Sheerr Pool on Penn Campus
3701 Walnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104
We Can Swim!
We Can Swim! is dedicated to teaching critical swimming skills to those who need it most.
We offer free lessons to kindergarten through 6th grade children in Philadelphia.
Conveniently located on Penn's campus, our certified instructors are all student volunteers. Please look through our website to learn more about our program, and consider participating!
Notice
We will not be running Fall 2024 lessons. Spring 2025 information will be given out closer to the new year. Please email with any questions!
Mission
Founded in March of 2013, We Can Swim! offers free swimming lessons to underserved youth, specifically those of the African American and Hispanic communities who are disproportionately affected by limited access to water safety resources. Our lessons are targeted towards elementary school students from West Philadelphia, ranging from kindergarten to 6th grade. We believe it is crucial that children learn these skills at a young age, which can ultimately help to stop preventable drownings and promote overall water safety.
Why join us?
According to the Centers for Disease Control, drowning is the second leading cause of childhood death in the United States and over 70% of African American children and 60% of Latino children have not yet learned to swim. Our objective is to make as many children water safe as possible in order to lower these staggering statistics.
Philadelphia
We're located at the Pottruck Gym on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. Our staff consists of certified instructors, lifeguards and members of the Penn Varsity Swim and Dive Team. Our members and instructors are all unpaid and are strictly volunteers since we are a non-profit organization. Therefore, our costs are covered completely by donations, so help us out if you can!
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