Projects

Life & Water Safety Project

The Miami metropolitan area is the most populous in Florida, the Southeastern United States & the eighth-most populous in the United States. South Florida is known for its awesome weather and beautiful beaches. Miami’s unique year round climate and vast areas of water pose a constant and specific threat to drowning and sudden cardiac arrest in our community both in pools and natural bodies of water affecting all ages for various factors, as noted in the statistics below.

• Unintentional drowning is the leading cause of death in Miami-Dade County for children 1-4.
• The State of Florida has the highest drowning rate in the nation for this age group.
• Miami-Dade County has the 2nd highest number of child drowning deaths among all Florida counties.
• 61% of the drowning incidents, parents or multiple family members that included a parent were responsible for supervision of the child.
• CPR was performed by the individuals who discovered the victims in only 50% of cases.
• Rates of fatal drowning are especially higher by race/ethnicity in certain age groups.
• The drowning rate for black children was more than twice the rate for white children. The discrepancy in drowning rates between black and white children has escalated to where the difference between the two groups was among the highest this decade.
• 91% of drowning victims aged 35—44 years were intoxicated at the time of the incident.

FIM has partnered with multiple local water safety charities, together we intend to create a unique Water, CPR & Life Safety program that will address the large number of lives lost yearly in Miami-Dade due to drowning, near drowning, boating incidents, and other preventable water incidents through water education and hands on training.

As part of the program, Fully Involved Miami has designed a hands on CPR & Water Life Safety program custom tailored to address the statistical figures most affecting the county. The program will train others to perform life-saving skills, like basic life support, automated external defibrillation (AED), or administering first aid until professional help arrives while also providing vital prevention tips. The hands-on training will provide children, their caretakers and their families the opportunity to acquire the confidence and skills that may one day save a life, both in and outside the water.

The intent is to provide this vital education to those children and families most at risk, while assuring that social and cultural issues don’t affect access to these lifesaving programs. In part, by taking into account the racial & ethical disparities by addressing factors such as physical environment (i.e. access to swimming pools) and the mixture of social and cultural issues with an emphasis on the importance of swimming skills, CPR and water safety education.

Our mission is to :

• Reduce the # of drowning’s and near drowning’s in the county.
• Reduce the # of preventable boating incidents across the county.
• Reduce the # of fatal drowning due to racial & ethical disparities.
• Increase the amount of people that know CPR and First Aid across the county.
• Increase the amount and quality of CPR being performed prior to fire rescue/police arrival in emergencies.
• Increase access to CPR & Life safety training to all members of the community.

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