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education Organizations partner with the Society to improve workplace wellness Being healthy is a key component for your overall wellbeing. By choosing a healthy lifestyle, your risk of illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease decreases significantly.  Because it is estimated that people spend 10-12 hours each weekday at work, the American Cancer Society's Workplace Solutions initiative offers employers a series of resources to motivate their employees to exercise, quit smoking, eat healthy foods, and keep other aspects of their wellness on the top of their minds, as well as the minds of their employees. Wellness in the workforce results in increased productivity, morale, and ultimately cuts down on the cost of health care because more major health problems are prevented.
Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, with 23 campuses throughout the state, invites its 2,500 full time employees to participate in Active For Life, a free Workplace Solutions ten-week program that motivates employees to form teams, set their own weekly exercise goals, and work towards those goals for incentives. The goal of Active For Life is to teach employees how to find time to exercise on a regular basis and to keep those habits going once the program ends. In Ivy Tech's case, the teams were organized by campus. "Not only did it get employees moving, it built comradery and reinforced the team atmosphere at each campus," says Kelly Rickard, Ivy Tech's executive director of benefits and risk management. Metro-Detroit-based Metaldyne, a designer and supplier of automotive systems and modules, has also partnered with the Society to bring their 4,500 U.S. employees a wellness program. Debbie McCarthy, Metaldyne's corporate benefits manager, appreciates how the resources are designed to be easily implemented by an employer. "Partnering with the American Cancer Society has been a great success," says Debbie. "The Society has helped us implement the wellness program quickly and effectively across our U.S. locations." Metaldyne is using a Society website called FightCancer.org to provide healthy lifestyle information, serving healthy foods at meetings, distributing the BecauseWeCare monthly wellness newsletter, and promoting the Great American Health Check to their employees. The Great American Health Check is a quiz about lifestyle choices and demographic information to provide personalized guidelines on how to improve one's health and topics to discuss with a doctor. Employees may also enroll in a clinical study for assistance with weight management through nutrition and physical activity. The company is also using the Society's Quitline program to help employees stop smoking and will be piloting Active For Life in their Plymouth, Michigan, office later this month. "The basic idea around Metaldyne's wellness campaign is to create opportunities for our employees to make smarter, healthier choices," says Debbie. "A number of our executives are actively engaged, which further motivates the employees to participate. So far, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and we're excited to contribute to our employees' overall wellbeing." To learn more about wellness for you and your workplace, contact your area service center at 1-800-ACS-2345. Other features in VOICES this month community focus: variety of Society programs offer support in multiple ways |
survivorship and patient services: youth can still sign up for this year's Young Adult Retreat |
research: Society funds innovative cancer researchers |
advocacy: join us in Washington DC as a Celebration on the Hill supporter |
advocacy: statewide events allow volunteers to speak with legislators about cancer issues |
local area spotlight: Central Indiana Area Service Center staff and volunteers try to help patients traveling for treatment |
opportunities available: visit a Relay For Life event in July |
resource highlight: register today on the Cancer Survivor's Network |
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