Introducting the healthy lifestyle coalition
Posted By BETTYANN PETRUK Camrose Healthy Lifestyle Coalition
Posted 2 months ago
Since the fall of 2007, the City of Camrose has been home to the Camrose Healthy Lifestyle Coalition, which is comprised of local community members representing a vast array of clubs, organizations, businesses, agencies and individuals who meet monthly to enhance collaborative efforts in achieving a healthier Camrose for all. Membership to the Coalition is open to any interested Camrose residents.
The coalition efforts are driven by the guiding value of "Building our capacity to work together for our community so Camrose is a place where all residents can choose and experience a healthy, balanced lifestyle." Through this vision, awareness, opportunity, connections, promotion and development have emerged as the desired outcomes in striving to provide an all-encompassing healthy lifestyle for all Camrose residents.
The coalition strives to operate as a collective and cohesive group, working towards such objectives as increasing awareness of the benefits of an all-encompassing healthy lifestyle, identifying and promoting existing programs and opportunities, determining gaps within community programming and encouraging program, resource and supports to fill these gaps, promoting opportunities for leading an all-encompassing healthy lifestyle, connecting with decision makers to encourage healthy policy and environment and promotion of community engagement; just to list a few.
The Camrose Healthy Lifestyle Coalition was made possible through ACE Communities, "Active, Creative and Engaged Communities"—an initiative of the Alberta Recreation and Parks Asso-ciation (ARPA), with funding provided through the Rural Alberta Development Fund and corporate sponsorship from EnCana and CanWest Media.
ACE is a community development initiative designed to enhance the quality of life in rural Alberta by strengthening community leadership, collaboration and innovation through recreation, parks, arts, culture and heritage.
Camrose was one of the initial 10 Flight 1 communities across rural Alberta to receive the funding and support offered through the ACE Communities Initiative back in 2007. ACE now spans more than 30 rural com-munities across Alberta with nearby Killam being chosen as one of ten Flight 3 ACE Com-munities in July of 2009.
The CHLC has chosen the concept of a Wellness Wheel as the vehicle for raising awareness and promotion of healthy lifestyles for Camrose individuals. The Wellness Wheel is comprised of six elements of holistic human wellness, including physical, social, environmental, emotional, spiritual and intellectual. It is intended to provoke thought and personal reflection on what it means to lead a "well and balanced" lifestyle.
Self-assessment
Wellness Wheel self-assessment tools can be found in numerous locations around Camrose, including the Chuck Maclean Arts Centre, the Healthy Living Centre and Alberta Health Services Public Health. They can also be found in the Learning, Art and Recreation Guide published by the Camrose and Area Adult Learning Council.
In efforts to raise awareness of Wellness and Balance, the Camrose Healthy Lifestyle Coalition aims to contribute monthly newspaper submissions highlighting ordinary, everyday Camrose individuals and their thoughts and reflections of Wellness. These articles will begin next month.
For more information on the CHLC contact Jane Cherry-Lemire at 780-672-9949.
