Photo Credit: Courtesy of City of Chandler Community Services Department
In the winter of 2010, there were five drowning incidents in the city of Chandler, Ariz. These tragedies prompted the city’s fire department and aquatic division to develop a drowning-prevention coalition. The partnership’s mission was simple—to increase awareness of these unfortunate accidents, and to prevent future drowning incidents throughout the community.
Creating Community Awareness
Last summer, the aquatic division created a series of public-service videos regarding healthy swim habits, aquatic pool rules, and sun safety, and posted a “Pool Safely” game on the city’s aquatic website. With a small budget for this safety campaign, the city relied on existing internal resources and produced a video in a firefighter’s backyard pool with several children, staff members, and the city’s video-production coordinator, Stacy Sacco.
Three Simple Steps
This free public-service announcement was broadcast on the city’s local-access cable channel and uploaded to the YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/ChandlerRecreation), where it garnered more than 120 views in a month. It focused on three simple steps to prevent drownings: