How long has your team been working as a collaborative Buckeye Wellness Innovator group?
two to four years
Approximately how many people are in your department, unit, building, or college?
We work with approximately 110 faculty and staff.
Regarding your department or unit's wellness efforts, which of the nine dimensions of wellness has your team addressed?
- Physical
- Emotional
- Social
- Creative
- Spiritual
Describe one successful activity that your team has planned around the nine dimensions of wellness.
Every other week we offer a guided meditation session for staff; it is about 30 minutes long. The person who guides the session is a Department employee. We typically rent a room in the BRT and keep the lights low, set up lamps, use essential oils, and then our employee leads a guided meditation on a different focus each time. It allows staff a time to slow down, relax, and practice mindfulness. It is very calming and refreshing!
Describe another successful activity that your team planned around the nine dimensions of wellness.
This past summer, our team hosted a two-mile wellness walk/jog that we called The Rat Race. We marked out a two-mile course on The Olentangy Trail and sent out registration forms via e-mail/announced at our department's monthly meeting. The participants met late morning at the planned start time and everyone walked/jogged/ran the two-mile course. We made hand made race bibs, provided fruit infused water and Stacey Beck (one of our BWIs) used her metal stamping skills to make everyone an adorable shoelace charm that says "Rat Race 2019".
If your team has kept track of participation rates for your activities, what is your approximate average attendance?
It varies per week and event, but typically we have anywhere from 12-15 people per event.
How does your team communicate wellness events and resources to your colleagues?
We primarily use email to disseminate communication to our department.
Describe how a manager or supervisor in your unit/department/building/college has shown support for your Buckeye Wellness Innovator team.
One of our clinical veterinarians is a BWI which has worked very well to provide an open channel between admin personnel, our Director and the BWI team to be able to work efficiently and provide as many wellness opportunities as we can!
What has your lead administrator/dean/vice president/department chair specifically done to show support for your Buckeye Wellness Innovator team?
Our Department Director has been extremely supportive and accommodating with all of our wellness event efforts. She allows us to meet regularly to plan events and allows events to happen consistently during employee workdays, as long as work is done. She has even personally contributed funds in support of our ideas. The ability to ake a few minutes from the day to attend a meditation session, running club, craft, etc is a real morale booster and makes employees feel valued.
Please share how your team has overcome barriers to engaging your colleagues and/or students in your wellness efforts.
We have reached out to the department with surveys and have crowdsourced ideas for wellness events. We try to mix things up so that everyone has an opportunity to attend something they are interested in. Giving the team options are a great way to encourage participation! "Something for everyone" There are alternating meditation and yoga sessions each week, running club biweekly, a little free library in one of our buildings, and we try to plan "special things" as much as we can such as The Rat Race, building teams for the dodgeball tournaments, we have offered chair massages, hosted a Paint and Meditate to spice up our regular meditation events and are always looking for new ideas!
If you could accomplish anything as a Buckeye Wellness Innovator team, what would your dream be?
Our dream would be to create a sustainable wellness committee and program for our department so that when new BWIs come in, there can still be a large culture of wellness in the future!
University Laboratory Animal Resources
How long has your team been working as a collaborative Buckeye Wellness Innovator group?
two to four years
Approximately how many people are in your department, unit, building, or college?
We work with approximately 110 faculty and staff.
Regarding your department or unit's wellness efforts, which of the nine dimensions of wellness has your team addressed?
- Physical
- Emotional
- Social
- Creative
- Spiritual
Describe one successful activity that your team has planned around the nine dimensions of wellness.
Every other week we offer a guided meditation session for staff; it is about 30 minutes long. The person who guides the session is a Department employee. We typically rent a room in the BRT and keep the lights low, set up lamps, use essential oils, and then our employee leads a guided meditation on a different focus each time. It allows staff a time to slow down, relax, and practice mindfulness. It is very calming and refreshing!
Describe another successful activity that your team planned around the nine dimensions of wellness.
This past summer, our team hosted a two-mile wellness walk/jog that we called The Rat Race. We marked out a two-mile course on The Olentangy Trail and sent out registration forms via e-mail/announced at our department's monthly meeting. The participants met late morning at the planned start time and everyone walked/jogged/ran the two-mile course. We made hand made race bibs, provided fruit infused water and Stacey Beck (one of our BWIs) used her metal stamping skills to make everyone an adorable shoelace charm that says "Rat Race 2019".
If your team has kept track of participation rates for your activities, what is your approximate average attendance?
It varies per week and event, but typically we have anywhere from 12-15 people per event.
How does your team communicate wellness events and resources to your colleagues?
We primarily use email to disseminate communication to our department.
Describe how a manager or supervisor in your unit/department/building/college has shown support for your Buckeye Wellness Innovator team.
One of our clinical veterinarians is a BWI which has worked very well to provide an open channel between admin personnel, our Director and the BWI team to be able to work efficiently and provide as many wellness opportunities as we can!
What has your lead administrator/dean/vice president/department chair specifically done to show support for your Buckeye Wellness Innovator team?
Our Department Director has been extremely supportive and accommodating with all of our wellness event efforts. She allows us to meet regularly to plan events and allows events to happen consistently during employee workdays, as long as work is done. She has even personally contributed funds in support of our ideas. The ability to ake a few minutes from the day to attend a meditation session, running club, craft, etc is a real morale booster and makes employees feel valued.
Please share how your team has overcome barriers to engaging your colleagues and/or students in your wellness efforts.
We have reached out to the department with surveys and have crowdsourced ideas for wellness events. We try to mix things up so that everyone has an opportunity to attend something they are interested in. Giving the team options are a great way to encourage participation! "Something for everyone" There are alternating meditation and yoga sessions each week, running club biweekly, a little free library in one of our buildings, and we try to plan "special things" as much as we can such as The Rat Race, building teams for the dodgeball tournaments, we have offered chair massages, hosted a Paint and Meditate to spice up our regular meditation events and are always looking for new ideas!
If you could accomplish anything as a Buckeye Wellness Innovator team, what would your dream be?
Our dream would be to create a sustainable wellness committee and program for our department so that when new BWIs come in, there can still be a large culture of wellness in the future!
