Happy New Year from ACC Human Resources and the Employee Wellness Program! As we move into 2023 we hope you know how important your health and well-being are to us. The New Year often brings with it feelings of hope and opportunities for change, so we would like to highlight some of the wellness initiatives that we have coming up for you in the new year to help you work towards your wellness goals!
Wellness Webinars: We recognize that personal enrichment and self-care are extremely important aspects of holistic wellness. New webinars are added each month on different topics related to wellness to help employees address the different areas they would like to work on (physical, mental, nutritional, financial, etc.)
You can find out more about these and keep up with all the new and recorded webinars that we offer throughout the year at the Wellness Webinars Google Site!
ACC Virtual Exercise Classes: Virtual Exercise Classes start on January 9th, and run through May 13th, 2023.
These classes are FREE for ALL ACC employees, but you MUST register prior to attending.
These are live online classes hosted by some of our esteemed exercise instructors and are modifiable for all levels of fitness. Feel free to try any of the available classes and even include your household in the fun if you’d like!
View the schedule and registration links below to sign up for the classes that you’d like to join, and click on the class links provided in the class schedule during the appropriate times to get in on the fun and fitness.
We hope you will take advantage of these free classes available to all ACC employees and their families.
Be Sure to Sign up, as space may be limited for In-Person Classes.
Are you ready to get back to in-person exercise classes? This semester, The Employee Wellness Program will be offering a 6-week in-person Strength & Conditioning class at the Northridge Campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12-1pm. These classes will take place in the NRG Gym in Building 2000. This is being offered on a trial run for this semester from January 31 – March 9. If attendance goes well through this initial 6 week period, we may look to offer another session after Spring Break.
Be Sure to Sign up, as space is limited for In-Person Classes.
This highly anticipated friendly competition between the ACC campuses is set to begin January 30th, and will run through April 9th. This challenge is designed for ALL LEVELS to encourage you to increase your activity level and get movin’! Are you ready to become an Exercise STAR? All it takes is 15 minutes a day to reach the goal and earn a cool wellness prize! Adding movement to your day can really make a difference on your overall health, and that is already a big WIN in itself. But if that’s not enough…this year we will have a new incentive prize available to those who complete their goal.
Want to extend this challenge and get a jump start on your exercise goals? You can also join the Get Fit Texas Challenge, a 10-week, statewide exercise initiative, which takes place from January 23rd to April 2nd, 2023. This challenge is separate from the Exercise Stars challenge, but it overlaps and allows us to take the competition (friendly of course) to a larger scale against other employees from state agencies and higher education institutions across the state. This challenge is a great opportunity to get started on your goals for the year, make physical activity a priority, and start building a habit. Also, you can earn bonus Exercise Stars minutes for completing this challenge as well.
All of these virtual wellness initiatives provide a great way to connect, learn and move toward a shared goal of health and well-being. Be sure to take advantage of these and make your health and self-care a priority in the new year!
This year marked the 7th offering of the “Become an ACC Exercise Star” Challenge coordinated by the ACC Employee Wellness Program to promote increased activity among our employees. 368 ACC faculty and staff participated this spring, of which 240 employees completed the challenge by meeting the goal for their activity level. This is a completion rate of 65.2%, which is right on par with last year’s results and 7.4% more than the previous year!
The Challenge ran from January 31 through April 10, 2022…10 weeks of friendly competition between our 13 campus locations.
Together, employees logged a whopping 803,620 total minutes of exercise which equals 558 days of continuous exercise. That’s over a year and a half of exercise or approximately 40,181 miles walking at a brisk pace. That could get us around the world 1.6 times or one sixth of the way to the moon.
ACC President, Dr. Richard Rhodes, congratulated and presented awards for the Top Individual Stars and Most Active Campuses via a live Zoom virtual awards celebration on Thursday, May 12, 2022.
Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s challenge and we look forward to seeing you again through other challenges throughout the year and back for more Exercise Stars in 2023.
Overall top “stars” for the ten-week challenge were:
May is Mental Health Awareness month. ACC HR & the Employee Wellness Program, in conjunction with the National Alliance on Mental Illness would like to remind you that you are NOT alone. NAMI reports that 1 in 20 U.S. adults experience a serious mental illness each year, but less than two-thirds get treatment. We have resources available to help!
We have compiled a list of Mental Health Resources HEREto highlight some of the options available to you.
Check out the webinars we’ve got coming up this month. Full details and descriptions, and links to register can be viewed HERE. We hope you will take advantage of these opportunities to prioritize your mental health.
