WHIS KIDS!

You may be asking what WHIS Kids is all about. Let me break it down.

WHIS: Hopefully you are aware that WHIS is World Health Innovation Summit, a community looking to support inspiring platforms around the world that encourage innovation and exchange knowledge to improve health and social care.

Kids: Well…kids are the ones who are vital for deciding how the world is going to be in the future. If we can make a difference, even a tiny one, in the lives of kids then we are making a difference to the world of the future. Additionally, kids are beacons of love, simplicity, honesty, creativity and FUN! Let’s promote this!

With these in mind, we have formed the excruciatingly simple idea (usually the best) of harnessing the power of our kids to spread and evolve our message of improving health and social care provision.

Health (as described by the World Health Organisation) is “a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. Health is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities.” Health can be seen as being made up of two aspects: physical and mental health. At WHIS we like to encapsulate these aspects by using the word ‘Wellness’.

The Department of Health and Department for Education are focused on improving physical health of kids and are supporting those kids who are at risk of experiencing difficult emotional circumstances (see https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/216096/dh_127424.pdf). At WHIS we want to support this work and build upon it by inspiring kids (and parents) to explore their well-being, not just to prevent and improve problematic circumstances, but to enhance lives so we can all be the best version of ourselves as we contribute to our communities in our unique way.

There is an increasing acceptance that an individual and community approach to wellness, rather than a one-size-fits-all solution, is the most effective; empowering individuals to understand what works for them and making these routes to wellness accessible. This is fundamental to our WHIS Kids initiative.

We are working with schools to provide sessions where we will bring our team into the school to run sessions covering the benefits of fitness, mind/body activities (think of yoga) as well as nature as part of a holistic approach to our kids’ wellness. We won’t just talk about this though, we are going to explain and interactively demonstrate wellness in creative and fun ways so the kids will love the sessions. Our sessions at Great Corby Primary School were a roaring success, with both pupils and teachers extremely keen for us to return there. Therefore I am delighted to say that will be working with Great Corby Primary School as part of the development of the program during the second half of this current term. We hope to give our kids the confidence and resources to access the vast array of activities out there. Naturally our inspiring team can do this in the fun face-to-face interaction during sessions, but learning does not start and end in school; we also want to promote the use of their community and technology so they can continue to explore their wellness at home.

Our kids are loving, open and flexible in both body and mind before the stresses of our current society can start to close them off. We want them not only to stay loving, open and flexible but to also develop their unique gifts, help them express their best selves, as they contribute to our communities and ultimately our world as it is to come. This is a wonderful opportunity to work with you all and I am so proud to bring WHIS Kids to a school and community near you soon.

If you would like to know more, or you want to know when this is coming to your kids’ school then please contact me at [email protected], I will be delighted to hear from you.

We’ve an opportunity to support our communities to improve health and wellbeing for the next generation – Gareth Presch

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