Welcome to Swim Central!

Is your child's life in danger? Drowning is the number-one killer of children ages 4 and under. Swim Central wants to change that.

Call 954-357-SWIM (7946)

Volunteer Application for the School Board of Broward County.

Water safety is a top priority in South Florida where there are thousands of swimming pools, beaches, canals, and other waterways. In the late 1990s, the need for a drowning prevention program became clear when the number of drowning accidents among children aged five and under grew to an average of 10 deaths a year. Near-drowning accidents took a serious toll as well, with three out of four victims suffering brain damage.

Beginning in 1997, a number of private and public organizations throughout Broward County joined forces to organize an instructional swimming program that would reach young children and teach them how to be safe in the water.

"When we first started discussing how to reach every pre-first-grade child in Broward County, it was a complicated logistical and public relations challenge," says Mike Harlan, Assistant Director, Broward County Parks and Recreation.

SWIM Central was formally established in 1999 by the Broward County Commission with initial start-up funding from the Commission's reserve of $82,000. Shortly thereafter, a collaborative partnership was established with the Broward County School Board and the Florida Legislature, which agreed to a special appropriation of $200,000 for in-school pre-K, K, and First Grade water safety education and instruction. Additional County grant funds were sought to launch a massive community outreach program to educate parents about local swim programs. Soon, parents became acutely aware of the need to get their pre-school and kindergarten age children into a water safety class.

As a result of SWIM Central, aquatics programs became available countywide and were soon filled to capacity with children learning to stay afloat in the water and bob for air. Substantial additional funding, over $700,000 in 2005, now comes from a third collaborative partner, the Children's Service Council of Broward County. Besides funding for programming, funds were also allocated for recruitment, training, and certification of swimming instructors, and basic First Aid and CPR instruction for parents and guardians.

Under the auspices of the Broward County Commission's 2000 Safe Parks and Land Preservation Bond Program, nearly $20 million has been allocated for SWIM Central Capital Bond Grants to construct new aquatic facilities by and in many of Broward's municipalities and at several facilities of eligible nonprofit organizations, such as area Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCAs, and JCCs. As a result, a net increase of 18 major new aquatic facilities will provide additional venues for SWIM Central and other desirable aquatics and water safety community programming. Many of these new facilities are already on-line and open to the public.

Housed at Broward County Parks and Recreation, SWIM Central has become the County's chief coordinating agency for water safety instruction and awareness. It maintains the most comprehensive database in Florida, tracking every single swimming pool and program in the county.

"We want to keep resident children at resident pools," notes Mike Harlan. Since 1999, more than 145,000 children have gone through the SWIM Central program and over 1 million lessons have been provided. In 2007, water safety instruction and education lessons were provided to more than 26,170 children in partnership with public elementary and charter schools, as well as day care centers, in Broward County.

Today, there are more than 130 elementary schools that participate in SWIM Central educational programming and transporting students to neighborhood pools for in-pool water safety instruction. Parents of children in day care centers are also being reached and many summer camp programs have a SWIM Central participation component.

SWIM Central provides ten 30-minute classes over a two-week period for Broward County School Board elementary school children to learn basic and valuable water safety and swimming skills -- at no cost to the parent. The curriculum-based program is taught by certified water safety instructors that have been selected and carefully trained through SWIM Central.

The success of SWIM Central has gained attention nationwide. It is the only program of its type in the country, which has heightened parent and community awareness and acted as a conduit of water safety programs -- benefiting many thousands of children, protecting our County's most precious commodity and our future.

Back to Top