Volunteer Antoinette Spear is recognised for her work with Autism Swim
Antoinette Spear was delighted to be named as one three Westfield Local Heroes finalists on the Northern Beaches for her work with Autism Swim and launching its Dippers inclusive surf safety program in 2024.
Dippers helps children from age five to young adulthood with specific learning needs to help them stay safe in the water.
Antoinette’s background is in financial services and tech startups. Her 10-year-old son was diagnosed with autism and ADHD when he was six years old.
“I cried,” Antoinette says. “But not for the reasons why people would expect. It wasn’t out of fear or uncertainty about his potential future,” the Frenchs Forest resident said.
“I was quite emotional about all those things and I told him: ‘If you’re good, we can stay longer at this party,’ or ‘If you’re not a nice friend, people won’t want to be friends with you.’ As a neurotypical person, I didn’t understand what was going on for him, his sensory anxiety and what was going on with his brain and his body.”
Antoinette was motivated to learn. She worked in tech disability startups for a while before the role of general manager for Autism Swims came up. Children on the autism spectrum are 160 times more likely to drown than their peers. Autism Swim, established in 2016, works with swimming instructors, swim centres, therapists, and other aquatic professions, and provides the world’s first neurodiversity aquatic certification. It supports instructors with training and resources to better equip them to teach neurodivergent children. There are more than 1,400 Autism Swim-approved providers across 31 countries worldwide – including In2Swim and Aqua Culture in Brookvale.
The Dippers program is run for six to 10 weeks between February and March when the water is at its warmest – for the last two years it has been run at Warriewood Beach, but will move to Queenscliff Beach in early 2026.
The program is free for participants and there’s such a demand for one of the 15 spots available that there’s a waitlist.
“We are limited by our funding and deliberately keep our groups small,” explains Antoinette. “When we’ve got a participant plus two or three volunteers, plus other volunteers, plus their families, it works out to be about 100 people and it’s overwhelming.”
Traditional Nippers follows a certain program, whereas Dippers is tailored for the participant. Autism Swim works with surf clubs, training volunteers to be more aware of neurodiversity.
“We meet (participants) where they’re at,” says Antoinette. “Some might be getting used to the feeling of water or getting into the water up to their knees, or getting on a board. Or some could be part a group activity like parachutes.”
A clinician is onsite each week to support and help the volunteers navigate any tricky situations, as some participants might be non-verbal or might use non-verbal communication such as stimming.
Rainbow Swim is also working with Autism Swim in training its instructors and providing swimming programs in 80 locations across Australia, such as Aquatic Achievers in Warriewood, Carlisle Swimming in Freshwater and Warringah Aquatic Centre, Frenchs Forest.
How would Autism Swim use the Westfield Local Heroes prize if it won the $20,000?
“We would love to get Dippers not only on every open body water in the Northern Beaches, but also across Australia – and more broadly across the world.”
Visit autismswim.com.au or myrainbowclub.org.au for location details. The winner will be announced 14 October. See westfield.com.au