UNPRECEDENTED DROWNING PREVENTION RESEARCH PHASE 2 COMING SOON
Kick-off Scheduled During “Roxie’s Wish Week,” Part of May’s Water Safety Awareness Month
LOS ANGELES – Meow Meow Foundation has extended its partnership with renowned Behavioral Insights Team, a global research and social innovation pioneer, to study the impact of flawed supervision on alarming increases in childhood drowning.
MMF commenced the first phase of its research initiative in 2025. Representatives from BIT flew from New York to Los Angeles to study habits at a select group of area pool venues.
Phase two expands the study to include parents who will participate in an initial workgroup followed by an ongoing field implementation effort. Participants will record their pool supervision behaviors over a few months via video diaries and surveys.
“Year over year, we hear the same messages… take swim lessons, install pool fences,” said MMF founder Doug Forbes. “But drowning numbers continue to increase, because swim lessons and pool fences don’t prevent increased lapses in parental or guardian supervision.”
Forbes said he became so frustrated with the same messaging and the same tactical responses that he decided to redirect his drowning prevention investments toward research and education. He engaged numerous aquatics experts about his theory that lapsed or lacking supervision was the primary culprit in childhood drowning. Experts agreed.
Forbes contracted BIT and For Goodness Sakes social marketing agency to launch a foundational effort that further explored this theory. He said the drowning prevention arena largely strays from adult accountability because of adult discomfort with the subject, let alone the discomfort of parents who were present when their child drowned.
“I get it… there is no more barbaric moment than staring into the black, vacant pupils of your drowned child like I did,” he said. “Although I was not present when a camp committed gravely negligent acts that drowned Roxie, it is deeply challenging to admit that all child drownings are ultimately due to adult error, no matter how folks might want to explain them away.”
Forbes and his now deceased wife Elena established a statewide resolution in 2021 which declared every third week of May “Roxie’s Wish, Drowning Prevention Week for Children.” This research campaign is one of a few efforts to occur during this year’s Wish Week that supports MMF’s mission to make camps and aquatics safer for kids.
MMF is still seeking more parents to take part in the initiative which grants participants an incentive package worth at least $250 in exchange for a limited investment of time. Refer to the attached recruitment ad for more details.