Become a Wellness Champion
We are teaming up with community partners to offer child care providers and early childhood educators a new program, the Wellness Champions!
During this year-long program, you will receive free training, support and one-on-one coaching from our Health Educators about healthy eating and physical activity.
Once completed, your child care program will gain more visibility and benefit from free promotion by being placed on a preferred list when parents call our child care referral line.
Wellness Champion Program Details
What is a preferred referral?
Every year, our child care referral line receives over 53,000 calls from parents seeking quality child care. Set your program apart by becoming a Wellness Champion and be placed on our preferred referral list.
Here are additional benefits that come with the Wellness Champion Preferred Referral:
- Added Value — There are over 5000 licensed child care programs in San Diego. Brand yourself as the program that cares about healthy eating and physical activity to stand out from the rest.
- Drive Business to Your Program — Our child care consultants are specifically targeting families who are seeking a healthy child care site. By becoming a Wellness Champion, you will consistently be a referral prospect for families looking for child care in your area that meet their health and wellness needs.
- Promotional Opportunities — Display a Wellness Champion decal at your site to advertise to parents that you follow best practices when it comes to their child's health, special recognition at our Child Care Provider Appreciation Day Event, opportunity to be featured on our Facebook page and CRS Connect — a quarterly newsletter that is sent to over 16,000 subscribers.
How do I become a Wellness Champion?
- Contact YMCA Health Educators to get started.
- Conduct a self-assessment of your program's nutrition and physical activity practices to determine a baseline.
- Based on results, child care providers will meet with a YMCA CRS Health Educator to develop an action plan to improve practices.
- Child care providers will attend a training on best practices.
- Ongoing support and technical assistance from Health Educators is available.
- Child care programs will be labeled as Wellness Champion on our referral line upon completion of program.
- Wellness Champion window decals and certificates will be distributed for programs to display.
Resources
We offer continued support and resources for our Wellness Champion participants. Click below for our most recent newsletter filled with some tips and tricks for the season.
Wellness Champion Newsletter (English)
Campeones del Bienestar (Espanol)
Partners
A special thank you to all of the partners that have made this program possible.
- Community Health Improvement Partners
- Kaiser Permanente
- Health and Human Services Agency County of San Diego
- San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative
- YMCA Youth and Family Services
Contact Us
If you have any questions or would like more information about the Wellness Champion program, please contact Jake McGough at 619-521-3055 ext. 2610.
We look forward to helping you become a Wellness Champion!
Information About CalFresh
This material was produced by the California Department of Public Health’s Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Branch with funding from USDA SNAP-Ed, known in California as CalFresh. These institutions are equal opportunity providers and employers. CalFresh provides assistance to low-income households and can help buy nutritious food for better health. For CalFresh information, call 2-1-1. For important nutrition information, visit www.CaChampionsForChange.net.