All in for health and wellness!

Aaryn Manning, Chinook’s Edge Staff Health & Wellness Worker, is guiding the division’s Wellness Champions through a mini survey to ensure their efforts remain relevant and timely in addressing wellness priorities.

“Our Wellness Champions involve a rep from each school, so they each have an important voice in our goals to support staff wellness,” said Aaryn. “We’ve asked each of them to have a conversation with a handful of their colleagues to get a sense of what’s working well and also some possibilities as we plan for next year. We all want to ensure the work we are doing is meaningful. 

“We conducted a division-wide survey in 2017 when we launched the Staff Health & Wellness initiative, so we also want to pulse-check to see what’s working well from those responses. We’re considering all three levels of responsibility for wellness: the individual, the school and the division. Given the year we’ve had, we want to be forward-thinking in supporting this important work.

“Looking back to where we’ve come in the last four years, I would say we are much clearer as a division regarding work/life balance. When we introduced Weekdays ‘til 6, that initiative resonated so strongly with all our stakeholders that it took immediate hold as an expectation for our approach to work. Our Matters Committees are as strong as ever, showing this approach to transparent communication is working well. There has also been a culture shift around the conversations happening in schools, with a higher comfort level talking about wellness and mental health. Our staff is more aware of the resources available to them. Our Staff Health & Wellness focus has really taken hold across our division, thanks in large part to our Wellness Champions and to our school administrators for their openness and support of this work!

“Relationships Matter in Chinook’s Edge, now more than ever. 
This is embedded in our culture and it serves us well.”