The Late Fall session, otherwise referred to as "Session 5", for JAAR Program is 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.
Eryn and Alix will each teach three private lessons in a row on most Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to account for holiday pool closures. Alix and Eryn have slightly differing schedules, so although they will mostly teach together, please double-check the dates below to ensure you follow your child's instructor's schedule. All lessons are held from 4:20pm-6:20pm. Children are in the water receiving 1:1 instruction from 4:20pm-4:50pm, 5:00pm-5:30pm, or 5:40pm-6:10pm.
We allow 10 minutes of transition time between lessons and departure. Typically, participants spend 5 minutes in the hot tub, and then have 5 minutes to rinse off in the shower before changing to go home. The JAAR staff is only liable for your child during their 30-minute private lesson. Please watch your child while they are in the jacuzzi!
Exact Dates for JAAR Program Session 5 (Alix's Lessons):
- Week 1: November 7, November 8, & November 10
- Week 2: November 14, November 15, & November 17
- Week 3: November 21 & November 22 (Happy Holidays!)
- Week 4: November 28, November 29, & December 1
- Week 5: December 5 & December 6, & December 8 (due to 11/21 illness).
Exact Dates for JAAR Program Session 5 (Eryn's Lessons):
- Week 1: November 7 & November 8
- Week 2: November 14, November 15, & November 17
- Week 3: November 20 & November 21 (Happy Holidays!)
- Week 4: November 28, November 29, & November 30
- Week 5: December 5, December 6, & (December 7 is a pre-planned make-up day that will occur if an instructor cancels due to illness or absence.)
JAAR Program finishes its fifth session on December 9, 2023. On that date, we will have served 26 children at no-cost to them or their families. The JAAR Team will be taking an extended winter holiday and begin teaching again in January 2024.
Specifically, Session 6 will begin the week of January 8th. Keep your eye out for exciting developments regarding 2024!
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 should receive a letter of confirmation from us within 1-2 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.
JAAR Program is working hard to expand and reach more demographics of children. We plan to specifically reach out to BIPOC+ and LGBTQ+ folks when we re-start in January 2024.
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. The JAAR Team is not always able to watch your children in the jacuzzi. If you are unable to supervise them in the hot tub, for any reason, please ensure your child does not enter the jacuzzi.
Typically, sessions are six-weeks long with instruction occurring twice a week. However, due to instructor schedules, holidays, and the busy agendas of both participants and instructors, we may try running shorter sessions with the same number of lessons. As with all choices, if there is a statistically significant pattern on which to rely: that data will guide our decision.
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 Eryn 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. At a minimum, please wait 24 hours after your child has had a fever or other contagious illness, to bring them back to lessons.
Safety: The reason we keep the door closed during lessons is to maintain control over who enters the pool. We take the safety precaution of keeping the door closed to make certain only JAAR Program participants, and hotel guests with proper keys, can access the pool deck. The door remaining locked is the only way we can ensure the adults in and around the pool are safe people.
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.
JAAR Program is a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit. We do not require any families to pay for their participant's lessons or equipment. However, we are mindful about wanting JAAR to become a permanent part of the Eugene/Springfield area. 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 running, while waiting for established and enduring funding, we do count on your donations. Please keep your socioeconomic status in mind and approach the program as if it runs on a sliding scale.
Thank you, in advance, for your life-saving donations, which can be made through PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=ZHYHTM5MNJW8C
Venmo: @JAARProgram
GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/JAAR-WaitingListAndEvents.
*Please keep in mind that it costs the JAAR Team $300 to teach each child who goes through our program. We know that is not an affordable amount for all families, but every size donation makes a difference. The money goes straight to our participants, their lessons, and their equipment.
For those who wonder about the 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 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