Get Wet! Swim for Free began as a joint project between:

• Barking & Dagenham Primary Care Trust,
• London Borough of Barking and
• Dagenham Council and London Swimming,

and it is aimed at improving the health of all 0-18 year olds in Barking & Dagenham.  Running from September 2008 till the end of August 2011, this project aims to get more children swimming more often through a variety of means including:

• Free access to public swimming sessions via the Get Wet! Swim for Free Card
• Funding for additional lessons as part of the Education Learn to Swim programme
• Free Adult & Child swimming classes for 0-3 year olds and their adult carers
• Free Mini-Polo, Flip N’ Fun, Aqua Fun and Mini-Snorkelling to provide a fully accessible programme that gives pathways into a wide variety of aquatic sports
• A fully funded Aquatics Apprenticeship for 17-25 year olds in Barking & Dagenham to help young people grow an aquatics career, and to develop all the skills needed to deliver new programming in Barking & Dagenham and to create an enduring skills legacy

 

How we have grown

This project has expanded with the support of funding from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to include 0-16 year olds and people over 60 not resident in Barking & Dagenham.  We recognise that to make a real impact we need to address the issue of access.  Many people have not been able to learn to swim and may even be intimidated by the idea of trying.

We are looking to:

Grow new swimming teachers and aqua fitness instructors

Offer lessons tailored to people at the very beginning of learning how to swim, or who are scared

Develop Aqua Circuits and other structured programming to help people get fitter and sign-post them to aquatic possibilities.