Swim Drink Fish Canada
Project Details
Location
The words Swim Drink Fish are the three pillars of a healthy watershed. If you can't swim, drink, or fish, then your waters are imperilled. These three words are the indicators of restoring and protecting local waters.
Placement Details
Swim Drink Fish represents a community connecting people to water through community science and engagement, with a special focus on low-cost, reliable water quality monitoring – protecting swimmable, drinkable, and fishable water for everyone. Swim Drink Fish works at the confluence of water, people, and storytelling, using community science, technology, and communications to connect people to water. Through a network of Community Water Monitoring Hubs, SDF inspires people to know and safeguard their local waters. SDF initiatives are active in 171 communities in 11 countries.
Our participants work with Water Hubs in Toronto and Vancouver. The Hubs are community-based water monitoring programs that help communities connect and access local water, by working communities in underserved areas to increase access to recreational water and build water-literate communities.
Participants of this placement help deliver community-based water monitoring programs; take volunteer teams out to gather water samples and gather important environmental data; work in the field and lab, and are trained to collect, process, and analyze recreational water quality samples; assist with hosting events to engage the public; and assist in communications and report writing using Swim Guide data for use in research.
Placement Category: Field Research and Monitoring; Community Outreach and Education; Lab Research
Placement Season: Summer, Fall
Placement Type: Urban, Lab
2023 Participant Highlights
Participants Isabelle Oke and Kyle Chen
Reflecting upon her experience, Isabelle’s highlight was the community of volunteers that she helped build through weekly citizen water testing. Every week people always showed up and she found her confidence in community action growing. Coming from a non-science background, Isabelle’s comfort with science communication increased and sees science maintaining a more active role in her life.
The placement with SDF allowed Kyle to get a better sense of what he wants his professional work life to look like. The placement was a good mix of structured work alongside developing and executing an Ocean Action project (more about that project here!)
Check out Kyle’s feature on @oceanwiseyouth here, as well as his Instagram Takeover under the “Ocean Pathways” highlight.
Check out Isabelle’s feature on @oceanwiseyouth here
2022 Participant Highlights
Participants Evie Trites and Gabriela Pistner
Evie contributed to the environmental protection and restoration of recreationally important and underrepresented sites across the Great Lakes and in Toronto through community science and engagement.
Gabriela contributed to the environmental protection and restoration of recreationally important and underrepresented sites across Western Canada in Vancouver, as well as informing and empowering the public to engage and connect with their local waters.
