This West Philly YMCA needs more lifeguards. It’s training young people for the job.

Becoming a lifeguard was “transformational” for Theresa Edmondson, the advanced aquatics director at the West Philadelphia YMCA.

“I didn’t really realize the importance in what [lifeguards] were actually doing,” she said. “Just to be able to help a person instead of just being stuck and scared and not knowing what to do, those are things that made it more transformational for me — the actual realization that they do so much more and the fact that I could learn to do these things as well.”

About a year ago, Edmondson was having trouble finding a lifeguard to hire, amid a national lifeguard shortage. A young man at the club was interested in getting a job but didn’t have the skills to be a lifeguard yet, so she decided to help train him. It took him about 2½ months to get certified, but then he started working for the YMCA as a lifeguard.

“I did that because we couldn’t find anybody to work at that time,” she said. “I was like, well, you know, he has the desire to learn, let me help train him. And then he started working and that helped us.”

Edmondson realized that if she created a structured program, she could train more students to do the same.

This spring, Edmondson led a pilot program at the West Philly YMCA helping to train young people to become lifeguards. As the summer approaches, the site is looking to hire three or four additional lifeguards, says Edmondson, and the hope is that this new program will train students that could potentially be employed by the YMCA or elsewhere in the future.

“Most of the more professional swimmers are usually going into something else and are too busy,” she said. “Using our young people as resources, and in turn, helping them learn skills and work I think is the best way to go about it.”

The Greater Philadelphia YMCA employed about 1,400 young people aged 18 to 24 last summer in positions including lifeguards, who make $17 an hour.

Throughout a 6-week program in April and May, 10 students in Edmondson’s program, ages 15 through 18, met twice a week in person on Mondays and Wednesdays to practice swim drills at the West Philly YMCA. On Tuesdays, they met over Zoom to watch instructional videos on topics including those about CPR and first aid. There was no prerequisite to join the course and the classes were fully funded by donors.

“The program started from an idea because a lot of youth would come in and they would want to get trained in lifeguarding, and they weren’t sure how to approach it,” said Edmondson.

On the last day of class in late May, around 5 p.m. on a Wednesday, Edmondson walked up and down the length of the pool timing students one at a time in drills. In a nearby lane, small children, some wearing goggles and swim caps, made their way across the pool holding flip boards, and splashing about, in a pool filled with some 20 people.

Edmondson’s students have been training to take the American Red Cross lifeguard certification course, which requires participants be able to complete a set of drills that include swimming, treading water, and retrieving a 10-pound object from the pool. On that Wednesday, Edmondson’s students had 50 seconds to swim about 20 meters, pick up a brick from the pool floor, and return to the side of the pool where they had started. Edmondson’s first student clocked in at 56 seconds. The second at 49 seconds.

The hope is that the pilot program could be offered again throughout the year going forward, training more students to become lifeguards, and be implemented at other YMCA branches if there is interest among youth.

“With the lifeguard shortage, this helps combat that,” said Edmondson.

The challenge of hiring lifeguards has also plagued the city’s public pools in recent years. In 2021, the city said 22 pools would remain closed for the summer season, and in 2022, 21 city pools were closed due to staffing shortages. In 2023, there were delays in opening some pools due to “staffing attrition and delays in getting lifeguards’ paperwork to clear,” Parks and Recreation told The Inquirer.

Last year, all 60 of the available pools opened, and the same amount is expected to open again this year, according to a spokesperson for Parks and Recreation. Pools began opening June 14 in 2023, and they are also expected to begin opening mid-June this year. The pool opening schedule is expected to be announced in the second week of June.

For now, the city says it is on track to hire enough lifeguards for the summer.

“There has been a high interest in lifeguarding opportunities this year, and we have more lifeguards hired now than we did at the same time last year,” said a spokesperson in mid-May.

As of June 3, the city had hired about 325 lifeguards towards the 400 positions it needs to open all 60 pools, according to a spokesperson. Lifeguards who work for the city pools are employed an average of eight weeks in the summer season for 35 to 40 hours a week, and earn between $16 and $18 an hour.

The department has been focused on recruiting efforts in many ways, including the “Philly Phreeze” in February, which helped raise nearly $53,000 toward paying lifeguard bonuses.

“Hiring enough staff to open all 60 available pools is our number-one priority for the summer. We understand how important our pools are to communities across the city,” said a spokesperson for Parks and Recreation via email in mid-May. “For many Philadelphians, their local city pool is their summer vacation, and is necessary for recreating safely and cooling down during the hottest months.”