SWAM Toronto

SwimAbility Canada is a not-for profit student initiative founded in 2009. Our mission is to provide the organizational and logistical support necessary to facilitate the opening and operation of SwimAbility programs across the country. SwimAbility chapters provide affordable and accessible one-on-one swimming instruction to children with specific needs. We engage vetted student volunteers as service providers of barrier-free water safety and swimming instruction to children with special needs. SwimAbility builds on the institutional strengths and successes of existing swimming lesson organizations. We are able to be more effective in injury prevention by providing lessons specifically targeted and adapted to those children at highest risk of drowning in our society. We recruit our volunteers from the abundance of university-aged, qualified swimming instructors and work with our community partners to properly train, educate and prepare them for the rigours of working with children with specific needs. We rent out pool space twice a week, batch lessons together and assign one instructor to each child. By using innovative techniques to dramatically cut our operating expenses, as well as by actively fundraising, we are able to offer private swimming instruction at a rate affordable even by those living under the poverty line.