Whether your interest is personal or professional, the Hamilton Area YMCA has a safety course to meet your needs! We offer both certification and non-certification courses through the YMCA, American Heart Association and the American Red Cross.
For more information, contact certifications@hamiltonymca.org.
Fee: $125
Prerequisites:
The course provides essential knowledge and skills to prevent, recognize, and respond to aquatic emergencies, and to provide care for breathing and cardiac emergencies, injuries, and sudden illnesses until EMS personnel take over.
The American Red Cross Shallow Water Lifeguarding course is a specialized certification designed for individuals who will guard aquatic environments with maximum depths of 5, 6, or 7 feet.
Additional Bridge to Deeper Water dates will be provided if Lifeguard Candidates need them for June. To complete, there is an additional fee.
The curriculum is typically delivered through a blended learning format, combining approximately 6 hours of online modules with roughly 20+ hours of in-person skills training.
Surveillance & Scanning: Techniques for effective zone coverage, recognizing hazards unique to shallow water (e.g., water vortexes, slippery edges), and identifying distressed or drowning swimmers.
Water Rescue Skills: Entry and approach techniques, reach and assist methods, and submerged passive victim rescues tailored for shallow water depths.
Emergency Care: Professional-level CPR/AED for adults, children, and infants, plus First Aid for sudden illnesses, spinal injuries, and external bleeding.
Team Dynamics: Coordinating multi-rescuer responses, rapid extrication using a backboard, and effective communication during emergencies.
This American Red Cross Shallow Water Lifeguard Recertification course is designed for currently certified professionals (or those expired by no more than 30 days) to review, practice, and retest on the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain their certification.
Blended Learning Format: Combines a 6.5-hour online eLearning module with an in-person, instructor-led skill session (10 hours).
Skill Refresher: Focuses on reviewing and practicing rescue techniques, surveillance, and CPR/AED/First Aid.
This abbreviated course validates your ability to prevent, recognize, and respond to emergencies in shallow water environments (up to 5, 6, or 7 feet deep) and to provide professional-level care for breathing and cardiac emergencies, injuries, and sudden illnesses until EMS personnel arrive.
Additional Bridge to Deeper Water dates will be provided if Lifeguard Candidates need for June. To complete, there is an additional fee.
This course provides current YMCA Swim Lessons instructors the opportunity to recertify their certification and support understanding and implementation of the swim lessons program. In addition, instructors will gain knowledge, skills and abilities in teaching students with disabilities and diversity of abilities.
Instructors can expect to gain an understanding of the following: the community need and how the Y is positioned to meet that need, the impact instructors have on program success when teaching in a way that supports a diversity of abilties, the range of diversity in abilities that an instructor may teach and tips for facilitating swim lessons, the tools and resources available to help deliver the YMCA Swim Lesson program, and how to individualize lessons to meet participants’ goals.
The American Red Cross CPR/First Aid/AED program helps participants recognize and respond appropriately to cardiac, breathing, and first aid emergencies. The courses in this program teach the knowledge and skills needed to give immediate care to an injured or ill person and to decide whether advanced medical care is needed.
Blended Learning: You will notice the word "Blended". These courses are a combination of First Aid, CPR, and AED. Once registered, you will receive online pre-work to complete prior to the class. You must complete this work and bring the completion certificate to your class.Prerequisites: None
Length:
Fees:
This course awards the YMCA Swim Lesson Instructor Certification. After successful completion of this course, instructors will be able to identify components of the YMCA Swim Lessons continuum, demonstrate the behaviors of an effective YMCA Swim Lessons Instructor, maintain an inclusive environment of learning while keeping order in a positive and safe environment, employ swim teaching techniques that break down the critical features of a swimmer’s skill progression at any age and stage and demonstrate the swim instructor’s role in the safety process and during an emergency. Candidates must be able to tread water for two minutes and demonstrate Stage 5 proficiency in at least four of the following six strokes by swimming 25 yards of each: Front Crawl, Breaststroke, Sidestroke, Butterfly, Elementary Backstroke, and Backstroke.
