Wellness Fund Summary Report - Highlights for Project Leaders

What’s Inside Summary Report | 2010

Project Reporting Results

• Elements to support the development of healthy school communities • Healthy school community activities implemented by projects • Project impacts on students and staff • Project impacts on the social environment • Policy development and implementation • Policy barriers

Sharing the Success of Wellness Fund Projects:

• Methods used by projects to gather information

Highlights for Project Leaders

• Resources for sustainability

The Alberta Healthy School Community Wellness Fund would like to recognize all project leaders and health champions for their excellent work in developing healthy school communities!

The Wellness Fund has compiled a brief summary to share the work of funded projects and the impacts reported. This information is a reflection of data collected between 2009 and 2010.

Wellness Fund Reach

Wellness Fund Reach Since 2007

Wellness Fund projects are well on their way to developing sustainable healthy school communities using a comprehensive school health approach!

Thanks to the hard work of 100 projects funded since 2007, healthy school communities are being developed in over 600 schools, impacting more than 200,000 K – 12 students across Alberta. This equates to over one third of all Albertan students!

Edmonton (13) Calgary (10) Medicine Hat Lethbridge (5) LEGEND District level project

School level project

Sharing the Success of Wellness Fund Projects: Highlights for Project Leaders

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Elements Identified by Project Leaders to Support the Development of Healthy School Communities

Collaboration

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Success/change towards the development of a healthy school community is facilitated by collaboration amongst stakeholders that represent different roles.

Health Champion(s) /Leader(s)

Health champion(s)/leader(s) provide support/guidance that is instrumental for the planning and implementation of the project.

Dedicated Time

Changing a school community to one that embraces a healthy culture requires dedicated time.

Support/Funding

Support/funding is needed for the school community to focus on implementing healthier practices. Support/funding has allowed for a focus on developing a healthy school community.

Student Voice/Input

Encouraging student input and ownership in program planning and implementation is integral to the acceptance of change to healthier practices.

Staff Education/ Awareness

Staff training/building staff awareness about how to make healthy choices facilitates the development of a healthy school community.

School Administration /Board Buy-In

Support from the administration/board is critical for the development of a healthy school community.

Healthy School Community Activities Implemented by Projects The following chart highlights activities that students and staff participated in as part of the healthy school community project taking place at their school.

Healthy Eating Activities

Active Living Activities

Positive Social Environments Activities

• Development of a school/ district nutrition policy using a collaborative approach

• Hip hop, yoga, and zumba classes for students and staff

• Permanent student developed murals and art installations

• Pedometer challenge for staff across a school district

• Creation of gardens and socializing areas for all school community members

• School-based vegetable garden planted and cultivated by students with produce contributing to cafeteria lunches • Grocery store and restaurant sponsored food programs (breakfast clubs, cooking clubs, hot lunch program) • Partnering with dietitians to ensure current and future food offerings meet the Alberta Nutrition Guidelines • Salad bar and smoothie bar in the cafeteria • ‘Healthy Treat Day’ to replace ‘Cupcake Day’

• Equipment sign-out program for evenings and weekends • Mobile Classroom – e.g., bike to science class in the forest • Creation of school and community walking paths • “Geo-caching” – treasure hunting using GPS • Cross-curricular connections using DPA bins and other physical activity equipment • Focused fitness day once a week • Positive Playgrounds activities

• A two-way mentoring program between students and seniors at the local seniors home • Student-run leadership clubs built on cross-grade relationships • Partnering with the larger community to support positive relationship initiatives • Families invited to participate in classroom activities • Sandwiches made and delivered to the homeless by students

• Healthy bake sales

School communities have also found success with the use of professional development opportunities, workshops for students with staffs, and health promotion-focused resources.

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Project Impacts on Students and Staff Students are: Making healthier food choices “By role modeling and educating … on the benefits of eating and drinking healthier and the effects… on [students’] ability to perform physical activities, students began choosing healthier options; water not soft drinks during periods of physical activity.” – Principal

Becoming leaders “Our involvement with [district project] has lead to a leadership initiative within our school which has involved many students in positive social and physical behaviours. It has allowed for a leadership-role model relationship to emerge between our younger and older students…” – Lead Teacher

Staff are:

Getting active “Students who typically are not engaged in physical activity are now active, enjoying school and are motivated to learn.” – Lead Teacher

Seeking out positive relationships “Students eat and participate in events with their ‘Family Grouping’ which has resulted in a calmer lunchroom and multi-age groupings and friendships.” – Lead Teacher

Taking charge of their health “We have students identifying themselves as successful contributing members of their community, and that they can make healthy choices.” – Family School Liaison

