands.

The prerequisite for each level is the successful demonstration of the skills from the preceding level, except for Level 1, which has no prerequisite. Each level of Learn-to-Swim includes training in basic water safety and helping others in an emergency, in addition to the skills outlined below:

Level 1: Introduction to Water Skills
Purpose: Helps students feel comfortable in the water. Level 1 participants learn to:

• Enter and exit water safely
• Submerge mouth, nose and eyes
• Exhale underwater through mouth and nose
• Open eyes underwater, pick up submerged object
• Change direction while walking or paddling
• Roll over from front to back and back to front with support
• Explore floating on front and back with support
• Explore swimming on front and back using arm and leg actions with support
• Use a life jacket

Learn-to-Swim Level 1 participants receive a Raffy Learns to Swim full-color booklet that reinforces learning and provides parents with additional information about their child’s progress.

Level 2: Fundamental Aquatic Skills
Purpose: Gives students success with fundamental skills. Level 2 participants learn to:

• Enter water by stepping or jumping from the side
• Exit water safely using ladder or side
• Submerge entire head
• Blow bubbles submerging head in a rhythmic pattern (bobbing)
• Open eyes underwater, pick up a submerged object in shallow water
• Float on front and back
• Perform front and back glide
• Change direction of travel paddling on front or back
• Roll over from front to back, back to front
• Tread water using arm and leg motions (chest-deep water)
• Swim on front, back, and side using combined arm and leg actions
• Move in the water while wearing a life jacket

Learn-to-Swim Level 2 participants receive a Raffy Learns to Swim full-color booklet that reinforces learning and provides parents with additional information about their child’s progress.

Level 3: Stroke Development
Purpose: Builds on the skills in Level 2 through additional guided practice. Level 3 participants learn to:

• Jump into deep water from the side
• Dive from kneeling or standing position
• Submerge and retrieve an object in chest deep water
• Bob with the head fully submerged
• Rotary breathing in horizontal position
• Perform front and back glide using two different kicks
• Float on front and back in deep water
• Change from horizontal to vertical position on front and back
• Tread water using hand and leg movements
• Perform front and back crawl
• Butterfly—kick and body motion
• Perform the HELP and Huddle position

Learn-to-Swim Level 3 participants receive a Waddles in the Deep full-color booklet that reinforces class instruction to help swimmers develop confidence in their strokes and improve other aquatic skills.

Level 4: Stroke Improvement
Purpose: Develops confidence in the skills learned and improves other aquatic skills. Level 4 participants learn to:

• Perform a dive from a standing or stride position
• Swim underwater
• Perform feet-first surface dive
• Perform open turns on front and back
• Tread water using sculling arm motions and with different kicks
• Perform the following:
• Front and back crawl
• Breaststroke
• Butterfly
• Elementary backstroke
• Swim on side using scissors-like kick
• Perform compact jump into water from a height while wearing a life jacket

Learn-to-Swim Level 4 participants receive a Waddles in the Deep full-color booklet that reinforces class instruction to help swimmers develop confidence in their strokes and improve other aquatic skills.

Level 5: Stroke Refinement
Purpose: Provides further coordination and refinement of strokes. Level 5 participants learn to:

• Perform the following:
• Standing dive
• Shallow dive, glide two body lengths and begin any front stroke
• Tuck surface dive
• Pike surface dive
• Front flip turn
• Backstroke flip turn
• Front and back crawl
• Butterfly
• Breaststroke
• Elementary backstroke
• Sidestroke
• Tread water with two different kicks
• Learn survival swimming

Level 6: Swimming and Skill Proficiency
Purpose: Refines the strokes so students swim them with ease, efficiency, power and smoothness over greater distances. Level 6 is designed with “menu” options that each focus on preparing students to participate in more advanced courses, including the Water Safety Instructor and Lifeguard Training courses. These options include:

• Personal Water Safety
• Fundamentals of Diving
• Lifeguard Readiness
• Fitness Swimmer

American Red Cross Water Safety Today

Designed to help increase safety wherever and whenever water sports are enjoyed, American Red Cross Water Safety Today teaches easy-to-remember safety tips for pools, spas, water parks, lakes, rivers, oceans and more. This course is ideal for parents, the general public, youth in grades 4-12 or youth organizations, and people who participate in activities in and around the water, such as camp staff and campers. Participants receive a Water Safety Handbook.

American Red Cross Longfellow’s WHALE Tales

American Red Cross Longfellow's WHALE Tales provides easy-to-follow information to help children learn safe behavior in, on and around the water. Taught in a classroom session, WHALE Tales makes water safety fun and easy to learn. Each lesson is reinforced with color posters, worksheets, activities and a video that features Longfellow, the animated whale. Longfellow's WHALE Tales includes eight basic lessons.

• Swim with a buddy in a supervised area.
• Be cool, follow the rule—the reasons behind water safety rules.
• Look before you leap—choose safe places to swim and dive.
• Think so you don't sink—what to do when things go wrong.
• Reach or throw, don't go—safe ways to rescue a swimmer in trouble.
• Don’t just pack it, wear your jacket—the importance of wearing a life jacket.
• Cold can kill—knowing the hazards.
• Learn about boating before you go floating.