First, I wanted to run a needs assessment to establish whether or not there was even interest in the international student community.
🐬A survey was sent out during the fall semester to capture the input of both, current first semester and higher semester, international students 🐬A total of 191 students responded to the survey, 61% female, 39% male 🐬51% said they cannot swim, and another 14% said they can just about float for a minute 🐬130 responses said yes to “start swimming lessons immediately when they are available” 🐬Close to 70% of respondents said they would like to eventually become good swimmers, 9% said treading water for 15 min would suffice, and another 23% would like to become expert swimmers.
This data supported the efforts to realize the idea.
Next Steps.
🐬Min 5 participants were needed. Max 16. 🐬The City of Toronto requires that their licensed life guards facilitate the swimming lessons 🐬The cost per participant payable to the City of Toronto is$109.00 for nine 60-min lessons in the Winter of 2017 🐬The pool can arrange for a female instructor to instruct female students, if necessary, but cannot guarantee that there won’t be a male within the pool facilities, nor can you shield women from being seen due to the way the Humber Pool is built (windows offering a view of the pool from the outside) (the survey results did not yield any urgency in this matter) 🐬The Albion pool at Kipling/Albion Rd is offering female-only sessions on Sundays if any of the students require this accommodation in the future (not evident as per the current survey)
The pilot group.
In March of 2017, we were able to launch our pilot group.
Ignite and HRT both graciously contributed financially to fund this first pilot for a total of 10 students. Students were asked for a self contribution of $10.
An opening ceremony to raise awareness among students and the interested public was held.
The result.
The program was a success.
The students did not know how to swim at all when they started, and by the end of the program, they had learned to tread water and to swim across the width of the pool.
Some of them planned on enrolling into continuing classes (there are two more adult programs available through the City of Toronto).
Other educational institutions called expressing interest in running this kind of program on their campus as well.
Since then, students in the Sports Management Program have taken on the task of forming a swimming club that regularly takes swimmers and non-swimmers to our pool during Humber leisure swim times.