CANADA’S HEALTHY WORKPLACE MONTH® 2009 IS READY TO LAUNCH!
October 5 to November 1, 2009
Theme: Healthy Mind. Healthy Body. Healthy Work…Feeling Great About Life!

This year’s Canada’s Healthy Workplace Month® (CHWM) is bigger and better than ever before! The 2009 theme is “Healthy Mind, Healthy Body, Healthy Work…Feeling Great about Life!”. During the month, participate in fun, friendly, week-long activities related to four weekly themes. Take the Healthy Workplace Month® challenge and discover how your organization’s healthy workplace initiatives measure up across the country.

There are hundreds of opportunities to do exciting things around the themes of each of the four weeks. Your CHWM workplace coordinator will be able to download everything they need to communicate with your group’s participants, including dozens of activity suggestions, and checklists from www.healthyworkplacemonth.ca
The website will be ready in July 2009.

To get you started thinking and planning here is a brief overview of the four weekly themes and suggested activities:

Week One: “Feeling Great at Work”
Week one is all about feeling great while you work! This involves supporting your colleagues, getting support from your colleagues, making friends at work, learning at work, and getting/giving positive feedback.

Suggested Activities:
• clean your desk
• take a five minute break to see how a colleague is doing
• initiate an employee recognition program
• coordinate a ‘lunch and learn’ session

Week Two: “Feeling Great with Family & Friends”
Week two looks at achieving a balance between work and life while appreciating how you and your family and friends affect and are affected by work.

Suggested Activities:
• have lunch with a friend or family member
• leave the briefcase at the office each night of the week
• turn off your PDA as you leave the office
• take your kids to work
• participate in a workplace Flu Shot Clinic as a family

Week Three: “Feeling Great at Play”
Week three is all about having fun! Plan and coordinate activities that involve everyone or make it a challenge between departments. This is a great opportunity to use team building activities to learn and grow while having fun at work.

Suggested Activities:
• run a golf tournament
• coordinate a Frisbee game, a poker tournament
• offer a Sudoku Challenge Play down
• start a book club
• run a photo contest for the funniest workplace photo
Week Four: “Feeling Great Giving Back”
Week four is about social responsibility. The focus of this week is to give back to society and the communities we reside in. Coordinate activities that support corporate and individual contributions to our needy society.

Suggested Activities:
• sponsor a day at Habitat for Humanity
• donate to a food bank
• encourage employees to volunteer and provide them with the time to do so, i.e. United Way
• donate blood
• sponsor a local community event
• sign your organ donation card

Bonus: If you or your organization comes up with an innovative idea, submit it to [email protected] and you will be eligible for extra points if we receive it before July 31st, 2009.

Work Well and WIN: Be recognized!
Earn the most points during a weekly challenge and be recognized as a WINNER!

There will be a point scoring system that gives credit for how many activities were completed by the whole group each week and what the participation rate was.

You will be competing against groups your own size this year, broken down as 1-49, 50-249, and over 250 employees. Recognition will be given for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners each week in each size range, as well as the overall winners for the whole month.

You’ll receive an award plaque and certificates, plus your organization’s logo will be proudly displayed on the CHWM website for a year!

Are you up for the Challenge?

Get involved in Four Easy Steps
1. Choose a coordinator at your organization
2. Register your organization (Register at www.healthyworkplacemonth.ca)
3. Participate in the challenges
4. Use the checklists to tally your points and WIN!

Together we are building healthy Canadian workplaces!