Alaska Marine Safety

Education Association

AMSEA's Children & Youth Educators Program

AMSEA instructor Mike Morris rinses immersion suit clad students after a pool session during which he taught cold water survival skills in Craig, Alaska
Photo: Sabrina Ververs, May 2008

Drowning is the second leading cause of death for children in Alaska. By training children, we are providing the next generation of adults with skills to safely enjoy boating and other outdoor activities.

Overview of the Children & Youth Educators Program

AMSEA's Children & Youth Educators program trains teachers and others who work with children in cold water safety and survival skills, and supports them with ready-to-use teaching materials and a variety of safety and survival equipment so they can develop locally relevant programs. Since schools are located in nearly all of of Alaska's communities, this program reaches children statewide.

Program History

The Children & Youth Educators program is as old as AMSEA. AMSEA staff and instructors provided training in schools interested in creating cold water safety and survival programs as well as to schoolteachers to provide this training as part of their curriculum.The popular marine and boating safety activity book Cold Water Kids was a result of these efforts in 1992.

Beginning in 1998, with the help of a four-year federal grant, many of the ideas and hands-on activities for school-age kids developed by AMSEA instructors over the years were compiled into a kindergarten through 12th grade curriculum, Surviving Outdoor Adventures. This grant also allowed AMSEA to expand and intensify its work with school districts and Native health corporations to bring more schoolteachers, injury prevention specialists and other youth educators into AMSEA's teaching network. During the grant period, 26 Outdoor Survival Educators Workshops were held in 18 different locations around the state, reaching hundreds of people who work with children in more than 60 Alaska communities.

This training has continued even after the grant ended, and to date 390 individuals have taken part in AMSEA Youth Educators Workshops. Over half of Alaska’s school districts have cold water safety and survival programs in place. Since 1991, 45,255 children in schools, home school programs, recreation programs, culture camps, drug rehabilitation programs, and Scouting and Campfire programs, have received cold water safety and survival training.

Now, AMSEA instructors train over 10,000 school-aged children every year. Our curriculum materials are used in all areas of Alaska. They also are used in a number of locations nationally.

Workshops for educators are held in different Alaska locations each year. Recently, some workshops have trained adults and their students at the same time, allowing adults to co-teach children with an experienced AMSEA instructor. This format gives educators immediate hands-on experience with the program.