Favarh Recognized as an
American Heart Association Fit-Friendly Worksite
Taking steps to improve healthy and active lifestyles

Canton, May 14, 2015 – Favarh has been recognized as a Platinum-Level Fit-Friendly Worksite by the American Heart Association for helping employees eat better and move more.

“Increasing physical activity, improving nutrition, and enhancing emotional wellbeing are important Wellness priorities at Favarh. It is a Core Value of ours to promote healthy and active lifestyles both for the people we support and for our employees. We are honored and excited to be recognized by the American Heart Association as a Platinum-Level Fit-Friendly Worksite,” said Stephen Morris, Executive Director at Favarh. “We’re committed to providing the safest and healthiest workplace environment possible at each of our fourteen locations. People with intellectual and development disabilities, and our employees who support them, deserve to live and work in environments that promote healthy lifestyle choices.”

Platinum-level employers:
• Offer employees physical activity options in the workplace.
• Increase healthy eating options at the worksite.
• Promote a wellness culture in the workplace.
• Implement at least nine criteria outlined by the American Heart Association in the areas of physical activity, nutrition and culture.
• Demonstrate measurable outcomes related to workplace wellness such as:
* Initiatives like Favarh’s Walk Fit program (pictured) encourages Employees and Program Participants to walk together on the Farmington River rails to trails pathway.

The Fit-Friendly Worksites program is a catalyst for positive change in the American workforce by helping worksites make their employees’ health and well-being a priority. Many American adults spend most of their waking hours at sedentary jobs. The lack of regular physical activity raises their risk for a host of medical problems, such as obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes. The American Heart Association and organizations like Favarh are working to change work culture by motivating employees to start walking, which has the lowest dropout rate of any physical activity.

“The Fit-Friendly Worksites Program offers easy-to-implement ways for organizations to help employees eat better and move more, which will help improve their health – and their employer’s bottom line,” said Wendy C Schrlau, Director of the AHA Hartford and Rocky Neck Heart Walks. “Even people who haven’t exercised regularly until middle age can reap significant benefits by starting a walking program. A study published in 1986 in the New England Journal of Medicine found that some adults may gain two hours of life expectancy for every hour of regular, vigorous exercise they performed.”
For more information about the Fit-Friendly Worksites program and how it’s helping to improve the health of Americans by focusing on the workplace, visit www.heart.org/worksitewellness.