Daily Themes
Plan Your NDPW
National Drowning Prevention Week is an opportunity to create a prevention program tailored to your community. To help organizations plan their week, the Lifesaving Society provides an Ambassador Guide, prevention themes, activity ideas and a selection of ready-to-use resources.
The Ambassador Guide brings together the key information needed to prepare for NDPW. It helps organizations plan activities, identify the messages to highlight and prepare communications for the week.
A Different Theme Every Day
Each day of NDPW focuses on a specific prevention issue. Ambassador organizations can use these themes to plan their activities, information booths, events and communications based on the setting highlighted each day and the audiences they wish to reach.
The themes provide a framework for creating a varied program tailored to each organization’s community.
Sunday: Fatal and Non-Fatal Drowning
Understand drowning and raise awareness of drowning trends in Quebec.
Create a video about the risks of drowning and explain the difference between fatal and non-fatal drowning.
Host an information booth or use social media to raise awareness about drowning in Quebec.
Make a media announcement in your community to launch NDPW.
Create a quiz featuring statistics on fatal and non-fatal drowning in Quebec.
Monday: Open Water
Prepare for activities, understand the environment and adopt safe behaviours around natural bodies of water.
Organize a social media contest with prizes for participants who share content about open-water safety.
Organize an open-water safety scavenger hunt near a local river.
Hold a colouring contest for local children featuring people canoeing, kayaking or paddleboarding.
Provide a checklist of what to consider before heading to a river for a safe and enjoyable outing.
Tuesday: Pool Safety
Promote safe behaviours and highlight the essential role of lifeguards.
Host a storytime and read the children’s book On se jette à l’eau to visitors.
Create and share a social media video in which lifeguards introduce the aquatic facility and talk about what they enjoy about their work.
Share videos that highlight the lifeguarding profession.
Have a lifeguard available to answer questions from the public about the facility, the lifeguard’s role and accident prevention.
Wednesday: Swim to Survive
Raise awareness of the essential skills needed to survive an unexpected fall into deep water.
Help children and parents understand the difference between knowing how to swim and knowing how to stay safe in the water.
Have participants complete the three Swim with Me Challenge skills and share the results with the Lifesaving Society:
→ Roll into the water, Tread water for one minute, Swim 50 metres.
Introduce the Swim to Survive program and explain how it can be incorporated into schools.
Thursday: Child Supervision
Reinforce the importance of constant, close supervision of young children around water.
Share information on social media about drowning statistics among young children and the nature of drowning, including how quickly and silently it can happen.
Create a True or False game for children about safe practices during a family day at the pool or waterfront.
Share the message: If your child is not within arm’s reach, they are already too far away.
Host an information booth about safe pool environments and compliance with Quebec’s Residential Swimming Pool Safety Regulation.
Friday: Alcohol and Drug Use
Raise awareness of how alcohol and drug use can affect judgment, abilities and risk-taking.
Create a drowning statistics quiz that highlights the impact of alcohol and drugs on aquatic safety.
Invite a professional, such as a police officer, physician, social worker or nurse, to discuss the effects of alcohol and drug use.
Host an alcohol-free cocktail tasting booth and share the recipes with visitors.
Saturday: PFD Use and Boating Safety
Encourage PFD use and proper preparation before heading out on the water.
Promote obtaining a Pleasure Craft Operator Card.
Provide a sail plan that participants can complete and leave with a trusted person before heading out on the water.
Demonstrate an accidental fall from a canoe or kayak while wearing a PFD.
Host a PFD information booth at a marina, near a water access point or at your facility.
July 25: World Drowning Prevention Day
World Drowning Prevention Day, declared by the World Health Organization, provides an opportunity to continue the momentum created during NDPW and reinforce the importance of collective action to prevent drowning.
Share Facebook posts from the Lifesaving Society and the World Health Organization.
Encourage members of the community to wear blue for the day.
Light up a municipal building or facility in blue.
Create a Program That Works for Your Community
Organizations do not need to organize a different activity every day to take part in NDPW.
The themes and suggested activities are intended primarily as inspiration. Each organization can select the topics most relevant to its audience, adapt the suggested activities or develop its own initiatives.
All the Resources in One Place
The NDPW Toolkit brings together social media visuals, posters, activities, educational content and other resources to help organizations prepare for and promote the week.