Wellness Weeks: A Total School Approach for Promoting Physical Activity and Nutrition

Abstract

Wellness Weeks are designed to get schools started with a total school approach to promote healthy lifestyles and are consistent with the goals of programs such as Let's Move! Active Schools, and the recent recommendations of the Institute of Medicine. The purpose of this article is to describe Wellness Weeks as one option for creating comprehensive health-promotion programming in schools. This article begins by defining and providing a rationale for the use of Wellness Weeks. Next, the role of the Wellness Coordinator in this model is discussed. The following section describes the research that has been conducted on Wellness Weeks. Finally, techniques for involving the entire school (e.g., all personnel and students), as well as parents and community members, are discussed.