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Bayview Safety Swim & Splash
The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department and Y of San Francisco have partnered to create the Bayview Safety Swim and Splash (BSSS) Program. BSSS is a free learn-to-swim program for youth, kindergarten to 5th grade, living or attending school in the 94124 ZIP code in the Bayview-Hunters Point (BVHP) neighborhood. Per American Red Cross recommendations, only kindergartners of 6 years of age may participate in this program. All participants must be over 48” tall.
The goal of the program is to ensure that BVHP youth are comfortable and confident in the water, meaning that they can swim, float, breathe, and get to safety if needed.
The program is based out of the Martin Luther King Jr. Pool (5701 3rd Street) in the BVHP neighborhood. The program provides swimsuits, towels, goggles and other equipment for participants that need it. Swim instructors are provided by both Rec and Park and the Y.
Questions? View our FAQ document here or email sfreconline@sfgov.org for questions or to get on the program's waitlist.
India Basin Waterfront Park Project
The BSSS program came to be through the India Basin Waterfront Park Project, a transformative project that will create a sprawling 10-acre park for the BVHP neighborhood, seamlessly combining the historical former ship-building site at 900 Innes Ave. with two already existing parks which will each undergo improvements, India Basin Shoreline Park and India Basin Open Space.
The future park will build new features such as a food pavilion and makers shop, while renovating old ones such as the historic Shipwright’s Cottage, as well as the playground and basketball court. However, its focus is to provide a unique and world-class aquatic-oriented park for the BVHP community. Planned features for the park include a new boathouse, beach, docks, piers and more, which will host aquatic focused programs and recreation.
To ensure that residents of BVHP can enjoy this future park to its fullest, the India Basin Waterfront Project Partners, consisting of the Trust for Public Land, San Francisco Parks Alliance, A. Philip Randolph Institute, San Francisco Recreation and Park Department and BVHP community, created an Equitable Development Plan, a first for San Francisco. It provides a blueprint for delivering a park designed by and for the community while improving economic opportunity and environmental health for its residents, ensuring they will be the main beneficiaries of the project. Outlined in this plan was a free learn-to-swim program, which became the BSSS pilot program launched in 2022.
Water safety is important for everyone, but especially youth, as drowning is one of the leading causes of death for children in the United States annually. According to the CDC, youth are at a higher risk for unintentional injury around water due to their lack of familiarity in aquatic situations. Factors that increase drowning risk include not being able to swim and lack of close supervision. The BSSS program aims to address these factors by teaching youth how to swim in a safe and supervised environment, while offering lifeguard training and jobs for community members to provide professional supervision for the BVHP community in local pools and at India Basin Waterfront Park.