Making Waves Canada

CATEGORY: Health

LOCATION: Halifax, Hamilton, London, Montreal, Okanagan, Ottawa, St. John, Toronto, Winnipeg, Beirut, Lebanon, Canada

Making Waves Canada

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Making Waves Canada is a non profit program that provides affordable and accessible one on one swimming instruction to kids with special needs. We target those in society who are at the greatest risk of drowning.

Standings & Awards

12 out of 422 in North America
17 out of 284 in Health
13 out of 173 in Scale
29 out of 992 in Charitable
81 out of 4003 Overall

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VOTES

Making Waves International

Making Waves changes the lives of children with disabilities.

Despite the positive effects of swimming, bodies of water remain uniquely dangerous spaces. Indeed, children with special needs can be at higher risk to suffering a submersion injury (i.e. a drowning-related injury) than the general population, as a result of factors like fascination with water, reduced mobility or a tendency to wander. In some cases, children can be more than 10 times likelier to suffer a submersion injury than the general population as a result of their disability, which is why we focus on water safety and injury prevention.

Children with special needs may find the learning environment of typical swimming lessons ill-suited to their needs. Indeed, the group setting of lessons dilutes the attention each child receives and may not be helpful in ensuring their success. Cost becomes an increasingly important issue when one realizes that fully one quarter of children with disabilities live in families with incomes below the poverty line.
Making Waves chapters attempt to further break down the financial barrier involved in lessons by providing services affordable to even those living below the low-income cutoff. Across our locations, we charge families $20-$40 as a token registration fee for a set of 9 lessons, waivable in the case of demonstrated financial need.

A positive aspect of our organization’s structure is its ability to give young, dynamic students the chance to get involved. Indeed, Making Waves provides strong teaching experience for undergraduate students interested in becoming service providers to individuals with special needs and effectively trains the trainer by teaching them the importance of developmentally appropriate practices for all children in recreational environments.

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Roadmap to Success:

roadmap_to_success.doc

FIVE PROJECT QUESTIONS Required (60 - 90 minutes)

1. What is your innovation?

Making Waves Canada is a non-profit program that provides affordable and accessible one on one swimming instruction to kids with special needs.We are able to be more effective in injury prevention by providing lessons specifically targeted and adapted to those children at highest risk of drowning in our society. We recruit our volunteers from the abundance of university-aged, qualified swimming instructors and work with our community partners to properly train, educate and prepare them.

2. Who gains the most?

There are many people who gain from Making Waves. First and foremost, the children in the program gain. Not only are these children getting quality one on one swimming instruction, but they are also gaining important knowledge, life lessons, and confidence. Secondly, the instructors gain as they are introduced to a unique opportunity, which allows them to go outside of their own comfort zone and to truly make a difference in their students lives. Making Waves enhances communities as a whole.

3. Who pays?

Making Waves is a unique program in the sense that we offer affordable and accessible one on one therapy at a price below market value, but 5% above the cost of running the program. This equates to each parent paying between $20 and $40 for a block of 10 lessons. This idea is two-fold. First, no person will be turned away from Making Waves because of financial reasons. Secondly, with the 5% that each chapter takes in each session, this money will be used to expand Making Waves internationally!

4. What is your success?

Over the past 5 years we have grown from a single community organization to a relevant multi-community service present throughout 9 cities across Canada. In the coming 12 months, we anticipate scaling up our expansion to reach a total of 15 chapters across Canada. In the coming 3 years, we will pursue growth to the United States, establishing 10 strategically located chapters. Looking forward, we anticipate further expansion across North America and into other campus-cities worldwide.

5. How will you do it?

Our goal is to be a program that can be accessible to all classes of society, by maintaining a price of lessons that are below market value. At the same time, we encourage each chapter to be charging a price that is 5% above cost. With the money that is brought in by each chapter, we will use it to fund our international Summer Fellowship program, which will allow us to expand worldwide. Most importantly, Making Waves is an easily reproducible concept-all it requires is locally active youth.