Our summer swim lessons are being held at the EVEN Hotel in Eugene, Oregon. The hotel's address is as follows:
EVEN Hotel 2133 Centennial Plaza, Eugene, OR 97401.
The pool is located on the first floor, and the door will be opened in-between lessons by an available instructor. Please know we hear your knocks but must finish our current lesson prior to answering the door.
After Sessions 10 & 11 end on July 30th, there will be a brief break. We plan to re-start water-safety swim lessons the first week of August! "Session 12" will have its first lesson on Wednesday, August 7th and then continue on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays (along with one Friday) through August 29th. The make-up day, in case of an instructor absence, is planned for August 30th.
For four weeks, Alix and Anneliese will each teach three private lessons in a row on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, which allows 6 more children to participate before the start of the 2024-2025 academic year. Now that the schedule is set on our end, we have sent an email regarding participation to families near the top of the waiting list. The email contains a survey for you to answer regarding days and times of water-safety swim classes. As you look at the scheduling choices, please ensure that your child can attend a minimum of 10 lessons before saying "yes" to the session. If your child cannot come to 10 of the 12 classes, we will put them back on our waiting list until a session better lines up with their schedule.
All lessons will be held from 12:00pm-2:00pm. Children will be in the water receiving 1:1 instruction from 12:00pm-12:30pm, 12:40pm-1:10pm, or 1:20pm-1:50pm. JAAR Program allows for 10 minutes of transition time between lessons and departure. Typically, participants spend 5 minutes in the hot tub (if it is not in use by hotel guests AND if a parent/guardian is actively watching their child), and then have 5 minutes to rinse off in the shower before changing to go home. The JAAR aquatic staff is only liable for your child during their 30-minute lesson in the pool. Please watch your child while they are in the jacuzzi! and stop them from entering if hotel guests are relaxing. Also, please do your best to respect the 40-minute time slot by leaving before the next lessons start. It may not always be possible, but that is our goal.
Session 10 (Monday/Wednesday Group):
Day 11: July 24th
Day 12 (Alix’s group only): July 29th
Session 11 (Tuesday/Thursday Group):
Day 11: July 25th
Day 12 (Alix’s group only): July 30th
Session 12 (Monday/Wednesday/Thursday Group):
Day 1: August 7th
Day 2: August 8th
Day 3: August 12th
Day 4: August 14th
Day 5: August 15th
Day 6: August 19th
Day 7: August 21st
Day 8: August 22nd
Day 9: August 23rd (in order to end before new school year)
Day 10: August 26th
Day 11: August 28th
Day 12: August 29th
Make-Up Day: August 30th (if instructors miss a day)
JAAR ran combination sessions with 12 children in June and July. One group ("Session 10") had lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays. The other group ("Session 11") had lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Currently, the JAAR aquatic team is preparing for a condensed August session. We will be teaching 3 days a week for 1 month. That way, we maximize the number of children who receive 12 private lessons prior to the start of the 2024-2025 school year.
Summer water-safety lessons will always be held from 12:00pm-2:00pm. Once your child has a time slot, it will remain the same for all lessons.
JAAR Program has already taught 55 children at no-cost to their families. As we move forward, we must continue providing participants with equipment and have novel learning materials. All donations make a difference as we run on the generosity of this community. Please consider making a donation and helping us to end drownings!
Currently, JAAR Program provides free, private water-safety lessons to children who are between the ages of 3-18*. All participants** must experience neurodiversity (physically, mentally, or both) that results in either a medical and/or school diagnoses. Children in the foster care system are also welcome to apply.
*Any participant, who is not yet toileting, must use the appropriate swimming diapers. Additionally, a parent or guardian must be present to change diapers.
** Please note that you will receive a letter of confirmation from us within 1-2 business days of filling out the online form on the "Contact Us" page. In the interest of fairness, and the promotion of mental fitness, your child will be taught with a group of similarly aged peers whenever possible. We strive to create natural friend groups while maintaining the order of the waiting list. Please check your spam folders if you do not see this email, and then add hello@jaarprogram.org to your email list.
JAAR Program is working hard to expand and reach different demographics of at-risk youth. When this is possible, we will make public announcements on multiple social media platforms.
Most sessions of water-safety swim lessons are six weeks long with instruction occurring twice a week. However, to maximize summer instruction, JAAR Program is running a 4-week long program in August 2024. Instruction will take place three times a week for one month. Water-safety lessons are 40 minutes long. Participants are taught for 30 minutes in the water, and then have 10 minutes of transition time that can include 5 minutes in the hot tub if a parent or guardian is able to supervise AND the tub is not in use by hotel guests. Please note that the pool and the hot tub are only available to JAAR participants and members of the JAAR aquatic staff.
The JAAR Team is not able to watch participants in the jacuzzi. If you are unable to supervise your child in the hot tub, for any reason, please ensure they do not enter the jacuzzi. The hot tub must be empty for JAAR participants to use it after their lesson. If a hotel guest enters, participants must immediately get out of the jacuzzi.
