Brimbank Council and Life Saving Victoria partner to improve water safety education

Looking forward to the completion of the St Albans Health and Wellbeing Hub, Brimbank City Council and Life Saving Victoria (LSV) have advised they will be working together to develop an innovative water safety education initiative.

The Council and LSV have today (21st February) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) formalising their commitment to improving water safety outcomes in Brimbank and across the west of Melbourne.

Brimbank Mayor, Georgina Papafotiou advised that the initiative would have a particular focus on engaging with culturally and linguistically diverse communities, lifeguards and lifesavers.

As Mayor Papafotiou noted “unfortunately the statistics show culturally and linguistically diverse communities are over represented in drowning statistics.

“The upcoming development of the St Albans Health and Wellbeing Hub presents a perfect opportunity for Council and Life Saving Victoria to work together to help create a centre that provides education and resources for multicultural communities, lifesavers and lifeguards, to improve water safety understanding.

“Council is really excited to work with LSV towards developing this innovative initiative.”

Life Saving Victoria’s Manager Multicultural Projects David Holland said LSV was pleased to partner with Brimbank City Council adding “Life Saving Victoria’s Multicultural Team is an industry leader in partnering with multicultural communities to teach vital water safety skills through education and training initiatives. In 2018/19 alone, the team was able to deliver services to 22,000 multicultural participants.

“At the pool, along the coast or at inland waterways, water safety needs to be an ongoing priority for all Victorians and especially Victorians from multicultural backgrounds, with research showing about 30% of people who drown in Australia were born overseas.

“This partnership with Brimbank Council builds on Life Saving Victoria’s mission to prevent drowning deaths and injuries across the state and will improve how multicultural communities across west Melbourne engage with water safety - particularly pool safety.”

Guided by the MoU, Council and LSV will, among other things, look at programs that specifically address the needs of multicultural communities and how lifeguards and lifesavers can be assisted by Council and LSV to engage more effectively with multicultural communities across the western region. The MoU will remain in place for an initial period of three years.

LSV figures released in December 2019 showed a 29% increase in drowning in the fatal drowning rate in 2018/19 compared to the 10 year average. Further, on average 23% of drownings during the past 10 years were of individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and 86% of those were male (2018/19 Life Saving Victoria Drowning Report).

Image: The proposed St Albans Health and Wellbeing Hub will replace the St Albans Leisure Centre in the City of Brimbank.