Drowning Prevention Week, the national campaign run by the Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS UK), returns from 18 – 26 June 2016 to help pool operators throughout the UK attract new customers while spreading the water safety message.

Now in its fourth year, the event is a proven tool for operators looking to engage with the wider community and meet their corporate social responsibility objectives, supported by free resources supplied by RLSS UK, the drowning prevention charity. The week-long campaign also helps to drive new audiences to facilities and increase revenue.

This year, RLSS UK is providing a Dress Your Pool pack, comprising of a range of resources that operators can use to host fundraising activities and promote drowning prevention education throughout their centres.

In addition to free resources such as water safety lesson plans, activity day plans, access to primary school resources, posters, leaflets and bunting, this year’s campaign will also feature sponsored Towathon events.

The events will encourage swimmers to get sponsored to tow a friend while completing as many lengths as possible. The events are open to all members of the community, so anyone can ‘give a tow a go’.

Eighty Towathon events are set take place throughout the UK. Laerdal will award free defibrillators (AEDs) to the top three fundraising Towathons and centres are encouraged to sign up to host a Towathon if they haven’t already.

Around 400 people needlessly drown in the UK every year and thousands more suffer injury through near-drowning experiences. Drowning is also the third highest cause of accidental death of children in the UK.

“This year’s Drowning Prevention Week promises to be the biggest yet, and by getting involved operators can help to teach people how to stay safe near water whilst driving new audiences to their facilities. It’s a win-win situation,” said RLSS UK’s Deputy Director for Education, Mike Dunn,

Drowning Prevention Week encourages schools, clubs, leisure centres and communities to come up with new and exciting ways to show people how they can have fun and stay safe around water. The campaign also raises money for the charity’s drowning prevention work.

For more information, or to sign up to Drowning Prevention Week, please visit www.rlss.org.uk/dpw or email [email protected].

Let us know what you are doing for Drowning Prevention Week by tweeting @RLSSUK using the hashtags #DPW #stopdrowning