With the summer season underway, the Chicago Park District anticipates opening all its public pools on June 17.
Those facilities include pools in Chicago’s Black wards, which suffered the most when the Park District was forced to close pools in 2021 and 2022 because of a lifeguard shortage.
In 2023, a Crusader analysis revealed that 28 pools were closed in 14 Black wards in 2022. That’s half of the city’s 57 public pools on the South, West and North sides.
In Alderman Jeanette Taylor’s 20th Ward, all six Park District pools were closed. And four of those pools were closed year-round, including the popular outdoor Washington Park pool. In Alderman Anthony Beale’s 9th Ward, all three Park District pools were closed in 2022.
Last year, the Park District reopened those and other pools in Black wards during the summer after the Crusader published a collaborative story with Chicago’s Black Press, which includes WVON1690, Chicago News Weekly, TBT News and N’DIGO magazine.
Those pools will also be open this summer as well, while Park District officials continue to recruit lifeguards for the season. Pool schedules for each park location will be posted on the Chicago Park District website prior to the opening date, Park District officials said.
Park District representatives say its “Your Perfect Summer Job” campaign efforts, which kicked off in December 2023, have been successful in inspiring nearly 2,000 candidates to apply for lifeguard positions.
In conjunction with the launch of the recruitment campaign, the Park District unveiled a new Lifeguard Explorers Training Program. The stipend-based program has graduated nearly 200 participants, who have learned to swim and are prepared to meet the test requirements to become a future lifeguard. The graduates, between the ages of 15 to 22 years old, could apply for the lifeguard position.
The potential lifeguards received a $475 stipend for completing the course, which aided in restoring the lifeguard recruitment pipelines disrupted during the pandemic. The course, targeted to West and South Side communities, provided Chicago residents additional opportunities to learn how to swim.
The stipend-based course was offered at four park locations during after-school hours to accommodate academic schedules. The Park District gave interested swimmers $400 to complete the required American Red Cross specialty certification, paid three-day safety operations trainings for new lifeguards, and increased the hourly salary rate to $19.
In addition to being American Red Cross-certified, all Chicago lifeguards have completed an extensive swim skills test that includes a 200-yard swim test, a 20-yard underwater swim, and retrieval of a 10-pound object from a depth of 10-14 feet.
The Park District is still accepting applicants for the final swim test of the season on June 1. For more information about the requirements to be a lifeguard and to register for the test, visit https://bit.ly/ApplyNOW-Lifeguard.
The Park District kicked off the summer season with the opening of its beaches during Memorial Day Weekend. The beaches will be open until September 2, 2024. “Beach season is upon us, and we are ready! The Chicago Park District is proud to welcome visitors to Chicago’s 22 pristine beaches and 26 miles of lakefront, including Oak Street Beach, which was recently named one of the best beaches in the country,” said Chicago Park District General Superintendent and CEO Rosa Escareño.
“This is what we have been waiting for since our summer jobs campaign launched in winter; earlier than ever. We are proud of many achievements this year, including the success of our new Lifeguard Explorers Training Program, a stipend-based swim class that re-energized the pipelines disrupted by the pandemic and has been instrumental in teaching more youth to swim this year and preparing them for a respected career choice.
“We’re also celebrating a decade of our water quality testing partnership with UIC’s School of Public Health, an effort that has increased public safety and provided real-world research opportunities for our local university students.”
Dr. Abhilasha Shrestha, research assistant professor at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health, said, “UIC’s decade-long partnership with the Chicago Park District has been instrumental in providing our students with invaluable hands-on experience. The successful application of qPCR testing methods in monitoring microbial beach water quality exemplifies how scientific research can directly contribute to the health and well-being of our community. We are proud to be part of this successful endeavor.”