Be Wellthy

At the Hull Adult Education Centre there is incorporated into the daily schedule a health and wellness advisory time we call “Be Wellthy”. Broadly speaking it is a program designed to help students cultivate in them a sense of well being. Many of our students are incapable of leading social action projects because they lack a positive sense of self that is required for one to take action. Our Be Wellthy program provides a conducive format for students to achieve personal success which will spawn new leaders of our community. Since we have started the program this fall we are seeing a real change in our students and they are finding their strengths and gaining confidence to share and help others grow and achieve.

More specifically our program works by having students create SMART goals at the beginning of the program. SMART is an acronym that means Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely. The goal is first developed through a questionnaire students partake in that focuses on six health and wellness domains: Physical Health, Mental Health, Environmental, Lifestyle, Nutrition and Other. The students work at achieving their goals as per the timeline they set out in their SMART goal with the help of fellow students and teachers. The daily scheduled time allows a defined meeting place that students help each other and in some cases lead the class in some issue of health and wellness.

Update (April 4, 2012)

Harnassing Wellness as a Force for Social Action

At the Hull Adult Education Centre we are incorporating wellness into our school culture and life. The imagineaction grant has allowed us to buy 2 soccer nets and some pinneys to help organize and validate the importance of sport, an aspect of wellness, and to help foster the development social action among our students.

Update (June 21, 2012)

If you talk to the boys about how the soccer nets have “shaped” their lives, they will respond with statements like:

“We no longer have any bull* about what’s in and out!”

“They [the nets] make playing so much more organized and fun”

As teachers we have seen these young men become more organized in the use of their time, considerate of others in the gym and they have become more responsible. This is apparent in the following scenarios that have taken place over the term that we have had the nets. On their own accord, the boys organize tournaments and make a point of keeping the teams fair. They take care also to put stuff away and make it to class on time. Moreover this group of young men took it upon themselves to organize a game with the girls, who up to this point had not been really joining the soccer group. It was a great realization for the boys that girls are as competitive and capable as boys!

In terms of promoting social action it is clear that the boys have become more inclusive and tolerant. They have also become more cognizant of the bigger picture and the ownership that they have taken with respect to soccer has rubbed off to their studies. It has been great to see.