We Can Teach Every Child to Swim
This is an opinion editorial
written by Lowrey Crews, Founder and CEO of The 18th Ward
The Health Department released an RFP to expand swim lessons for youth in New Orleans in 2025. We applied, were awarded a grant, and committed to teaching at least 700 young people to swim.
We were already running a high-quality, affordable program, but we didn’t have a clear path to scale this lifesaving and public health initiative. We taught 205 young people to swim during the 2024-2025. Thanks to the New Orleans Health Department grant we expanded our swim program to serve 960 youth!
The biggest expense in operating and scaling this initiative further is pool rentals. Unlocking greater opportunities for youth and families to swim likely requires a partnership between NORD and The 18th Ward. Otherwise, our highly successful program becomes cost-prohibitive and unlikely to scale.
NORD taught 505 kids to swim in the spring of 2026. That’s 101 kids/week at each pool.
If the city offers swim lessons from 5:00-7:00pm M-F, they could serve 500 kids/week.
If the city offers lessons at this capacity across all indoor pools, that’s 2,500 kids/week.
If the city offers swim lessons on Saturdays and Sundays too, these numbers increase.
If the city offers swimming lessons four seasons per year (fall, winter, spring, summer) at all five indoor pools, we can teach at least 10,000 kids per year! This means that within the next five years we can teach every child enrolled in New Orleans Public Schools to swim before they graduate. We believe that improvements to our city’s swim program are necessary and change s possible. If we work together, I know we can achieve more!
We’re a proud participant in the Big Easy Swim Easy, a citywide initiative offering free swim lessons to children and teens across Orleans Parish. We hope the program continues as we all aim to prevent drownings, promote water safety, and increase access to lifesaving swimming education. The Big Easy Swim Easy initiative supports the City’s broader public health goals by addressing preventable childhood drowning, promoting health equity, and encouraging physical activity.
We’re grateful to all of our partners in this initiative. Our facility partners include: Dryades YMCA, Jewish Community Center, Loyola, Newman, and LSU New Orleans. Our nonprofit partners include: Carrollton Boosters, Live Oak Wilderness Camp, The Net Central City, Red Cross, and Ubuntu Village.
Our community is stronger when we work in partnership