Youth Taking Action: Wild and Water Swimming

Saving several children from drowning was a life changing experience for Laura White. She started Wild and Water Swimming at the age of 16 to teach swimming and water safety to low-income urban youth in Atlanta, and tirelessly threw herself into rallying local support, harnessing resources, and tapping into both local and national media outlets to raise awareness and support for her project. Laura, now 18, is a student at Tulane University, a Youth Venture Ambassador and Best Buy @ 15 Challenge finalist. She is bringing Wild and Water Swimming to New Orleans and is planning for even further expansion. We spoke with Laura about her organization, asked her advice on how to gain media exposure, and her plans for the organization's future.

1) Can you tell us how your organization got started and some of the unforeseen challenges you have faced along the way?

Three important things catalyzed Wild and Water Swimming. Right before my freshman year of high school, I left competitive swimming and started looking for something to do that would fill the three hours of my day that were now freed from practices. Around the same time, I met my best friend, who has been homeless her entire life. Based on my experiences with her, I decided that it was really important that I dedicate my life to helping people. I started volunteering on a regular basis, but I still really missed having swimming as part of my regular routine. One afternoon, I was volunteering on a camping trip for inner city kids from Atlanta, GA, and was asked to supervise them on a swimming trip to the lake. I quickly found that none of the kids knew how to swim or about basic water safety, and I ended up rescuing five children from drowning at once. I realized then that my swimming friends and I had a very valuable skill that we could share with low-income children. That is how the idea for Wild and Water Swimming was born.

The biggest challenge that we have faced along the way is volunteer retention. Though Wild and Water Swimming gets a lot of volunteers, in order to achieve our mission, it is important for us to develop a core of consistent regular volunteers. This way, our kids can develop relationships with our instructors, who can serve as role models to our students. The best solution we've found to this problem is to provide awards and incentives for volunteering regularly. For example, our volunteers in the New Orleans programs get free Water Safety Instructor Training from us, which they can use to find paying swim instructor jobs.

2) How would you describe your impact?

Numbers-wise, Wild and Water Swimming has taught 150 kids how to swim in Atlanta. This means that we've provided 150 children with a skill that could potentially save their lives and that they probably would not have had the chance to learn otherwise. Many of these kids, too, have spent time on the college campuses where some of our lesson programs are located, helping them see that college is a place where they fit in and a community that welcomes them. Our students also develop relationships with our instructors, who serve as role models to them. In addition, all of our students are eligible for joining a competitive swim team for free and our students in New Orleans, after completing the swim lesson program, are eligible for lifeguard and swim instructor training. The idea behind Wild and Water Swimming is definitely changing, from the goal of just teaching kids how to swim and be safe around water, to fighting poverty holistically using the sport of swimming as a medium.

3) Where do you see your organization going?

We've recently revamped our mission to encompass the idea of using swimming as a medium to combat poverty. Using this new platform, we plan to scale our mission up. We just recently expanded to include swim lesson programs in New Orleans and are in the process of developing programs in Charlotte, NC. In late 2009/early 2010, we are hoping to also expand to Mobile, AL, Pensacola, FL, and perhaps Chicago, IL. The potential is definitely there to develop new programming to complement our swimming lessons, as long as it falls under the framework of "using swimming to combat poverty." We are currently talking with contacts in New Orleans about developing a "Community Pool Initiative," where we help to build and staff swimming pools in lower-income areas. In addition, we are working to implement an "All-Star" program to reward students for academic achievement as well as progress in swimming lessons, and are in the beginning stages of planning a healthy eating program that would provide our students with healthy lunches and nutrition tips.

4) You seem to have been very successful at getting media exposure for your venture? What media hits have you had? How have they helped?

Thank you! We have been pretty successful at garnering media attention. We have been featured in numerous local Atlanta newspapers, such as The North Fulton Times, The Neighbor, and County Line Magazine, as well as city-wide publications like The Atlanta Journal Constitution. We have also been featured on television programs, like Channel 2 Action News, Channel 46, and NBC's TODAY Show. In addition, we've been featured in national publications such as TIME Magazine: For Kids . These media features have helped tremendously on getting the word out about what we do to the community. Increasing public awareness of what your venture is doing not only draws donors and volunteers to you, but it also raises awareness about the fundamental problem you are trying to combat. I think the media attention has helped us most in helping our community recognize that drowning, particularly the disproportionately high rate of drowning among minority youth, is a serious problem.

5) What advice would you give other young social entrepreneurs on how to gain media exposure?

I would first say that first and foremost social entrepreneurs, particularly young people, must be able to speak succinctly and articulately about what their ventures are trying to accomplish. Before even seeking media attention, it would be good to have a two-to-three minute "speech" prepared that you can share with media people who interview you, or even your neighbor when he asks you about what you've been up to with your venture. The reason I think this is important is that media tends to only take fragments of what you say and put it in their reports, so it's good to just present information that you want the public to hear. Friends, family, and teachers are great resources for practicing this speech and for helping you fine-tune it. After you have your general speech prepared, you can send out press releases to newspapers, magazines, websites, and television stations, starting with those in your closest community, such as your neighborhood. There are some great resources for writing press releases at www.genv.net. It's also important not to be afraid to call and tell reporters, producers, and other staff people about your venture. The worst that they can say is no!

6) You started your venture in high school in Atlanta, but you're now in college at Tulane. How are you able to sustain your venture, living so far away?

I did start my venture while I was in high school in Atlanta. It has been difficult sustaining Wild and Water Swimming Atlanta, but I think the key to our ability to persevere has been our collection of great youth advisors and our adult board. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to have people of different grades and age groups involved in your venture, so that when you go to college, there will be other experienced venturers remaining in your original community to sustain the organization. I think good adult advisors are also critical, as students get older and move away for college while the adult advisors remain to help sustain the program.

7) What is the most important lesson you've learned from your work as a social entrepreneur?

I would say that the most important lesson I've learned as a social entrepreneur is that anyone can use what they love to make a difference. Social entrepreneurship is, to me, identifying passion and talent, collaborating with others, and developing an idea that revolutionizes a current way of doing things in an organization or industry, or creates a whole new organization or industry all together. Using this definition, I believe that everyone has a passion for something, that there are others who share this passion, and therefore together, they can create sustained change. If I had any doubt in this before, all of the amazing other Youth Venturers who have come up with amazing innovations and organizations make me sure that this is true.

Get to know other young social entrepreneurs by reading their stories and seeing videos of them in action at http://genvcampaigns.org/

If you are a young person between the ages of 12-20 and want to create positive change in your community enter your idea in a campaign or join the global movement of young changemakers at http://genv.net/