Intensive Training Seminars

As health promotion professionals, many of us were trained in the core public health competencies - planning, implementing, evaluating, researching, etc. However, curricula often leave out the core human skills of public health and life - resilience, authenticity, vulnerability, flexibility, compassion, etc. These skills are fundamental to fostering equitable environments and programming as we strive for more equitable health promotion at all levels. By practicing professional authenticity and crucial interpersonal skills via improv exercises in an engaging and supportive environment, this intensive training will give you direct knowledge of how to foster health equity in the field of health promotion and in other aspects of your life as well.

To intentionally and holistically work to mitigate systemic health inequities, health promotion professionals must have learning environments where they can be authentic, share their lived experiences, and feel safe to have challenging conversations. When we center authenticity, connectedness, and resilience, we enhance belonging and listening to understand - key pillars that foster health equity among health promotion professionals as well as in the communities that we serve and are members of (Todić et al., 2022).

Research highlights the importance of interpersonal skills training and applications for more effective health promotion as well as more engaged, flexible, and resilient health promotion professionals (McPhee, 2022).. In this highly experiential workshop, we will play our way to connection, enhanced communication skills, and even have the opportunity to collaboratively work on a challenge or question participants are encountering in their work to practice putting all these fundamental skills together.

This ITS will feature the importance of measuring program outcomes and communicating those outcomes to the various key stakeholders engaged in workplace health and wellbeing programs, including workers, practitioners, sponsors, industry and professional colleagues, and the general public.

The two-day seminar will begin by summarizing the business case for building, enhancing, and sustaining workplace health programs. The four key elements are: 1) Assessment of the “problem” facing an organization that establishes the business case for initial or continued investment in a program – constructing a “burning platform;” 2) Planning, both strategic and tactical, to guide employer decisions regarding priorities and use of scarce resources; 3) Implementation of evidence-based interventions that align with employers’ and workers’ needs, interests, and capacity; and 4) Evaluation of program success in the following three categories: Structure-Process-Outcomes.

Day 1 will focus primarily on building a Measurement and Evaluation (M&E) framework that relies heavily on survey data, health risk assessments, and access to administrative files that can be used to document a positive return-on-investment (ROI) and value-on-investment (VOI).

Day 2 will then highlight the skills needed to translate, both verbally and in writing, methods, and results from “simple” evaluations to more rigorous scientific studies into terms more digestible by key audiences. This addresses the challenge of balancing the need for rigor with practical demands and limitations of real-world settings, reliance on scientific evidence with the desire for innovation, and the academic views of occupational and public health with the market-driven approaches of the fitness and lifestyle industries.

A critical need exists for health equity interventions to leverage social determinants of health within communities through work settings. This need applies to low-wage and minority workers and other underserved populations, including small businesses in rural locations, employees at risk for substance misuse, and—given post-pandemic stress—service providers and caregivers in public health. Moreover, such interventions need to be evidence-based or at least designed a priori to address health impacts (e.g., Thornton, et al, 2017; Health Affairs). In addition, providers or facilitators of such interventions should demonstrate multicultural competency.

Through support from the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Office of Substance Abuse and Addiction Services, the presenters utilized a pre-existing workplace evidence-based program (EBP) and adapted it for application in underserved rural areas and diverse populations. The US Surgeon General and SAMHSA have recognized the original program as effective in reducing adult substance use risk; peer-reviewed studies also show an impact on improving the workplace culture of health, attitudes towards help-seeking, and stigma. Improved social capital—as a way of addressing health inequity—is a core theme of the program.

This adapted classroom train-the-trainer workshop includes: Day 1—Immersive Well-Being Ripple Effect (RWB) Training; Debrief, Self-Assessment, and Review of Research; Day 2—Assigned Practice and Peer Feedback; Continued Practice, Marketing, Strategy, Dissemination, Community of Practice.

The Immersive RWB gives participants the direct, experiential groundwork needed to be effective. This component draws upon a multicultural competency review. Discussions offer an opportunity to imagine providing the training to diverse audiences (e.g., BIPOC, LGBTQ) and sharing experiences for best practices.

Organizations that acknowledge the complexity of the relationship between work and well-being are making well-being a business priority and they’re performing better, retaining talent, and seeing other favorable results for their business and their people because of it. There is a surge of interest for organizations to hire or appoint leadership positions charged with forming and executing the strategies for employee well-being. You’ve seen the headlines – ‘The Rise of the Chief Well-being Officer,’ ‘More Companies Are Hiring a Chief Wellness Officer,’ ‘The C-Suite’s New Culture Warrior: the Chief Well-being Officer.’ But what is the essential skillset of a well-being leader? What is the mindset of an individual using their voice, sitting at the leadership table, and paving the path of an executive-level well-being leader within their organization?

Health promotion practitioners are primed for this opportunity to lead the future of practice and impact for workforce well-being. In this seminar, participants are invited to develop themselves, to challenge their perspectives about the relationship between work and well-being, to transform how they think and act, to define their own values and leadership style, and to emerge as a trusted leader and enabler of well-being. As work and life continues to blur through the challenges of societal disruption, social unrest, health inequity, increasing work demands, burnout, mental health, financial stress, and more, we need systems-thinking leaders who are enablers of well-being in their organizations. This seminar will focus on leadership development and building confidence for health promotion and well-being professionals to take on high-level leadership positions and become the Chief Well-being Officers of tomorrow.