OUR STORY / NUESTRA HISTORIA
We're a family that came to Miami from two different worlds. One of us spent twenty years in the Coast Guard — years of search and rescue among many other missions — where you learn two things for life: that swimming isn't recreation, it's survival, and that nothing important gets done alone. One of us grew up in El Salvador with a soccer ball always at his feet — because in a country at war, the field was the one place a kid could still be a kid. He grew up to serve as a police officer, when that took real courage. And when our family decided where home would be, the answer was Miami — a city where both our languages could be home, shared with neighbors who came here from everywhere, and neighbors whose families have called this city home for generations.
We're raising our daughter here, in a neighborhood where the towers keep rising and the places for kids keep shrinking. So we built the thing we couldn't find: a place where swimming saves your life and team sports teach you belonging — because a child needs both. Every child. The one who loves sports and the one who won't kick a ball yet. The one who learns differently. The one whose family could never afford a camp. And girls are half of who we serve — not because a rule says so, but because we build spaces where they know they belong. Every kid means every kid — close to home, easy to reach, where a child can just be a kid. We're starting with free Saturday mornings, and we're building toward much more.
Somos una familia que llegó a Miami desde dos mundos diferentes. Una de nosotros pasó veinte años en la Guardia Costera — años de búsqueda y rescate, entre muchas otras misiones — donde se aprenden dos cosas para toda la vida: que nadar no es recreación, es supervivencia, y que nada importante se logra solo. El otro creció en El Salvador con una pelota siempre en los pies — porque en un país en guerra, la cancha era el único lugar donde un niño todavía podía ser niño. Creció para servir como policía, cuando eso exigía verdadero valor. Y cuando nuestra familia decidió dónde estaría su hogar, la respuesta fue Miami — una ciudad donde nuestros dos idiomas se sienten en casa, compartida con vecinos que llegaron aquí desde todas partes y con vecinos cuyas familias han llamado hogar a esta ciudad por generaciones.
Aquí estamos criando a nuestra hija, en un vecindario donde las torres siguen subiendo y los espacios para los niños siguen desapareciendo. Así que construimos lo que no encontramos: un lugar donde nadar te puede salvar la vida y los deportes en equipo te enseñan a pertenecer — porque un niño necesita las dos cosas. Todos los niños. El que ama los deportes y el que todavía no quiere patear una pelota. El que aprende diferente. El de la familia que jamás podría pagar un campamento. Y las niñas son la mitad de a quienes servimos — no porque una regla lo exija, sino porque construimos espacios donde ellas saben que pertenecen. Cada niño cuenta — todos, sin excepción — cerca de casa, fácil de alcanzar, donde un niño puede simplemente ser niño. Empezamos con sábados gratis por la mañana, y vamos por mucho más.
Mission
United Hands for Children builds water safety, sports skills, and leadership in Miami children — multi-sport programming for ages 6–11, with swim and water-safety instruction beginning at age 4. Through affordable, bilingual programming — anchored in swim and water-survival instruction at our public parks — we ensure every child, and especially every girl, has a safe place to play, learn, and lead. No child is ever turned away for inability to pay.
Vision
A Miami where every child can swim, every girl has a team, and every public park is a place where the whole community’s children grow strong together.
Core Values
Safety first. Founded by a U.S. Coast Guard officer: rigorous safety standards, screened adults, and the two-adult rule at every session.
Every child in. Co-ed, all backgrounds, sliding-scale fees administered invisibly — no child ever labeled by what their family pays.
One team. Boys and girls train, compete, and lead together, with participation and leadership turns structured to be equal by design.
Bilingual by design. Instruction, registration, and family communication in English and Spanish.
Partnership over competition. We complement the organizations serving our community; we fill the gaps — starting with the water.
Earned trust. We document our work, report our results, and grow one excellent season at a time.