We believe that learning to swim is a life skill, not a privilege. Swimming builds confidence, self-reliance, and safety, and our goal is to make instruction a standard part of every child’s education. Drowning also remains one of the leading causes of accidental death for children, yet access to lessons is often limited in low-income communities.
Building on more than a decade of work that began with the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation’s Swim for Life initiative, the Foundation supports public-private partnerships that deliver high-quality, school-day swim instruction at scale. By helping schools, community organizations, and public agencies coordinate resources, we aim to create sustainable models that ensure all children gain the skills to be safe and confident around water. Current efforts we are supporting in this category include:
1. YMCA of Greater New York, JCC of Staten Island, and NYC Parks Department: The Foundation is supporting a collaborative effort among the YMCA of Greater New York, the JCC of Staten Island, and the New York City Parks Department to teach second graders on Staten Island to swim. This partnership brings together organizations with strong community roots and established swim programs to deliver 8–10 weeks of in-school lessons for 840 students across 11 elementary schools located in poorer areas of Staten Island.
Each partner uses an evidence-based curriculum and shared assessment framework to track skill development, while transportation and coordination are handled in collaboration with schools. The program also includes a parent-child swim component to reinforce safety education at home. By focusing on one borough and aligning multiple providers under a common framework, the initiative offers a practical demonstration of how coordinated delivery can overcome barriers to access.
2. Asphalt Green: With our support, Asphalt Green is reaching district-wide saturation of free, school-day swim instruction for second graders in Manhattan’s Community School District 4 (East Harlem). Through its Waterproofing program, Asphalt Green already serves most public elementary schools in the district. Our funding is enabling the organization to reach every remaining school, ensuring that all District 4 students have the opportunity to learn to swim as part of their school day.
This achievement provides a rare example of full, district-level implementation, showing that universal swim access within a public-school system is both feasible and effective when supported by strong local leadership and coordination. The organization is also exploring replication of this model in another NYC district, identifying underutilized pools that can be reactivated to serve local students.
3. Zero Drowning Initiative: In Miami-Dade County, the Foundation is supporting the Zero Drowning Initiative, a county-wide collaboration led by The Miami Foundation to eliminate childhood drowning deaths – the leading cause of accidental death for children under 14 in the region. The initiative provides free, American Red Cross-certified swim instruction and multilingual water-safety education to preschool and kindergarten students, with a goal of reaching 20,000 children annually.
The program is embedded into the school day, with free transportation and robust family engagement. Its comprehensive evaluation system tracks skill gains and program fidelity, coordinated by public partners including Miami-Dade County, The Children’s Trust, and the newly established Office of Drowning Prevention.