+ POOL is a city-wide, participatory effort, powered by the people that surround, question and engage with our shared vision to promote equitable access to the waters surrounding NYC. All funds support + POOL's work to:

Demonstrate swimming in NYC’s waters is possible. We are working with the City of New York to create new guidelines that would allow safe swimming in more of NYC’s waters.
Create a river swim facility. We are pursuing the construction of a river swim facility that can scale up to numerous facilities across the city.
Design free swim and environmental educational programs. We’re committed to expanding free learn-to-swim programs for youth and adults across the five boroughs and raising awareness of the issues affecting our water quality through creative projects.

Why support river swimming?
River swimming in New York City offers an incredible opportunity to connect with nature and explore the city from a unique perspective. The waters surrounding New York City were once open and accessible to all, but in the early 1900s, rapid war-time industrial development and population growth began to have an impact on the quality of urban waters, and as a result, public access to waters for swimming were restricted. + POOL started as a simple idea: instead of trying to clean the entire river, what if you could clean a small piece of it. And what if you could change how New Yorkers see their rivers, just by giving them a chance to swim in it? And so the idea of a plus-shaped floating pool was born. Like a giant strainer the pool was designed to filter river water through the walls of the pool to create a safe swimming space. This simple idea captured the imagination of the world, launching a movement to reclaim our waters.

By reclaiming and revitalizing the waters surrounding New York City, we can unlock the benefits of swimming and create a healthier, more vibrant, and inclusive urban environment for all residents and visitors to enjoy.