Swim Against the Stream

The Alberta Chinese Cultural Education Society (ACCES) offered the Swim Against the Stream program for women in the winter/spring of 2023. This project was in response to community need and their mission to eliminate barriers to accessing recreational sports for low-income families.

Swimming Against the Stream is a successful program with over 150 women participants attending the drop in program that ran from February to August 2023. The majority of the participants were from immigrant families and for many this was their first experience learning to swim. The program was accessible to women in the community, had attendees ages 24-69, had coaches from different cultural backgrounds, and supported participants with a variety of abilities.

ACCES also had a great partnership with the City of Edmonton as well as coaches from diverse cultural backgrounds, these were both key to the programs success and the creation of a positive supportive environment to experience swimming.

The feedback from this program has been very positive, participants enjoyed everything about this program; the coaches, the location, the time and dates, the volunteers, the group chatting, the connection and reconnection with friends in the community. ACCES will continue to look for opportunities to get women in their community engaged and participating in positive physical activity opportunities.