South Dakota businesses who want to give their employees a chance to be physically active throughout the day can apply for a Steps to Wellness Grant. Funded by the Department of Health, the grant is awarded to 10 businesses across the state. Work sites then receive training to create strategies to promote physical activity in the workplace.
Promoting physical activity at work has been a common discussion among the workforce. Nikki Prosch is an Extension Health and Physical Activity Field Specialist. She hopes the grant program will make physical activity a long term practice at work.
“In the past, not saying this is a bad thing, there has been a lot of focus on different programs- you know an 8 month challenge to get employees active, which that all goes great in hand with this project, but one of the key components to this project is actually having a worksite develop a policy for their employees to engage in physical activity,” says Nikki Prosch.
After receiving the grant, Prosch works with businesses to create a policy and make changes so employees can be active year around.
“It’s always so much fun to see the end of the project. We’ve seen some great success, if they have an old unused office, maybe an old unused cubical, they are able to convert it to an onsite gym where employees can access yoga mats, exercise balls, or small hand weights during the day if they want to do get a 10 minute workout in,” says Prosch.
Prosch says one of the biggest obstacles she often hears is that people don’t have time to stay physically active. She says making small changes in the workplace can have a big impact on promoting exercise.
“So installing bike racks, maybe posting some heavy duty weather resistant signage of a walking route, it doesn’t necessary mean your worksite has to be located near a walking trail, but if you had a large parking lot or maybe walking half a mile to the post office and back. Employees aren’t aware that it’s only a half a mile, so maybe just developing a sign so that employees are aware “oh if I walk to the post office today, I could easily get in on a mile walk.” Simple things like that that maybe indirectly changes the environment in which they work in,” says Prosch.
This is the third year the Department of Health has offered Steps to Wellness Grants. Any South Dakota worksite can apply for the grant until August 25th.
Link to Application: http://goodandhealthysd.org/workplaces/