The Youngstown Lifeguard Academy has been recruiting young kids for summer jobs since 2019 to help the nationwide lifeguard shortage. The program has seen growing success over the years resulting in a fully staffed pool in 2021 on Youngstown’s Northside, but the program hopes to go beyond offering youth a seat at the pool. 

“We started training young people that weren’t looked at or seen as the answer.  It was at risk inner city youth, young people of color that were looked at and trained,” Kevin Tarpley, YLA’s founder said. 

Beyond just giving kids a summer job, the academy aims to help improve the lives of these troubled young kids. 

“Before I met Kevin (Tarpley) I was someone on a bad path and now as the years are going on I decide to put that behind me,” Luther Bell, lifeguard in the YLA said. 

The academy connects the kids with several organizations that can offer good jobs and need their positions filled. The Mahoning Valley Parks and Recreation Department, Ohio Department of Natural Resources and Stone Labs on Lake Erie are just a few places where kids can launch their career thanks to connections with YLA. 

“A young person is going to be a lifeguard (for) two to three years … then when they go away to college they’ve got a skill they can take with them and get a job,” Tarpley said. “We want to prepare them for retirement … If you get a federal, state or city job and you work your 20 years, 30 years that is going to provide stability for individuals.”

Even if they don’t choose to pursue higher education, the academy teaches valuable life skills that the kids can use outside of the pool. 

“It taught me a lot of things too like public speaking, respect, staying out of trouble, keep the kids out of trouble,” Bell said. “I'm getting my reading better because I actually didn't know how to read in highschool.”

“To focus on lifeguards gives us the foundation for developing young people,” Constance Burgess, YLA Director of Technical Assistance and Psych Development said. “It’s precisely the recipe that is needed to help change not only their attitude and focus about work but also their attitude and focus about the communities that they live in.”

The academy accepts any kids ages 15 to 24 years old in Youngstown and the surrounding communities. 

While the academy only can serve this region, the first of its kind program could potentially expand farther in the future. The University of Iowa is conducting research on the academy to track its success. Dr. Brad Richardson has gathered evidence on the program and will continue to follow it over the next few months and years. In turn, the research will show how the program helps these kids and will provide the academy with specific data to give to other communities so that they can develop similar programs.