June in the swim community

NOWCA releases their new wild swimming app and Mental Health Swims is on the lookout for new partners – stay up to date with our outdoor swimming community news for June 2024.

Here’s what swim venue network NOWCA and mental health peer support community Mental Heath Swims are up to this month.

NOWCA Wild: The new app for wild swimmers

NOWCA Wild now offers improved premium features, designed to support the wild swimming community. The app helps users explore new locations, connect with other swimmers and stay safe in open water. There’s been thousands of downloads since March, when the new features were released.

Those looking for quality wild swimming spots can choose from nearly 200 locations in the UK and abroad, and more are being added every day!

NOWCA Wild is the first app to offer insurance for wild swimmers. As long as you are a NOWCA member and you log your swim on the app, you are covered for personal accident and injury. Your chosen contacts are also notified when you start and finish a swim, giving them piece of mind.

Our Groups feature is the most popular so far! Groups are geo-located so it’s easy to find the ones near you. It’s also a much easier way to organise swim meet-ups and to share information and updates.

NOWCA Wild is a collaborative app, which means developments are based on feedback from the community. We are excited to see where the app goes as more features are introduced in the coming months.

NOWCA Wild is free to download and available on both iOS and Android. Find out more at nowcawild.co.uk

Do you work for an organisation that is passionate about mental health and wants to support a good cause?

We’re looking for new partners and sponsors to help fund Mental Health Swims and Swim Together for 2024 and 2025.

At Mental Health Swims, we believe that everyone should have access to free mental health support and we are proud to have provided peer support to over 19,000 in 2023 alone. Our mission is to create safe and welcoming spaces for people who want to improve their mental health and make connections in their community through swimming.

We have a unique offering because we are led by lived experience. All our volunteers and our team have lived experience of mental health challenges either personally or through supporting someone close to them. We focus on accepting people as they are today with no expectation for transformation. We want to make it as easy as possible for people living with mental illness to join in, to feel accepted and included and ultimately fight mental illness stigma by doing this.

We have a variety of different sponsorship packages available and we’d love to hear from you. You can get in touch with us at partnerships@mentalhealthswims.co.uk. Our previous wonderful partners and sponsors have included: Wagamama, Deakin & Blue, Crisis, True Start Coffee, Speedo, Zoggs and many more.