Here’s a great example of how a diverse, low-income city built a community aquatics program that draws young people towards healthy, team-focused activities and away from gangs:

Olympics - A Small City Has a Big Impact on Water Polo

"June 18, 2008.  COMMERCE, Calif. —  …Commerce, a working-class industrial city of 12,500 southeast of Los Angeles, has developed one of the most prolific and sophisticated youth water polo programs in the United States…

“It’s not a rich community, but what the city has done for water polo there has opened so many doors,” said Nitta, a former Olympic swimmer who now coaches youth water polo teams in Las Vegas.  

…Few places have Commerce’s water polo heritage or infrastructure. The city has a median family income of only $34,040, but children play water polo free year-round in a $20 million facility built with water polo in mind. The pool is designed to Olympic specifications and occasionally hosts the national team.

The city pays for its youth players to take bus trips to tournaments, their entry fees and for pool time. All a child needs is a bathing suit — and the cost of that is sometimes covered by booster clubs.  

“We’re surrounded by areas prevalent in gangs and we’re very fortunate we don’t have gang problems in Commerce,” said Jim Jimenez, the director of parks and recreation, who has worked in the department for 35 years. “Our kids are kept busy in swim lessons and water polo and other things. It’s a community effort and it shows.”

Villa and Cardenas are first-generation Mexican-Americans. Cardenas’s parents and Villa’s mother have roots in the Mexican town of Tecalitlán. In Commerce, their mothers worked as cleaners, and Villa and Cardenas stumbled into water polo by tagging along with their older brothers. Before long, their weekends were crammed with as many as 10 games. The pool became their social hub.

“It was the thing to do,” Villa said.   ..”