Fix Public Spaces 4: Rethink Lifeguarding for Longer and Hotter Summers
Climate change means adapting to new swimming patterns.
For many of us, this September has been another case of above average temperatures, with summer-like weather extending well beyond Labour Day.
When it’s hot out, many people want to get in the water. Swimming pools or beaches.
But many cities do not keep swimming facilities open in the new shoulder seasons.
This is an unfortunate failure to adapt that increases the risk of drowning. It is also a sign of a City Hall that is not keeping up with the changing needs of its residents.
There are three approaches that cities can adopt to keep swimming facilities open as demand shifts with climate change.
1. More flexible rec budgets
Too often, city budgets are set based on what was done last year. Which is based on what was done the year before. And so on.
That might mean swimming facilities open on schedules that made sense a decade ago.
A first step for cities is to look at their budgets for recreational facilities and understand the costs of introducing flexibility in their schedule. Flexibility to accommodate heat waves early or late in the season.
In overall budget terms, the cost of keeping pools open for an extra few weeks is normally not that large. However, it does require budgets that have can accommodate the unexpected. Sometimes that requires formal funding envelopes; sometimes it just requires pragmatism and a willingness at City Hall to get it done.
2. Financial support to develop more lifeguards
For cities with a chronic shortage of lifeguards, the problem is often a financial one.
It takes a lot of time and cost a lot of money to train to become a lifeguard. Typically, students have to spend about $1,000 in courses to become a lifeguard.
And once they have gone through that training and incurred those expenses, the additional couple of bucks an hour in wages that a lifeguard can expect over other available jobs, make people wonder if the effort was worth it.
In addition, many families simply cannot afford the upfront expense. This is particularly true for families where swimming was not the norm growing up, and where there is a lower expectation of being able to swim.
To overcome these barriers, cities can consider implementing new financial mechanisms to make lifeguarding more accessible. For example, cities could offer a forgivable loan program that provides families with course credits to get kids trained in lifeguarding. Those credits, once used, would be converted into a loan, but which could be forgiven when the new lifeguard has worked for a season or two with the city.
A forgivable loan program would dramatically alter the household economics of training to become a lifeguard. It would also make lifeguarding a viable option for lower income families who otherwise might not have the choice. This would have the added benefit of creating more role models of swimmers from lower income and diverse communities. Role models who would serve to inspire a new generation of swimmers.
3. More than just student lifeguards
Lifeguarding has been done traditionally by secondary and post-secondary students. That ensures a supply of lifeguarding in the summer months when school is out of session.
It also means, however, that when students return to the classroom there is not the same availability of lifeguards for unseasonably warm fall days.
We should be encouraging more adult lifeguards and swimming instructors.
More adult swimming lessons
A focus on student lifeguards also doesn’t reflect emerging trends in the market for swimming lessons.
Immigration has created more diverse cities. In many cases, new arrivals come from countries where swimming was not the norm. As a result, an increasing share of adults in our cities have grown up without learning how to swim.
This increases the risk of drownings at our pools and beaches. It also means that there are not the same role models to get the next generation into swimming.
With a greater diversity of lifeguards, in particular more adult lifeguards, cities can provide more swimming lessons to the parents of new immigrant families. Using adult lifeguards and adult instructors to teach adult students, cities can take advantage of school and other off-peak hours that do not compete with swimming lessons for kids.
A life skill
Many of us grew up taking swimming lessons for granted. That just does not seem to be the case today.
Getting kids into affordable public swimming lessons has, in some cities, become a fierce competition. As a result, some families are forced into more expensive private lessons. Other families just miss out entirely.
That doesn’t need to be the case. The three policies above would allow cities to offer more swimming lessons, supported by the necessary lifeguards, to a wider range of residents. It would also allow cities to better adapt to the impacts of climate change and the demand for extended swimming seasons.