The Windsor Essex County Health Unit's Working Toward Wellness (WTW) Workplace Wellness Committee has recognized St. Clair College as a healthy workplace.
This year, St. Clair garnered two gold awards for Health and Safety and Mental Health Promotion and an Organizational Social Responsibility award.
Today, the College received recognition during a virtual presentation of the 2021 Working Towards Wellness Healthy Workplace Awards ceremony. The College has been a long-standing recipient of the Gord Smith Healthy Workplace & Bike Friendly Workplace Awards that have been suspended since the beginning of the pandemic and replaced by the Healthy Workplace Awards. This is the second year the College has been recognized as Healthy Workplace under the new awards new criteria.
The Healthy Workplace Awards recognizes local employers that provide comprehensive workplace wellness programming. Award recipients must demonstrate a strong commitment to improving health by promoting and supporting a comprehensive approach to wellness programming for employees, ideally, family members and retirees.
"The health, safety and well-being of our staff and students have been of paramount importance during the pandemic," said College President Patti France. "As safety protocols and guidelines evolved during the pandemic, St. Clair College has been responsive and proactive. I am very proud of what we have been able to accomplish over a relatively short period of time to keep our College community safe while responding to the needs of the community.”
St. Clair College strived to achieve success targeting the Six Dimensions of Wellness throughout 2021. The College's wellness committee has been committed to supporting employees through these Dimensions of Wellness to improve overall employee well-being.
The College was a strong community partner in the efforts to manage COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021 when its standalone athletic facility, the SportsPlex at the South Windsor campus, was used as a COVID-19 vaccination centre.
The College also worked with WECHU to offer pop-up vaccination clinics on campus. Throughout the pandemic and leading into the fall 2021 semester, the College also made quick adjustments to academic delivery, rapid testing, and vaccination programs, and to its COVID-19 Pandemic Plan to ensure the safety of all employees and students.