“Let's talk about water safety, swimming, kids, families, and supporting community nonprofit organizations!”
I'm the Executive Director of Hope Floats Foundation, a small and mighty national nonprofit organization helping local swim schools build sustainable scholarship programs using a "local funds for local kids" model to increase access to high quality lessons! Drowning is the leading cause of death for kids under 5, an the second leading cause of death for kids under 14, and swimming lessons have been shown to decrease the risk of drowning death by up to 88%. Water safety education and swimming are critical, essential, life-saving skills that everyone should have access to, but unfortunately, don't. I get to talk to folks from the swim school industry, and families taking advantage of and benefitting from their services, every day, but more awareness (and funding) is always needed, and I'd love to be able to have some of these conversations on a wider scale!
I'm the oldest sibling, oldest cousin of many on both sides of my family, from a loud Irish and Italian family. So.. I can definitely talk! (And argue...)I'm also a certified prevention specialist so beyond water safety I'm passionate about all things prevention, like talking to kids about substance use, positive mental health promotion, and building support systems. As a community psychologist and career non-profit leader, I also love being in community with folks who I can learn from, asking questions, looking for connections, and listening. Last but not least, I'm a mom of two daughters, which always makes for a good story.
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