By Alysa Haas, AmeriCorps member in Goldendale, WA
When I started my AmeriCorps position at Klickitat County Health Department last October, I really had no idea what “worksite wellness” meant. I guessed erroneously that maybe it had something to do with environmental health regulations. Little did I know I was way off track. But I did know I’d have to figure it out fast, since one of my tasks for the year was to create a worksite wellness toolkit in conjunction with Healthy People Alliance of Klickitat County.
Starting my job in Goldendale, Washington, I was immediately thrown into the thick of worksite wellness as it is known in this county. I attended worksite wellness committee meetings at the local hospital, the public utility district, and at the county courthouse, and soaked up as much as I could. I learned that all worksite wellness means is making it easier to be healthy at work. The county wellness committee was working on getting yoga and fitness instructors to come teach classes in the courthouse for county employees. The hospital’s committee was launching their tobacco-free campus campaign. And the PUD was just getting their wellness program started, surveying employee interests and needs.
After a lot of meetings and witnessing both struggle and success in these three wellness committees, a team of volunteers in Healthy People Alliance put our heads together to come up with some basic advice to help others new to worksite wellness. While there are about as many wellness toolkits out there as there are companies (most of them quite long and laborious), we wanted to create a resource that got straight to the point. We also wanted to gear this advice toward companies in rural areas like in Klickitat County. After all, those who have lived in rural areas know that resources are completely different than in the city. After some good research, discussion, and some fantastic layout design from our members, we came up with an online and print toolkit to share—Worksite Wellness Toolkit – Helping Klickitat County Work Well!
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