Funded Projects

Empowering Youth: Drowning Prevention and CPR 

Project Year

2025

City & State

Jacksonville, Florida

Program Name

CATCH Resident

Topic

Health Education & Prevention

Program Description

Problem: Drowning is a well-known leading cause of unintentional death in children globally, nationally, and locally. While school-aged children have a higher likelihood of drowning in pools and natural bodies of water, infants are more likely to drown in bathtubs, toilets, and buckets. While drowning prevention education should be provided to families at well-child visits, there is little education easily accessible to the community to learn what to do if a drowning event occurs. This makes anticipatory guidance at health care visits more salient. The National Drowning Prevention Alliance reports that CPR is a life-saving skill that can significantly increase the rate of survival in drowning victims, however programs that provide drowning prevention education or CPR lessons to youth in our communities at little-to-no cost is rare. The CPR and first aid classes that are currently available in the Jacksonville community are neither affordable nor easily accessible to the majority of the population. Additionally, youth are not typically the target learners for these trainings. With the accessibility to large bodies of water in Jacksonville, Florida (rivers, creeks, intercoastal waters, beaches), it is important to provide our youth the knowledge of what to do in the event of drowning.  Setting: According to the Florida Department of Health, Florida had the highest rate of unintentional drowning deaths in the United States among children ages 1 to 4 years old in 2019-2021 and nearly 70% of those deaths occurred when the children were not expected to be in or near water. For children 0 to 9 years old, Florida ranked the highest in unintentional drowning death rates. In 2023, Florida’s rate for drowning deaths per 100,000 people was 2.0. In Duval County alone, the rate was 2.3. Between 2021-2023, around 300 children have died in Florida because of this silent epidemic.   Proposed Intervention: The goal of this project is to partner with community youth organizations including THE PLAYERS Center for Child Health at Wolfson Children’s Hospital (THE PLAYERS Center), Safe Kids Northeast Florida, Center for Child Rights and Girls Inc. to assess youth educational needs related to drowning prevention and intervention and then develop classes that provide information and educational handouts on drowning prevention as well as teach the youth how to properly perform CPR in the event of an emergency. A pre- and post- survey will be administered at each session to assess drowning and CPR knowledge of participants. This will be helpful in tailoring future classes to meet the needs of the community. If awarded the CATCH grant, funds would be used to provide low-to-no-cost drowning prevention education and CPR trainings to adolescents and leaders in our community.   Anticipated Outcome: An anticipated outcome of this project includes a higher percentage of correct answers and self-assessed confidence in CPR ability and techniques in the post-survey as compared to the pre-survey. Another anticipated outcome includes participants passing the CPR certification class. Project longevity and lasting partnerships with community organizations that will, in time, decrease rates of unintentional drowning deaths in Jacksonville, Florida is also an anticipated outcome for this project.

Project Goal

Increase knowledge within the community on drowning prevention and the importance of CPR in Jacksonville, Florida

Project Objective 1

By the end of September 2025, this project will partner with youth organizations to discuss experiences, identify the needs, and identify barriers to receiving education on drowning prevention and CPR training for the minoritized youth in Jacksonville, Florida. 

Project Objective 2

By the end of December 2025, the project team, in collaboration with community partners will create a tailored, one-to-two-hour-long drowning prevention and CPR training session and educational handouts for the session.

Project Objective 3

By the end of May 2026, the project team, in collaboration with community partners will provide a minimum of 10 drowning prevention education and CPR training sessions, to a minimum of 50 youth, that are accessible to minoritized youth living in low-SES households in Jacksonville, Florida. 

AAP District

District X

Institutional Name

University of Florida - Jacksonville

Contact 1

Tiffany Le, MD