Ideas for creating diverse pools.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)

As chronicled by Shabnam Mogharabi in her expose, "In the Minority" (Aquatics International October 2005), minority populations are scarce in swimming programs.

So how do municipalities attract diversity for public pools? As it prepares to open its first municipal swimming pool, the city of Madison, Wis., has also developed an intense, year-long recruitment program to ensure a diverse staff

The Irwin A. and Robert D. Goodman Pool, set to open in June 2006, will be mostly shallow and zero-depth, with an 8-lane, 25-meter lap area and diving boards. But this pool represents more than just a place to go swimming. We hope it will serve as a community melting pot, to bring all neighborhoods from the city together.

I was hired as a project coordinator for outreach and recruitment to begin efforts for staffing the pool. Two of us interns began this project, with a clearly defined mission: to recruit African-American, Hmong and Latino young adults from the neighborhood to train and work as lifeguards at the pool.

We started with only a basic outline of what to do. We knew the goal was to provide a swim training program, which would create a pool of diverse applicants to interview and hire. We called this program Beginner Lifeguard Aquatic Skills Training (BLAST). It is designed to give swimming opportunities to disadvantaged young adults. What that literally means is compressing years of swimming lessons into six nights of intensive, one-on-one training. After BLAST, participants can go on to take the American Red Cross lifeguard training and then apply for a job.

We are grateful that numerous donations have allowed us to make the BLAST program free of charge to participants. We are also able to offer scholarships for students to enroll in Red Cross training. In addition, there are scholarships that provide free pool admission, discounted swimming lessons, and discounted or free participation in the swim and dive teams to any child or family who would otherwise be unable to take part in these activities.

How did we go about finding participants? We began by looking up community organizations in the phone book. We developed a list of festivals, youth hot spots, schools, service organizations and media contacts to target. There were many weeks of data collection; each time we met with an organization or a group, we were told of another group with a similar mission. Contacts were always willing to share names of groups and individuals who could help.