A Message From Our CEO/KidsCanSwim’s Role and Responsibilities in Navigating Covid-19
At KidsCanSwim, we believe it is our responsibility during this time to prioritize two things: the health and well-being of our KCS families and team members, and our desire to play a positive role in supporting health officials/government leaders as they work to contain the virus. Through that lens, we will continue to make decisions with vigilance and courage informed by the latest science-based information.
I wanted to personally reach out and provide you with an update on the actions and decisions that KCS is taking to ensure that we are proactive in our approach. KCS was founded right here in Ottawa (yes, we are a local business – #OttawaProud!) and as we are expanding across Ottawa/Ontario, we feel extremely grateful to our community for the incredible support they’ve shown KidsCanSwim this past year. After every lockdown, KCS has been able to bounce back better and provide high-quality, tailored, fun and life-saving swimming lessons to our KCS’s families.
As you may already know, KCS was started on the premises of changing the way swimming lessons are delivered, offering low-ratio group swimming lessons taught in our own warm and shallow pools. However, given the pandemic and to ensure that our families and team members feel safe, we have been forced to change our offerings by limiting our regular low-ratio classes to (1) private; (2) semi-private; and (3) socially distanced babies’ group lessons. These changes were essential to ensure that our KCS’ families and team members were protected and that we were adhering to health and safety regulations and recommendations set forth by local public health agencies.
Given the recent increase in the number of cases and the unknowns created by the delta variant, KCS has made the difficult decision to hold off on re-introducing our low-ratio group swimming lessons and will continue to solely offer private, semi-private and socially distanced babies’ group lessons until at least January 1st, 2022. As a company we believe that this is the right thing to do to protect our KCS families and team members. We will monitor the situation, revisit this important decision in November/December, and keep you informed.
Our priority will always be to offer high-quality, fun and safe learn to swim programs. In addition, we will continue to implement the following COVID-safe measures which have been in place since the beginning of the pandemic:
- Staggered start times to reduce congestion in the common areas of our Centre;
- Appropriate Personal Protective Equipment for all of our team members;
- Programming that includes private and semi-private lessons, as well as socially distanced babies’ group lessons to reduce overall numbers of people in our Centre;
- Enhanced cleaning and sanitization procedures including 5 minutes of cleaning between each lesson; and
- A one (1) parent per child policy to uphold Ontario’s capacity limits for indoor education.
We hope everyone has a safe and fun back to school season and thank you for your ongoing support. Finally, please do not hesitate to email directly if you have comments/suggestions.
Hugues Boisvert
Chairman & CEO
KidsCanSwim Canada
