SWIM WITH HEART, Creating safe, confident swimmers

Swim with Heart was founded 13 years ago to help children with special needs learn the joy of accomplishment through swimming. This beloved Santa Monica nonprofit has worked with more than 1,000 students along with their families to find the best way to allow them to confront new challenges and succeed.
Swim with Heart offers year-round swim instruction and competitive swim team training to residents of Santa Monica and the surrounding areas at the Santa Monica Swim Center on 16th Street, next to Santa Monica College.
Founder and executive director Mikey Flaherty, a world ranked swimmer who swam competitively at USC, has found successes in the pool produce a ripple effect that impacts students’ daily lives, creating lifelong building blocks used to overcome life’s challenges on land as well as in the water.
“With the help of specially trained instructors, swimmers of all abilities break through emotional, mental, and physical barriers and open up to new possibilities,” Flaherty said. For many children in the program, learning to swim is their first big win. The words “You can’t,” are replaced with “Yes, you can!”