From where Adam Craig sits – or stands or stretches – pretty-much anyone could be a champion.
The co-ordinator of Living Well @ Western is looking to assemble a volunteer team of faculty, staff and graduate students willing to promote wellness opportunities for Western employees. With an investment of a few hours a month, these ambassadors can help start or promote departmental/unit activities such as walking/wheeling groups, yoga, meditation or healthy eating.
The new initiative already has about 35 champions. Craig is hoping at least a dozen more will step forward.
His dream team isn’t composed of high-level athletes. Rather, he is looking for positive people who can lead by example and recognize each person’s goals for a healthy body, mind and soul may be different.
“We want someone with a holistic approach; people who are energetic and empathetic.,” he said. “We want to embed wellness into everything we do.”
Last year, Living Well @ Western ran about 300 classes for people wanting to practice yoga, stretching, Zumba, mindfulness meditation and cardio workouts in their workplace. Since, the number of classes and participants has risen steadily.
What’s needed now are people who will be points of contact to promote the program and become part of a network disseminating healthy ideas for faculty and staff.
“There have been a lot of really good initiatives that don’t gain as much traction because people don’t know about them,” he said.
Their work could include connecting someone to a lunch-hour walking group, reminding interested staffers of available classes in their building, offering tips for providing healthy snacks for meetings or sharing wellness tips on a virtual bulletin board.
“We have so many experts on campus and it would be really great if we could leverage that knowledge,” he said.
Activities associated with Living Well @ Western are free to employees.
Many activities take place at the Support Services Building, but classes also take place in other buildings throughout campus and, with the addition of more champions, could also expand to other campus sites.
Faculty, staff and graduate students interested in becoming ambassadors can reach Craig by emailing him at acraig7@uwo.ca.
The Health and Wellness portal is a first step for anyone from the Western community, students and staff alike, looking for additional resources from psychological counselling to healthy diet and peer support.