Protect Swimmers 10 Million (PS10M)

DuPage County Health Department’s Protect Swimmers 10M Community Awareness Initiative is grant-funded through the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Pool Safely Grant Program. Our agency received our third two-year grant in 2023 to prevent child drowning through enforcement and education activities.

We are working to protect swimmers throughout Illinois. Recent accomplishments from the Protect Swimmers 10M child water initiative can be found in the PS10M Project Status Brief.

Table of Contents

Funding Opportunity

DCHD’s PS10M Initiative is excited to announce the 2025 swim lesson funding award recipients. Funding will be dedicated to the provision of no-cost swim lessons for Illinois Children aged 3-5 years old during the summer of 2025.

Sixteen Illinois public swimming facilities were selected to receive awards ranging from $1,000 – $3,500 each to provide free swimming lessons to Illinois children in need. Please refer to the Media Release to review swimming pool names and locations. A total of $36,000 in awards were issued.

In 2024, swim lesson funding awards totaling $18,000 were issued to five Illinois swimming facilities in Boone, Cook, Fayette, and Madison counties. The initiative was funded through the federal Pool Safely Grant Program.

Stories From Our Community

We are collecting personal stories relating to child drowning and suction entrapment to illustrate the magnitude of unintentional drowning in our region. Stories may be submitted by survivors, parents, siblings, relatives, or friends of victims of drowning, rescuers, emergency responders, medical professionals, aquatics professionals, and other water safety professionals or advocates. Each author will mark their story as, ‘public’ or ‘private’. All stories will be reviewed by our team. A portion of ‘public’ stories will be selected for an awareness campaign. Stories will not be shared without the author’s granted permission.

Please fill out this form to share your story.

Professional Enforcement Training Resources

DCHD’s Best Practices for Compliance with the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act (VGBA):

In 2021, ANSI/APSP/ICC-16 (2017), the American Standard for Suction Outlet Fitting Assemblies (SOFAs), was updated. APSP-16 (2017) establishes materials, testing, use, installation, and marking requirements for SOFAs in public swimming pools, spas, and hot tubs. VGBA compliance is required for Illinois’ public swimming pools and spas per Illinois Administrative Code Part 820 – Swimming Facility Code.

DCHD’s Protect Swimmers 10M program is thrilled to share the June 2024 “Essentials for Compliance with the VGBA and Drain Cover Standard” Training Webinar facilitated by Mr. Steve Barnes. The intended audience for this 1.5 hour training is municipal, county, city, and state level health department enforcement officials or other professionals who are interested in VGBA compliance. Please complete the training pre-test before viewing the webinar and the training post-test after viewing the complete webinar. Include your name and mailing address on the pre-test and post-test surveys to receive a training certificate.

In 2023, DCHD released the presentation below which features updates to ANSI/APSP/ICC-16 (2017). The intended audience for the 2023 training is swimming pool owners and operators, swimming facility maintenance and installation personnel, swimming facility or pool managers, enforcement personnel, or aquatics personnel.

In 2019, we released a two-part video training focused on ANSI/APSP/ICC-16 (2011) American Standard for Suction Fittings. These videos are maintained on this website for historical reference. Please refer to the 2023 training for ANSI/APSP/ICC-17 updated compliance requirements.