National Drowning Prevention Alliance’s Post

Transcript

Good afternoon, everyone. Wow, how powerful of a moment this is where we're all collected here together. 1st. I want to acknowledge the families that have lost their child due to drowning. Want to also acknowledge 2 friends of ours for diversity and Aquatics. Kareem's mother Markeisha from Kareem Foundation. And also. One of our programs that we've started Deedee. For. Carmel Bullock. And what he's meant to us as a diversity and Aquatics family. And how powerful these families have turned tragedy. Into purpose here. And why each of us are here. Doing the work that we are doing. As a part of drowning prevention and water safety. Understand that this cannot be done alone. Nor in silos. As many of our speakers have spoken today. There is not just one way to prevent drownings. There are so many things that we have to acknowledge. As a part of the issue. And what has caused the unintentional drowning? Whether it be barriers? Whether it be policy? And for us at Diversity and Aquatics and what we acknowledge also historical factors. And environmental. Let's acknowledge the land in which we are at right now. This is indigenous land. That has built upon. And I seen the flourishing growth that we have just heard about today. Where there are more places to stay in Airbnb's and verbose than there are hotels. Water is all around us. It is continuing to grow. Not only building pools in our backyards, but as the lawyer just said, there are now waterways, canal waves. There are different places where our message needs to reach to climate create safer communities. And that's up to us. To do so. And so I do want to thank my diversity and Aquatics family and each of the families for being here today to spreading that message. But what I want to encourage you. Is to take this message and take action. Listen to communities. Work with communities. Partner with communities. This isn't a place where we go in and say yes. I was just at this press conference and now I'm the savior ready to go. It is working with communities and listening to what are the needs of that community. Because not all communities are gonna come to the water because many of them have been tragically affected because of historical policies or even environmental practices that have created disparities we see today. There's trauma, real trauma we have to address in this space. And so by sitting and listening to communities, we create a space where we can collaboratively work together towards developing solutions to make the water safer. But guess what? Just as what was said to create our next advocates, our next environmentalist, our next marine biologist in this space. Next, when you leave here today, what I want you to do is also acknowledge the social justice that has to take place. When you're sitting in your town hall meetings. When you're advocating for policies, make sure you're doing it equitably. Make sure that you are acknowledging the barriers that are also affecting that community and you are voting in policies and practices that are going to have equitably affect the communities in which we are trying to serve. A splash park on this side. A full Aquatic Center on this side. Is that equitable? Is what affable the policies that are for saving retention ponds and canal ways on one side versus another side? Is that equitable to commute create safe spaces for our communities? So I urge you to go to those town hall meetings. I urge you to get behind. Representatives that are advocating for water safety in our community so that we can move water safety forward and not just in this room. The next I want to say. Is beyond that. Work with each other and be each other support mechanism. I wouldn't be here today without the support of many of the people that you see up here, but also the people that you see behind the cameras. Because each of these people are working in communities to make sure that they are safer. Talk to them, work with them, reach out to open hand to say what is it that you see that I don't see in this space? Because each of us can make our community safer. Each of us can reach one as our our friend and our Board of Marriage or Meritus 10 Roland would say, reach one, teach one. And that's all up to us. So beyond this, we've got three steps to take. Make sure you make those steps because that is the way that we make the change that we want to see. And we also honor the families that have been tragically impacted by drowning. Thank you.