The EVEN Hotel is incredibly generous with its gifted pool time, so we do ask that all families respect the 40 minutes allotted for their child's water safety classes.
Our goals for children who take lessons through JAAR Program are for them to learn:
- how to stay safe when near water and when in water.
- basic aquatic survival skills.
- concepts of a beginner's freestyle stroke.
- self-sufficiency in the water.
- how safe adults interact respectfully with children, peers, and other adults.
- some of the skills that go into making friends.
- that they are uniquely important, deserving of kindness and equity, able learn and gain new skills, full of individual strengths, allowed to respectfully take pride in their accomplishments, and to have confidence in their wonderful selves!
*We have the utmost respect for parents and guardians. If you have a specific goal for your child that is not listed here, please email us prior to your child's first lesson.
At JAAR Program, every child has private lessons with the same instructor for the duration of their session. Due to this set-up, we are able to meet each participant where they are skill-wise and can teach them in their preferred manner. Children with previous aquatic experience will have the opportunity to develop and refine swimming techniques in all four strokes and flip-turns. Respectful yet fun interactions with instructors, and synergy with similarly aged peers, are all geared towards increasing the mental fitness and resiliency of participants.
Health: The JAAR staff is maintaining some safety protocols from the COVID era to remain as healthy as possible. We have one group of swimmers that work with Anneliese and a group taught by Alix, which remains the same for six weeks. Both instructors are fully vaccinated and keep up to date with seasonal flu shots, COVID boosters as they are released, and any other doctor-recommended injections and/or treatments. Participants are not required to have any specific vaccinations, but we do ask you to consider taking precautions knowing that at least one person with whom your child will interact is immunocompromised. Please wait at least 24 hours after your child has had a fever or other contagious illness, to bring them back to lessons.
Safety: JAAR Program strives to be as inclusive as possible. For that reason, we will do our best to include children who display either aggressive behaviors towards others and/or exhibit self-injurious behaviors. If your child, or foster child, does engage in any type of physically-challenging behaviors, the JAAR Team requires that you send us their Behavior Support Plan (BSP) at least two weeks prior to the start of lessons.
Also, the pool door remains closed for your child's safety. It allows us to maintain control, while teaching, over who enters the pool. This ensures only JAAR Program participants, and hotel guests with proper keys, can access the pool deck.
Instructors remain safe on the pool deck and in the pool to set the standard for behavior. We will teach your children how to act safely both around and in different bodies of water (e.g., "Would you like to walk, march, or stomp?").
It costs the JAAR Team $300 (not including the costs of their equipment) to teach each child who goes through our program. However, JAAR Program is a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit and we do not require any families to pay for their participant's lessons or equipment. We know that $300 is not affordable for all families, but every size donation makes a positive difference. The money goes straight to our participants, their lessons, and their equipment.
The JAAR Aquatic Team and the JAAR Board of Directors are mindful about wanting JAAR Program to become a permanent part of the Eugene/Springfield community. As a new nonprofit, we are working hard to write and win grants in addition to forming partnerships within the community we love. To continue teaching lessons, while waiting for established and enduring funding, WE ARE RUNNING ON DONATIONS.
Please keep your socioeconomic status in mind and approach JAAR Program as if it were operating on a sliding scale.
Thank you, in advance, for your life-saving donations, which can be made through:
1) By clicking the buttons to donate on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JAARProgram/
2) By check, made out to JAAR Program and mailed to:
3095 Kincaid St., Eugene OR 97405
3) By Venmo, donating to @JAARProgram
4) By GoFundMe at the following link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/JAAR-WaitingListAndEvents
5) By one-time PayPal donation in any amount to: jaarprogram19@gmail.com
6) By recurring PayPal donation at the following link: https://www.paypal.com/donate/...
For those who wonder about the $300 cost, please read more below:
The next closest program, in terms of pricing, offers 12 private half-hour swimming lessons for either $300 or $360. Those prices are set as thirty minutes of instruction (times twelve). They do not include, nor do they offer, transition time (oftentimes in a hot tub), any personal equipment, or an instructor who is guaranteed to have experience working with a vast array of children within the disability community.
If you want to learn more about our program to see if it would be the right fit for your child, please feel free to call us at (541) 852-2997. We have our hours of availability listed on Facebook and will return any calls received after 6pm, or on the weekends, the following business day. Please feel free to leave confidential voicemails on that line.
If there is a child in your life who you believe would benefit from our lessons, please sign them up for our waiting list. This can be accomplished by clicking the button under the questions "When is the next session of JAAR Program?" or under "Who is eligible?" located (above) on this same page. Also, you click the "Contact Us" tab and answer the ten listed questions.
If you are interested in volunteering or in joining the Board of Directors for JAAR Program, please email hello@jaarprogram.org.
Jerry Adams Aquatics Resilience Program
3095 Kincaid Street I Eugene, OR 97405
Copyright © 2019 Jerry Adams Aquatics Resilience Program - All Rights Reserved.
hello@jaarprogram.org