Don’t forget…All BCBS HealthSelect of Texas participants also have access to medical and mental health virtual visits through Doctor on Demand and MDLIVE. Services through Doctor on Demand and MDLIVE currently continue to be covered at no cost to those enrolled in this coverage. This benefit is subject to change. For more information regarding this, call a BCBSTX Personal Health Assistant toll-free at (800) 252-8039 (TTY:711).
If you have any questions, you can also reach out to Mauri Winters at [email protected].
Happy New Year from
ACC Human Resources and the Employee Wellness Program! As we move into
2022 we hope you know how important your health and well-being are to us.
The New Year often brings with it feelings of hope and opportunities for
change, so we would like to highlight some of the wellness initiatives
that we have coming up for you in the new year!
Wellness Webinars: In the spirit of change, we have
two webinars coming up in January to will help us to reflect on our values and
put together a road map for success in the coming year:
You can find out more about these and keep up
with all the new and recorded webinars that we offer throughout the year
at theNEW Wellness Webinars Google Site HERE!
ACC Virtual Exercise
Classes: Virtual
Exercise Classes will continue online for the spring semester and will start on
January 18th. The new schedule will come out soon and registration
details will be provided at that time, so keep your eye out for more
information to come. We hope you will take advantage of these free
classes available to all ACC employees and their families.
Exercise Stars &
Get Fit Texas Challenges:
Yes…that’s
right! It’s almost time for the ACC Exercise Stars Challenge 2022, so be
sure to save the date!! This highly anticipated friendly competition
between the ACC campuses is set to begin January 31st, and will run through
April 10th. This challenge is designed for ALL LEVELS to encourage you to
increase your activity level and get movin’! Are you ready to become an
Exercise STAR? All it takes is 15 minutes a day to reach the goal
and earn a cool wellness prize! Adding movement to your day can
really make a difference on your overall health, and that is already a big WIN
in itself. But if that’s not enough…this year we will have a new
incentive, as one star will win a $50 Visa Giftcard (donated by A+
Federal credit union)!! Be on the lookout for the flyer and
registration link coming soon!
Want to extend this
challenge and get a jump start on your exercise goals? You can also join
the Get Fit Texas Challenge, a 10-week, statewide exercise
initiative, which takes place from January 10 to March 20, 2022. This
challenge is separate from the Exercise Stars challenge, but it
overlaps and allows us to take the competition (friendly of course) to a larger
scale against other employees from state agencies and higher education
institutions across the state. This challengeis
a great opportunity to get started on your goals for the year, make physical
activity a priority, and start building a habit. Also, you can
earn bonus Exercise Stars minutes for completing this challenge as well.
By registering for
the Get Fit Texas Challenge, you will also receive exclusive access to
additional free virtual fitness classes and mindfulness check-ins coordinated
through a collaborative of state agencies (DSHS, OAG, DPS, TxDOT, ERS, and BCBS)
to support your physical activity throughout the challenge period, including:
All of these virtual wellness initiatives provide a great way to
connect, learn and move toward a shared goal of health and well-being. Be
sure to take advantage of these and make your health and self-care a priority
in the new year!
On Friday, April 26th, ACC hosted the inaugural Employee Wellness-Fest 2019!
Nearly 200 employees came together to celebrate wellness across the district with field day games, exercise demos, health and wellness information tables, and even a new campus competition, the Campus Wellness Cup. Smiling faces were seen throughout the Eastview courtyard as employees were able to get in some physical wellness, engage with their peers from the different campuses and strengthen those bonds between colleagues.
Dr. Richard Rhodes presented the Exercise Stars awards as a part of the event recognizing the top 3 overall individuals from each fitness level, as well as the top 3 Campuses with the most minutes. Wellness Champions from each ACC campus helped put this event together and the Eastview Campus staff worked especially hard to prepare for the big day! Finally, 19 vendors from both the college and the community came out for the event to provide information regarding services related to employee wellness. Several of these vendors, as well as many other local businesses provided wonderful prizes to be won as well.
Congratulations to the Eastview Campus for taking home the first ever ACC Campus Wellness Cup!
Which campus will be ready to capture this honor next year and take home this fantastic trophy at the Wellness-Fest 2020? Yes…we are looking forward to the opportunity to repeat this event again next year, and hope you will be sure to join us again then!
Here are a few pictures from the event, but you can view all pictures in the Photo Gallery!
Employees with Blue Cross Blue Shield HealthSelect coverage may take advantage of these wellness programs, most at no additional cost. For additional information about these BCBS programs, log into your BCBS account.