Modeling healthier eating and/or physical activity habits “Teachers are modeling and promoting healthy eating habits throughout the school day.” – Lead Teacher

Becoming more aware of healthy school community activities “Our student population of approximately 5,340 students in K – 12 and our staff population of approximately 650 now have an awareness of our healthy lifestyles project and realize how important it is to our health and the improvement of student learning.” – Education Consultant

Project Impacts on the Social Environment Momentum was created

A healthy school culture was created

“One of the main successes that we have witnessed is the significant growth and support for Comprehensive School Health... across the entire school division…

We have been very pleased with the momentum this project has created...” – District Project Lead

“We changed a school culture. We had students adopt the attitude of “Can Do” and “Be the Change.” We have students identifying themselves as successful contributing members of their community, and that they can make healthy choices.” – Family School Liaison

While less defined as a theme some project leads did report that families/parents are more aware of the changes to healthier options and that they too are embracing them.

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“Working at the district level we have seen significant changes. The largest of these is the regulation for healthy food and beverages served in the district.”

Policy Barriers Projects were also asked what barriers they encountered while trying to develop or implement policy.

The following table is based on information from 16 district level and 17 school level projects.

Frequency of Response

% of Responses

Lack of support/resistance to change District School

15 7 8

21.2% 21.6%

Compliance/engagement District School

6 2 4

6.1% 10.8%

Food providers (i.e. contracts, resistance) District School

6 3 3

9.1% 8.0%

Policy Type

- Health and Physical Education Consultant

Policy Development and Implementation In the 2009/10 reporting year 16 of 18 district level projects (88.89%) and 17 out of 41 school level projects (41.46%) were developing or had fully implemented a policy. Most commonly these policies focused on the healthy eating priority area.

To aid policy development schools and districts reported relying on their own administration, parents and committee members.

Interestingly, students encompassed 16% of the stakeholder responses of those involved in policy development at the school level, yet only 3.9% of stakeholder responses at the district level.

“The support and commitment of the Board of Trustees was key to establishing healthy school communities, as it set this goal as one of its priorities for the districts. As such, schools were required to address this priority in their annual education plans.” – Assistant Superintendent

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Methods Used by Projects to Gather Information The table below shows a shortened list of the most commonly used methods for gathering information when projects were asked how they determined the effects of the activities they implemented.

Frequency of Response

% of Responses

Survey/Questionnaire

48

18.8%

Observation

39

15.2%

Feedback/debrief

21

8.2%

Attendance records/participation rates

20

7.8%

Interviews/verbal questioning

19

7.4%

Meetings/focus groups/group discussion

16

6.3%

11

4.3%

Method Used for Gathering Information

Usage tracking (frequency of use)/ usage monitoring

“With parent support and their own push for Wellness the future looks good.” – Lead Teacher

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Resources for Sustainability The table below lists resources that projects felt are ensuring the sustainability of their healthy school community endeavours. Analyses showed that the number one aspect impeding sustainability was staff engagement and staff development, an issue that some projects tried to address through professional development and staff wellness sessions.

Total Number of Responses

% of Responses

37

25.5%

27

18.6%

Stakeholder skill development or training/gained knowledge

20

13.8%

Collaborative partnerships

18

12.4%

Framework/plan has been developed

16

11.0%

School health champion/lead teacher/wellness coordinator in place

14

9.6%

Secured funding/fundraising

13

9%

Resource to Ensure Sustainability Healthy changes/improvements to the physical environment (e.g. equipment, teacher resources) Commitment from stakeholders (e.g., health committee, administration, government, volunteers, etc.)

“There has been much education surrounding nutrition, but information does not always lead to behaviour change…Environmental changes are needed within the school to bring out behaviour change.” – Superintendent

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For more information, please contact: Alberta Healthy School Community Wellness Fund Centre for Health Promotion Studies University of Alberta 5-10 University Terrace 8303 - 112 Street Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6G 2T4 TEL: (780) 492-2537 FAX: (780) 492-9579 EMAIL: healthyschools@ualberta.ca www.achsc.org/wellness_fund.htm

Our Partners Alberta Health and Wellness Alberta Education University of Alberta, Centre for Health Promotion Studies Alberta Coalition for Healthy School Communities

The objective of the Wellness Fund is to enhance the health and wellbeing of school-aged children and youth within Alberta school communities through support of school community projects, which address healthy eating, active living and positive social environments using a Comprehensive School Health approach.

The Wellness Fund provides funding to projects that demonstrate readiness in moving ahead with healthy school community initiatives. ​

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