Kohl’s Cares

Penn State PRO Wellness has partnered with Kohl’s Cares during the 2019-2022 school years to provide, Kohl’s Circle of Wellness. The two-phase program was offered across five Pennsylvania counties including: Dauphin, Lebanon, Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, York and Lancaster counties. Workshops focused on whole child wellness, specifically the intersection of mental and physical health, in addition to staff wellness. The ultimate goal was to promote cultural and climate awareness that will lead to the selection and realization of an actionable item that involves the community (i.e. creating a social walking club with the support of the school and community).

Circle of Wellness Employee Workshop – March 2022

17,000 youth grades K-12 positively impacted

With support from Kohl’s Cares, PRO Wellness was able to apply lessons learned and expand upon the Building Healthy Schools (BHS) program supported by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The Kohl’s Building Healthy Lebanon Schools (BHLS) grant program began during the 2017-2018 school year at five school districts in Lebanon County, Pa.

PRO Wellness guided schools through the two-year initiative to identify district need, develop an action plan and implement nutrition promotion, physical activity and family and community engagement programs.

Personalized technical assistance (TA) was provided to aid with the following strategies:

• the completion of self-assessments to identify and address gaps in obesity prevention strategies at the district level;
• the provision of physical activity break trainings to teachers;
• development of a bridge between communities and schools to address comprehensive student wellness and share successes with families and other school districts; and
• enrollment in our Healthy Champions program, providing the benefits of access to wellness programming and signature events focused on healthy eating and nutrition.

Click here to view the activity booklet participants received.

PRO Wellness has extensive experience in developing and implementing promotional campaigns through the management of its Health Champions program, which reaches more than 350 Pennsylvania schools annually—more than 600 over the seven-year history of the program, thanks to a five-year partnership with Kohl’s Cares (from 2012 through 2016, and during the 2018-2019 school year).

To enroll in the program, schools complete an online assessment and are provided a personalized score based on the reported wellness initiatives in multiple areas of school wellness, including physical activity, nutrition, mental wellness, parent engagement and community engagement.

Once enrolled, schools receive a complimentary welcome kit, which includes a display banner signifying enrollment, wellness infographic posters, access to an online resource portal, monthly newsletters, and event toolkits to host and promote four signature awareness events: Apple Crunch, Walk to School Day, Go for the Greens and Move it Outside. In addition, PRO Wellness provides special incentives for enrolling through established partnerships. Through collaboration with the Hershey Bears® Hockey Club, actively enrolled schools in 19 south-central Pennsylvania counties are provided an opportunity for each student to attend a Hershey Bears® hockey game.

The learnings from this program were published within Preventive Medicine Reports.