The Health and Wellbeing Award recognises a person or team who has made a difference to the health and wellbeing of a child or young person. It’s a “thank you” in recognition of the difference made to a child’s world. Today we are delighted to unveil our Scottish Children’s Health Award winner – Carnegie Swimming Club. Their story is captured below by journalist and TV Presenter Catriona Shearer.
Focused on competitive swimming, the club has over 220 members, ranging from the age of 4 through to 51, training and competing at all levels across Scotland. The swimming programme is led by head coach Susan Taylor, who – along with a team of lead coaches – develops training to give swimmers at all levels the best chance of achieving their personal goals, whether that’s to be able to swim a full 25m Freestyle or competing in the British championships.
The club was nominated by the mum of a young swimmer, Lily, who has ADHD and ASD in recognition of their efforts to support her. Having previously been asked to leave other swimming clubs, which were unable to adapt to her needs, she is now thriving at Carnegie as they embraced her abilities and worked with her and her mum to identify how to get the best out of each session.
Alan Gill, the club’s President says, “We work hard at Carnegie swimming club to understand all young peoples’ needs, and the coaching team are experienced at finding ways to adapt sessions to ensure all swimmers feel a sense of accomplishment from every training session and competition they take part in.
“Swimming is the perfect sport for Lily as it helps her to put her high energy levels into something she really loves doing.”
At Carnegie, swimmers learn important skills in a supportive environment where they’re encouraged to set goals and work to achieve them. “These goals may be small for some, but huge for others,” says Alan. “Every goal achieved brings joy to each swimmer and encourages them to achieve the next steps. The sport develops physical and mental strength, which we see in swimmers of all ages.”
The club is a registered charity and relies on a hard-working Committee to provide around 60 hours of training across venues in the West Fife area every week. There are also many parent volunteers who support the swimmers at training sessions and swimming Galas and the input from all involved is a winning formula.
2023/24 has been a fantastic season with swimmers in the club achieving some of the best results seen in many years with medals at the World Dwarf games, Scottish National events and British and European Masters events.
Alan gets a great sense of pride from the successes and acknowledges it’s down to hard work from the swimmers and the coaches. “I just love seeing the effort that swimmers of all abilities put in. When you see them grinning broadly after a hard training set or after learning a new skill, you just know that we’re doing something very special for them.
“This also applies to our coaching team, they work so hard and it’s great to see them enjoying the achievements of their swimmers, they genuinely care.”
The club has been working hard since Covid to get back to the membership numbers it had before the pandemic struck and it’s achieved that.
Alan believes the growth is largely down to word of mouth, with parents and carers recognising how inclusive the club is and how it has benefited their children. “I hope that winning this award will bring swimming to the attention of more people in the country as a sport that’s for everyone, knowing that coaches are able to work with swimmers of all abilities and allow all young people to create amazing experiences, make long lasting friends and learn to live a healthy and fulfilling life.”
In recognising the Carnegie Swimming Club, whose coaching team are volunteers, the judging panel was impressed by the efforts of the club in making swimming accessible to all children, where para swimmers train and compete alongside their able-bodied peers. In addition to this, the panel noted the wider educational focus and the organising of activities outside the pool to widen the experience for those involved. The panel also loved the nominator’s awareness of the UNCRC!
Congratulations to all at Carnegie Swimming Club on winning the Health and Wellbeing Award.
#myhealthmyrights #scottishchildrenshealthweek #schw #bemorebear #healthrightsdefenders
