Estimated Price

£2,500

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Summary

We would like to train volunteer parents to be accredited swim coaches. Up to Level 2 Scottish swimming accreditation is required. This will allow the selected parents of West Dunbartonshire to coach the next generation of local swimmers. Once trained, they will provide their time free of charge for the benefits of children in our community. Using volunteers to coach swimming skills, significantly reduces the cost burden for parents of West Dunbartonshire

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Description

Our ambition is to grow community participation in club swimming to 200+ which represents 1.3% of West Dunbartonshire’s child population.

This application is to support the training of our parent volunteers. This will lead to a reduction of costs and support growth of club swimming in our community

Increasing participation in club swimming can improve the quality of life of individuals and our community. It 100% promotes social inclusion as it improves health, & raises individual self-esteem and confidence that will generally widen the horizons of West Dunbartonshire’s young people.

In conjunction with other factors, swimming has the potential to contribute positively to society in general, such as reduce the risk of ill-health: physical & mental. The skills obtained by joining our swim club can help develop our young people’s independence and self-sufficiency. Our swim club activities also provide a social space where children can interact. This, in turn, decreases the risk of social isolation. We know that being active brings about positive changes beyond participation and can impact positively on young people in our community - being better connected and socially cohesive. WDASC uses swimming as a tool, to address wider individual and community needs such as social isolation and loneliness. The power of swimming and physical activity has the potential to bring about positive, often interrelated changes and its impact cannot be underestimated within our communities.

We know being active has a positive impact on mental health, including: improving mood, increasing self-esteem, lowers the risk of depression, improves sleep and reduces stress. Swimming has helped to reduce the symptoms of anxiety or depression for 1.4 million adults in Britain. Almost half a million British adults with mental health problems have stated swimming has helped to reduce the number of visits to a medical professional regarding their mental health.

The average training time of our young swimmers is approx. 3 hours of physical activity per week. The health benefits of swimming are ell known. The NHS recommend a minimum of 60 mins vigorous physical activity per week for our young people. Sadly, outside of football, gymnastics & dance schools, there are limitations for children in West Dunbartonshire to participate in such activity. It is our clubs goal to reach to as many of our young people as possible. It’s one of the few activities that attract both boys & girls

Total cost: £2750. Amount applied for is £2,500 with the remainder to be covered by club fund raising.

Tutoring course run by Scottish Swimming is £1,250. 3 x Parents trained to Level 2 accreditation is £500 x 3