PROGRAM PLANNING

 

OEA Choice Trust aims to support districts, ESDs and community college by sharing resources for developing a strong School Employee Wellness (SEW) program. All the resources below can help with writing a strong School Employee Wellness Grant application or growing a SEW program.

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Blueprint for Education Employee Well-being

The Blueprint for Education Employee Well-being is a guide to making employee wellness programs work for school districts, ESDs and community colleges. Use the Blueprint as a guide to begin your organization’s path to employee wellness or to strengthen the steps you’ve already taken.

Framework of Proven Strategies and Best Practices

The Fostering School Employee Health, Well-being and Resilience: A Framework of Proven Strategies and Best Practices resource (the Framework) was created to complement the Blueprint for Education Employee Well-being.

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Employee Health, Well-being and Resilience Model

The School Employee Health and Well-being Model reflects the Trust’s holistic approach to well-being and resilience.

The Model includes multiple elements of personal well-being as well as cultural and environmental elements. Acknowledging all of these elements can make your employee well-being initiative stronger.

Creating a workplace culture and environment that values and prioritizes employee health, well-being and resilience is essential to the overall success of education employee well-being efforts.

 

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Surveys

Before starting a program, it is important to determine staff’s well-being needs and interests. Methods for collecting staff data can include surveys, focus groups, empathy interviews, listening sessions, or other methods of collecting representative data from a variety of staff.

Using multiple data sources to collect staff feedback is recommended to ensure all employee groups, including those who have been historically excluded, are represented.

Staff Needs and Interests Survey

Use or customize OEA Choice Trust’s survey to gather valuable data that can inform your planning and increase employee engagement in your program.

Abbreviated Staff Needs and Interests Survey

The abbreviated survey may be easier for staff to fill out due to having less questions. This survey can be revised; feel free to add or subtract questions to collect the data you need.

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Tips for Writing SMART Objectives

SMART Objectives are an important part of your Action Plan and can help you outline how to reach your goals.

Use the tips on the handout below to write strong SMART Objectives that are Specific, Measurable, Action Oriented, Relevant and have a Timeline.

How to Develop SMART Objectives

Advice from OEA Choice Trust Grantees

Michael Carter, former Superintendent of Rainier School District, speaks about administrative buy in and the importance of leadership support for SEW programs. Rainier School District currently has a School Employee Wellness Grant.

Whitney Ellersick is the Nutrition Services Senior Director at PPS. She discusses how to make SEW programs work for hard to reach employees that may have different needs and work schedules.

Joanne Maki is a PE teacher and former Wellness Coordinator for David Douglas School District. She helped initiate the district’s school employee wellness program and continues to serve as a co-Coordinator. Joanne shares her experience with developing and growing her district’s SEW program.

Gigi Sims is the grant coordinator and district Wellness Coordinator for Corvallis School District. Her district successfully completed the OEA Choice Trust SEW grant in 2015-2016 and was awarded a Mini Grant from the Trust in 2018. Gigi discusses how to sustain programs and build off a successful foundation.

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Healthy School, Healthy Staff, Healthy Students: A Guide to Improving School Employee Wellness

This guide, created by the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors, includes strategies for building support for a School Employee Wellness program, assembling your wellness team, gathering information from staff,  planning for success, maximizing your impact, demonstrating results and maintaining momentum.