The City of Coquitlam is working with the Lifesaving Society of B.C. & Yukon to offer the Swim for Life swimming instruction program.
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The City of Coquitlam has partnered with the Canadian Red Cross for many years to deliver Red Cross swim curriculum (most recently known as “Swim Kids”) and instructor training in the City’s aquatic facilities. Earlier this year, the Canadian Red Cross announced it will no longer offer learn to swim curriculum beyond the 2022 calendar year.
The Canadian Red Cross announced they are winding down swimming and lifeguard programs to focus on surging humanitarian demands in other areas, including disaster and pandemic response, opioid harm reduction and caregiving for seniors.
Swim for Life programs will commence for Winter 2023 swimming lessons (January 2023 onward).
Registration for Winter 2023 swimming programs will begin Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 8:30 a.m. Programming will be viewable online on Monday, Nov. 7 at 8:30 a.m.
Use the conversion chart to determine what level is appropriate for you or your child based on age, ability and previous Red Cross Swim Kids level (if applicable).
If you or your child previously participated in Red Cross programming with the City of Coquitlam, a record of successfully completed levels have been saved in the registration system. This will help when registering for the equivalent Swim for Life level.
Please connect with a Coquitlam Aquatics staff member. They can help answer questions or help arrange a free, in-water evaluation of you or your child's current swimming competencies.
Swimming lesson participants can only be registered for one set of lessons at a time. You may register your child for the next set of lessons on the last day of the current set. This allows for more families to gain access to the limited number of available lessons. If you are currently registered in a swim lesson set in the Fall 2022 season, you will need to wait until it has concluded before registering for Winter 2023 swimming lessons.
Red Cross Swim Kids and other Red Cross aquatic programming will continue to be offered by the City of Coquitlam for the remainder of the 2022 calendar year.
The new program pricing will be similar to the current Red Cross lessons and will only vary based on the total number of lessons. Most lesson sets will be 10 classes/days. The price will be reduced if the set is a 8 or 9 classes/days.
The Swim for Life program also offers three levels of youth lessons.
All participants will receive a progress report card that will detail skills they have successfully achieved and any things that may need further work or improvement.