With the start of the new year, KVC Kentucky wants to remind businesses that healthy employees are happy employees. Successful HR professionals and senior leadership know that having a workplace wellness program can boost morale, improve health and fitness, and increase productivity. KVC Kentucky’s Bluegrass Wellness at Work Challenge was created to give companies access to wellness initiatives and recognize those who adapt their company initiatives to include wellness. Rewarding employees’ achievements will keep them excited and living a healthful lifestyle, with an added bonus of awards and community recognition!

The 2016 Bluegrass Wellness at Work six-week fitness challenge will run from May 1 – June 12. Companies will compete as a team against other organizations of a similar size, classified as small (under 25 employees), medium (25-99), and large (100 or more). Employees will use the Bluegrass Wellness at Work app to input their activity, receiving 1 point for every 15 minutes of exercise they record.

The fitness challenge started as a project from the 2013 Leadership Lexington class, a program of the Greater Lexington Chamber of Commerce, aiming to create a simple challenge that includes all levels of fitness from walking to running to swimming, and counts each type of fitness equally. The goal is to promote active lifestyles by improving on each person’s current activity level.

Many Lexington companies have great programs promoting wellness for their employees, but no way to share their successes. The Bluegrass Wellness at Work challenges gives those organizations a chance to communicate their ideas and hopefully help others follow in their footsteps, all while creating a little competition, reward, and a social aspect. Elizabeth Croney, President of KVC Kentucky and member of the Leadership Lexington team who originally created the challenge, is excited for another successful year and to see more organizations participate.

“This year, we are providing more opportunity for the participating organizations to interact with each other. We will have dedicated social media platforms, a weekly email update, and an awards celebration where employees can meet their competition and interact with each other.”

Bluegrass Wellness at Work Schedule:

• May 1 – BGWAW challenge kickoff at The Great Cake Race
  • This 5K race benefits Sweet Blessings, a nonprofit specializing in creating happy birthdays for children who are living in poverty or fighting life-threatening illnesses.
• June 5 – The Great Amazing Race
  • This outdoor obstacle course 5K is the perfect opportunity for teams to see how they have improved over the course of the challenge and to earn some last minute fitness points against the competition.
• June 12 – BGWAW challenge concludes
  • There will be a special award ceremony for participating organizations. Location and time for this special evening will be announced at a later date.

Throughout this six-week challenge, participating organizations will receive weekly updates showing how they stack up against their competition. They will also have opportunities to interact at after-work events including a happy hour and a celebration to announce the winners a week after the challenge ends.

Registration for the Bluegrass Wellness At Work fitness challenge is now open! Sign up at bluegrasswellnessatwork.org.

ABOUT KVC KENTUCKY
KVC Kentucky, headquartered in Lexington, is a 501(c)3 nonprofit child welfare and behavioral healthcare organization that provides behavioral health services, foster care, family preservation and diversion, services. KVC’s services are in-home, strengths-based, and driven by a focus on the safety, permanency, and wellbeing of the child and family. Each year, KVC Kentucky serves more than 10,000 children and families in eight regions of the state. The organization is a subsidiary of KVC Health Systems which directly touches the lives of over 50,000 children each day across the U.S. Learn more at www.kvckentucky.org.