Creating the LPS Wellness program

Helping to create the Wellness Facilitator position at Lincoln Public Schools was a high priority project for Partnership for a Healthy Lincoln. We launched a fundraising campaign to create the position and fund it for at least 3 years in an effort to make Lincoln Public Schools the healthiest school district in the state. The effort was a success and Michelle Welch, RD, LMNT was hired in August 2011.

Lincoln Public School Wellness Program

Goals of LPS Wellness:

• Build sustainable and meaningful practices that will impact the health, fitness and obesity rates of Lincoln’s youth
• Create a culture of wellness within the Lincoln Public School system that incorporates students, families and LPS staff
• Develop meaningful policy changes that embed practices supporting a long-term focus of disease prevention and healthy living
• Incorporate current and new best practices in schools and share within the Lincoln community about these successes

Strategies:

• Staff Wellness Focus - Focus on staff wellness opportunities will be critical to setting great examples for healthy living. Who spends more wakeful hours with school aged kids each day than the LPS staff?
• Family Wellness Focus - From grocery purchases, to lifestyle choices, to setting ground rules for daily living, families are key players in choices that impact long-term health.
• Student Wellness Focus - The power of choice only grows each year as students become increasingly independent. Knowledge is a powerful part of students learning to make good choices from lifestyles, to foods and activity. Incorporating good modeling for students and guiding them to solid information about the impact of their choices is a key strategy for helping to build healthy citizens beyond high school.

Find downloadable school/after school wellness program resources and information links here.