Tom Henihan
Express staff
Holy Family Catholic Regional Division (HFCRD) recently received a $40,000 wellness grant from the Alberta Healthy School Community Wellness Fund.
The HFCRD has previously received a $10,000 School District Readiness Grant in 2013 and a $50,000 Wellness Implementation Grant in June 2014.
The criteria for awarding the Schools Community Wellness Fund grant is determined by the funds going to directly influence educational outcomes through a process of wellness, best outlined in what is called the four pillars of comprehensive school health.
four pillars of comprehensive school health are teaching and learning, physical and social environment, healthy school policy and partnerships and services. Projects coordinated between two or more school communities are preferred.
HFCRD plans to use the $40,000 fund to continue supporting the Jurisdictional Level Wellness Initiative (JLWI). The JLWI or Communities of Care, provides wellness opportunities, creating awareness not just around physical wellness but also emotional, mental and in the case of the HFCRD spiritual wellness.
“It will be a little different in each school because every school is unique,” says HFCRD Superintendent Betty Turpin.
“We will start by appointing wellness leaders in each of our schools and they will institute or bring in different things to the school depending on what they need.”
The communities of care initiative has been developed exclusively by the HFCRD by surveying staff to create its “communities of care” focus.
“This is not a three year project, this is not a five year project,” says Turpin.
“We are going with this for as long as we need to, building ethical action in our students, building healthy relationships, building Catholic citizens.
“We are focusing on all the aspects that go with those big ideas.”