Introduction
In January of this year, I announced that Active Southern West Virginia awarded Capacity Building Grants for workplace wellness programming to five businesses. These five grantees received $1,500 because they provided a clear outline of policy, system, and/or environmental strategies at the worksite. Over the past month, I’ve met with the Grantees to check in, see how their year is going, and see if they have any needs that Active SWV can help them with. And in every instance, I left the meeting completely blown away by our workplace champions’ passion for wellness, resourcefulness (whether it comes from stretching funds or locating space or creating a level of support around them), and dedication to providing the opportunity for the whole worksite to engage in the wellness program whether it’s obtaining and incorporating everyone’s feedback or offering the same program multiple times to accommodate shift workers.
Workplace Wellness doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective and it isn’t just for the larger corporations. Take a peak at the changes our worksites are making to help support their employees.
Successes
Future of Workplace Wellness
The landscape of workforce health promotion is undergoing a profound shift, driven by a growing recognition that traditional, individual-focused wellness initiatives fail to generate sustainable health improvements or curb rising employer costs. For Active Southern West Virginia (Active SWV), an organization holding CDC Full Plus Recognition for the National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP), this shifting landscape presents a critical strategic opportunity.
To maximize geographic reach and administrative sustainability, Active SWV is executing a strategic pivot to its specialized clinical credentials to implement sustainable, outcomes-focused interventions. This coming year Active SWV will provide a comprehensive strategy and a restructured, evergreen six-week Learning Management System (LMS) curriculum designed to guide employers through this transformation. Incremental program funding will be made available to workplaces completing the training steps.
Conclusion
In closing, we will spend roughly 1/3 of our lives at work, don’t we deserve to take care of ourselves at our place of work too. We want health and wellness baked into your worksite, so that making the healthier choice is the easier choice. We can help with that!
Thanks for hanging out and taking the time to read this article. I hope you’ll consider joining the movement of health and wellness at your workplace.
Stay Active!
Kelly Fox
Workplace Wellness Director
Active Southern West Virginia