About
Swim Strong Foundation Swim Programs offers several types of instruction, including Get Ready Get Wet, Learn to Swim, Competitive & Stroke Enhancement, Bootcamp, Water Safety Training Programs, the Know Before You Go! water safety education series, and an Adaptive Program. Get Ready Get Wet introduces new swimmers to the water and builds comfort and confidence in preparation for actual swim instruction, while Learn to Swim classes teach proper breathing and streamlining techniques, freestyle, and backstroke, with an advanced class that continues to focus on freestyle and backstroke. The Stroke Enhancement Program teaches breaststroke, butterfly, starts, and turns to swimmers who already have good freestyle and backstroke, and the Competitive Program focuses on improving speed and stamina across all events for swimmers who are already on a swim team, including triathletes, competitive swimmers, and water sport clinic participants. The Adaptive Program provides water safety education and teaches swimming skills to help children with autism be safe, effective, and confident in the water, and Know Before You Go! focuses on life-threatening risks associated with different bodies of water, from inside homes to lakes, rivers, and the ocean, and can be delivered in person, remotely, or in a hybrid format using digital platforms like Google Classroom and Zoom.
• Ages: 3–18 years old
• Schedule: Two-month swimming class sessions with new sessions beginning in January, March, May, July, September, and November; online registration opens around the 20th of the month before each new session begins.
• Price: James Madison HS – Get Ready Get Wet (Adult) – Saturday – Mar/Apr 2026: $135.00 per class option; James Madison HS – Get Ready Get Wet (Youth) – Saturday – Mar/Apr 2026: $135.00 per class option; James Madison HS – Competitive & Stroke Enhancement – Saturday – Mar/Apr 2026: $270.00 per class option; Know Before You Go®, Water Safety for ALL: $39.99.
All programs are for adults and youth, and swimmers in Learn to Swim must be a mature 6 years of age or older, able to stand in 4′–5″ of water, and capable of taking direction from an instructor independent from their parents. Pools are generally 4 feet deep in the shallow end, and students who are not able to demonstrate competent independent movement and balance in 4-foot-deep water must be accompanied by an adult family member in the water with them; children participating in certain classes must also have an adult family member join them in the water. Children as young as 3 years old can participate in Get Ready Get Wet if an adult family member joins them in the water, and other information from the program notes that children as young as 6 years old can participate in Get Ready Get Wet if an adult family member joins them in the water. A sponsor offer provides 20% off when families use code SWIMSTRONG at the Finis checkout.
Swim Strong Foundation states that its mission is to save and change lives through water safety education and teaching swimming skills, provide affordable swim programs to stop drowning, guide students from age three through adult towards a healthy lifestyle via exercise, proper nutrition and competitive sports, provide financial assistance to ensure children and their families have access to swim lessons, reduce unintentional drowning death and water-based accidents by providing environmental water safety educational programming and teaching strong swimming skills, and supply expertise and support to organizations that promote competitive swimming. The organization notes that all it takes is 2 inches of water and 2 minutes to drown, that drowning is the 2nd leading cause of death for children and 5th leading cause for people of all ages in the U.S., and that African American children have the highest rates of death by drowning, three times higher than any other demographic group. Since 2007, Swim Strong Foundation has provided 10,000+ people with swim lessons and more than $1 million in free swim lessons to families, and it is celebrating 19 years. Reported outcomes of participants include joining community-based swim teams, US Swim Clubs, high school and college teams, becoming coaches, certified lifeguards, obtaining WSI Certification, joining US Diving and US Water Polo teams, enlisting in the Coast Guard, Navy, and Marines, becoming a commercial diver, joining the NYPD, and becoming Emergency Medical Technicians.
