BIPOC Swim
Our BIPOC Swim program is dedicated to fostering healing relationships with water and cultivating positive experiences for the BIPOC community.
Through our program, participants embark on a journey of connection, empowerment, and joy as they explore the transformative power of aquatic environments.
We cannot encourage the BIPOC community to swim without giving proper recognition to all the ways that water has been weaponized against us. We want to create positive change for our community. How we approach this work makes the difference on the way our community feels before, during and after these workshops. We are approaching our swimming program differently because our community has different needs.
We want our community to experience joy and laughter around water. We want them to interact with water in the way that feels the best for them. We want our community to come together to swim. And we want to be there as they learn to float or find their success with a stroke.
Opportunities for Summer Swim Instructors
We're seeking passionate BIPOC Swim Instructors who share our commitment to fostering community joy in the water.
As we shape this season's programs, we invite our 2024 instructors to be an integral part of the process. Our programs typically run on weekday evenings throughout July and August at Broughton Beach in Portland, OR.
Join us as we host a variety of engaging workshops, including:
Float & Strokes Lessons
Healing Workshops
Water Activities
Group Swims
If you're enthusiastic about creating positive and empowering experiences in the water for the BIPOC community, we'd love to have you on board.
2024 Training Details
We have the wonderful opportunity of partnering with Chandrika from Oshun Swim School for training.
Training sessions will be held in Portland, Oregon.
Friday, April 19
Swim Instruction Training
This two hour training offers an overview of how to support a range of swimmers to grow in their technique during short term engagement. We will cover how to start beginner swimmers on foundational techniques such as breath work, buoyancy, and form. We'll also have an overview of how to offer technical advice to intermediate and advanced swimmers and troubleshoot common issues in breaststroke and freestyle.
Saturday, April 20
Sound & Swim Community Workshop: Aquatic Sound Bath by Chandrika
This 3-hour water immersion workshop provides a safer place for folks of color to deepen our relationships with water. It is Oshun's most in depth workshop that also features a live musician! The workshop will be filled with live music, swim skill-building, self-love exercises, mindfulness practices, community building, and play! It is an invitation to lean into joy, relaxation, and connection. The healing nature of water and the magic of live music played through state-of-the art underwater speakers, creates an acoustic aquatic journey unlike anything you've experienced before. The warm pool allows for a comfortably warm experience no matter the outside weather. This immersion welcomes and celebrates queer identities and all body types.
Facilitation Training: Wild Diversity Program Processes (Classroom) by Wild Diversity
This classroom session will cover setting up successful workshops within Wild Diversity. Our virtual pre training should be completed before class. In class we will review and discuss different elements of the training. You will practice the gear check out and check in process while becoming familiar with Wild Diversity's space.
Building a Strong Community Culture
Public Health Protocols
Pre-Adventure Prep
Wild Diversity Program Processes
Field Check-ins & Reporting
Gear Library
Wild Diversity Policies
Communication Styles
Environmental Considerations
Conflict Resolution
Situational Awareness
Risk Management
Sunday, April 21
Facilitation Training: Water as a Healing Modality (Classroom) by Chandrika
In this session, we examine the impact that water has on our physiology and the opportunity for healing that this presents. Because immersing yourself in water is a sensory potent experience, the potential for both experiencing trauma and healing trauma is greater than other environments. This segment guides facilitators through the western science's take on the impact of water on the nervous system as well as Afro-Indigenous knowledge around water as an energetic and spiritual conductor; and how we may orient our facilitation towards healing.
Facilitation Training: Wild Diversity Workshop Building (Classroom) by Wild Diversity
In this classroom session we will create the final shape of our 2024 offerings to our community. We will identify instructor skills and pairing while balancing our workshops to support healing and learning. We will outline scheduling and expectations for our summer series. By the end of the session, instructors will know dates and workshops they will facilitate for the 2023 summer season.
Lifeguard Certification
Wild Diversity covers the cost for lifeguard certification for all of our BIPOC Swim instructors. Facilitators will be able to book their lifeguard certification training around their own schedules. Certification must be acquired prior to the workshop season.
More about Oshun Swim School
Oshun Swim School seeks to create an Afro-Indigenous centered experience of water and swim-skill acquisition. Through healing-centered and trauma-informed courses and workshops, OSS strives to build a safer space for BIPOC womxn and non-binary people to explore our relationship with water, and grow into embodied, joyful swimmers.
This work centers frontline communities who have been historically excluded from swim environments, yet who bear the brunt of the climate crisis, and for whom swim skills are most essential.
Chandrika (she|they) is dedicated to supporting people of color to have a relationship to the earth grounded in remembrance, safety, connection, healing, and liberation! Before founding OSS in 2018, Chandrika supported youth of color to reconnect with the earth for seven years in the form of environmental education, backpacking trips, camping trips, conservation work, classroom teaching, and youth development. She has a Masters in Education through the Islandwood Program at the University of Washington, with a focus in decolonizing environmental education. She is a bi-coastal baby at heart, having spent her life between Oakland, Seattle, and the East Coast, and is excited to bring her work to the lands she loves!
