Education and Awareness

EDUCATION

  • Chicago Park District piloted lakeside water safety events in Summer 2021 with water safety training for re-orientation to water after summer. Topics included how to recognize a swimmer in distress, buddy system, when it’s safe to swim, how to respond to a swimmer in distress, and more. They also created a Community Water Safety Training course with a curriculum focusing on Chain of Drowning Survival, adapted from in-person to video for pandemic times. Additional events are planned for Summer 2022.

  • Lurie Children’s Hospital is placing static water safety information in doctor’s offices.

  • Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project translated their widely-used school curriculum to video format in response to the pandemic, thanks to a generous grant from The ZAC Foundation.

  • Lurie Children’s Hospital applied for, and received, the Illinois/Indiana Sea Grant for an evaluation of the Chicago Park District’s community-based water safety education program and to implement, pilot, and evaluate the Swim to Survive Program, generously donated by Lifesaving Society - Canada.

  • Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project created an educational video on dangerous currents in the Great Lakes.

  • Several members of the Water Safety Task Force Metro Chicago are involved in the creation of the first U.S. National Water Safety Action Plan.

AWARENESS

  • Lurie Children’s Hospital and Safe Kids Chicago participated in social media campaigns for National Water Safety Month, Pool Safely Day, and Worldwide Drowning Awareness Day, resulting in 6,300 impressions.

  • Dupage County Health Department was awarded two consecutive federal grants to create awareness campaigns. They will be creating regional training on building codes for professionals who are working for public health and building departments.

  • Water Safety Task Force Metro Chicago appears in the first documentary about rip currents in the U.S., ‘Rip Current Rescue’, scheduled for release on PBS in Summer 2022. Rip currents are responsible for 80% of rescues every year. The documentary provides life-saving information about how to identify dangerous currents, and how to escape a rip current.

  • Water Safety Task Force Metro Chicago participated in a Lakefront Water Safety press conference in June 2021, garnering 24 media placements in print, social and broadcast media, and 95 million impressions.

Sarah Moon