Daily Archives: November 23, 2011
Let’s Get Physical
For those of you that don’t know about Healthy UND, it is a campus coalition that was launched over 10 years ago to promote campus-wide health and wellness. Since then it has grown to over 156 members, including students, staff, faculty, and administrators, and has many successes under its belt. You can find more information about Healthy UND at http://und.edu/health-wellness/healthy-und/.
The Healthy UND Coalition just held their monthly meeting last Friday. The topic was physical activity, and the turn-out was tremendous! I could feel my excitement building while scrambling to find places to fit more chairs around the table. Seeing new faces continually file in through the doors only added to my excitement. When we finally found a seat for everyone, I was looking around the table and thinking “I wonder where we could have squeezed in even one more chair“, this really showed me the coalition is acheving great strides in their work, and really getting the word out about health and wellness in the campus community.
The plan for the Coalition’s meetings this year is to have a focus of each meeting, relating to the five priorites chosen by the Coalition. These priorites were chosen by reviewing credible data sources and hosting focus groups. The meeting on Friday marked our first focus meeting. The first half of the meeting consisted of a discussion forum, where members shared their input on how to move forward with the Physical Activity Priority Action Group’s general goals, recommendations, and objectives. (See the Call to Action Report on the Healthy UND Coaliton website). There was a lot of great input on how the Coalition is already moving forward with this priority, such as having more of a physical activity focus during the Weight Watchers at Work meetings, establishing a walking path in the parking garage, and implementing a computer reminder for a “stretch break” to employees. In order to continue to move forward, and reach more resources in promoting physical activity on campus, the suggestion of establishing a physical activity subcommittee was given. The idea was well received, and is now in the process of being established. If you are interested on the Physical Activity subcommittee, or on being involved with the Coalition as a whole, please email me at bethany.brandvold@email.und.edu.
The next Healthy UND Coaltion meeting, is on December 9th, 2011 in Swanson room 17. The focus of this meeting will be Alcohol and Other Substance Use/Abuse. Please feel free to join, and invite anyone you think may be interested in this topic or in Healthy UND as a whole.
getBALANCED.me 