Since 2018, Swim Strong Foundation has taught the Know Before You Go! dry-side, in-person water safety educational programming in 16 schools to 7,000 students. Since 2019, it has run a community outreach program, particularly to communities of color who are not yet embracing swimming skills as a priority and are experiencing the largest loss of life due to drowning, and it has showcased “A Film Called Blacks Can’t Swim” by British hip hop artist and activist Ed Accura to several NAACP and church groups, reaching about 650 people. The program materials describe swimming as the best all-around exercise for cardio/pulmonary and total body workout that can positively impact people with obesity, coronary, type 2 diabetes and other chronic diseases, and state that competency in swimming opens doors to other water-based sports and offers opportunities for college scholarships. They also state that life lessons from swimming include discipline, confidence, goal setting, commitment, perseverance, resiliency, and teamwork, which are integrated throughout one’s lifetime in academics, careers, and community service.
Last updated April 17, 2026.
• Ages: 3–18 years old
• Schedule: Two-month swimming class sessions with new sessions beginning in January, March, May, July, September, and November; online registration opens around the 20th of the month before each new session begins.
• Price: James Madison HS – Get Ready Get Wet (Adult) – Saturday – Mar/Apr 2026: $135.00 per class option; James Madison HS – Get Ready Get Wet (Youth) – Saturday – Mar/Apr 2026: $135.00 per class option; James Madison HS – Competitive & Stroke Enhancement – Saturday – Mar/Apr 2026: $270.00 per class option; Know Before You Go®, Water Safety for ALL: $39.99.
All programs are for adults and youth, and swimmers in Learn to Swim must be a mature 6 years of age or older, able to stand in 4′–5″ of water, and capable of taking direction from an instructor independent from their parents. Pools are generally 4 feet deep in the shallow end, and students who are not able to demonstrate competent independent movement and balance in 4-foot-deep water must be accompanied by an adult family member in the water with them; children participating in certain classes must also have an adult family member join them in the water. Children as young as 3 years old can participate in Get Ready Get Wet if an adult family member joins them in the water, and other information from the program notes that children as young as 6 years old can participate in Get Ready Get Wet if an adult family member joins them in the water. A sponsor offer provides 20% off when families use code SWIMSTRONG at the Finis checkout.
Swim Strong Foundation states that its mission is to save and change lives through water safety education and teaching swimming skills, provide affordable swim programs to stop drowning, guide students from age three through adult towards a healthy lifestyle via exercise, proper nutrition and competitive sports, provide financial assistance to ensure children and their families have access to swim lessons, reduce unintentional drowning death and water-based accidents by providing environmental water safety educational programming and teaching strong swimming skills, and supply expertise and support to organizations that promote competitive swimming. The organization notes that all it takes is 2 inches of water and 2 minutes to drown, that drowning is the 2nd leading cause of death for children and 5th leading cause for people of all ages in the U.S., and that African American children have the highest rates of death by drowning, three times higher than any other demographic group. Since 2007, Swim Strong Foundation has provided 10,000+ people with swim lessons and more than $1 million in free swim lessons to families, and it is celebrating 19 years. Reported outcomes of participants include joining community-based swim teams, US Swim Clubs, high school and college teams, becoming coaches, certified lifeguards, obtaining WSI Certification, joining US Diving and US Water Polo teams, enlisting in the Coast Guard, Navy, and Marines, becoming a commercial diver, joining the NYPD, and becoming Emergency Medical Technicians.
Since 2018, Swim Strong Foundation has taught the Know Before You Go! dry-side, in-person water safety educational programming in 16 schools to 7,000 students. Since 2019, it has run a community outreach program, particularly to communities of color who are not yet embracing swimming skills as a priority and are experiencing the largest loss of life due to drowning, and it has showcased “A Film Called Blacks Can’t Swim” by British hip hop artist and activist Ed Accura to several NAACP and church groups, reaching about 650 people. The program materials describe swimming as the best all-around exercise for cardio/pulmonary and total body workout that can positively impact people with obesity, coronary, type 2 diabetes and other chronic diseases, and state that competency in swimming opens doors to other water-based sports and offers opportunities for college scholarships. They also state that life lessons from swimming include discipline, confidence, goal setting, commitment, perseverance, resiliency, and teamwork, which are integrated throughout one’s lifetime in academics, careers, and community service.
Last updated April 17, 2026.
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