Underserved kids offered swimming at Roeper

In an effort to offer water safety to underserved children, Roeper Schools, for the 14th year in a row, will partner with USA Swimming Foundation to offer Make a Splash swim education for children who would not have access otherwise.

Make A Splash is a national child-focused water safety initiative created by the USA Swimming Foundation in 2007. The program reaches diverse and underprivileged communities by funding learn-to-swim programs for children who could not afford them otherwise.

The program is offered at The Roeper School August 14-18. Those interested in participating should contact Carolyn Lett, director of Diversity and Community Programs, The Roeper School, carolyn.lett@roeper.org.

The Roeper School and the USA Swimming Foundation have served over 600 children throughout metro Detroit. Roeper has been a USA Swimming Foundation grant recipient several times, receiving over $20,000 to support this program which is included in the school’s operating budget.

Less than 10 percent of children of non-swimming African American and Hispanic families learn to swim. This disparity in U.S. swim education arose with segregation. For the greater part of the 20th century, Jim Crow laws barred the African American community from public pools. Discrimination and high costs blocked access to private swim clubs. Some racist ideology even dictated that African Americans were incapable of swimming as well as whites.

The lack of swimming education in these communities has cycled through generations, according to the USA Swimming Foundation. The drowning rate of African American children is three times that of white children. Today, nearly 70 percent of African American children and 58 percent of Hispanic children have minimal swimming skills or none at all. This inability inspires a potentially fatal fear of water in diverse families. Forty percent of Caucasian children do not swim, officials said.