The deadline for businesses or agencies to submit their wellness programs for the 2022 Lt. Governor’s Challenge has been extended to Tuesday.

The challenge honors the individuals, organizations and institutions that inspire others by making healthy choices the easiest choices for their communities, ultimately helping elevate the well-being and productivity of the First State.

The challenge seeks programs that:

• Are local to Delaware.
• Address physical and/or emotional health or well-being in Delaware.
• Drive results through changes in policy, systems and/or the environment within an institution, business or community.

Nominees should demonstrate that their initiatives have gone above and beyond ordinary expectations or industry requirements and have the data to back up the success.

“The Lt. Governor’s Challenge is our way of encouraging healthier lifestyles among Delawareans,” Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long said in a statement. “The programs we honor deliver real and lasting results to people throughout Delaware.”

Dr. Lynn Morrison, CEO of past winner Brandywine Counseling & Community Services, said it takes creativity, caring and data to become a challenge honoree.

“The Lt. Governor’s Challenge gave us the opportunity to highlight the importance of wellness in the workplace (and in) our staff, as far as all the good work they were doing, and communicate with the community about the essential services BCCS staff provided during the pandemic,” Dr. Morrison said.

“When COVID-19 was taking its toll on society at large, it was hitting extra hard for those in the business of helping others. At BCCS, it was clear the staff was straining under the pressure. So the team developed an organization-wide initiative to help employees manage their own stress, better care for themselves while many were in isolation and working remotely, and share their own mental health challenges and discuss the strategies they used to cope.”

Dr. Morrison said she considered the BCCS program a perfect example of what the challenge was looking for: a wellness project that went above and beyond the agency’s normal parameters by approaching a specific problem with creative thinking and measurable results.

As one of the criteria of the Lt. Governor’s Challenge is measurable proof of positive results, BCCS made sure to include this data in their nomination.

The results of the BCCS program were positive in both the short and long term, Dr. Morrison said. In its 2020 employee survey, engagement was up from the previous year and 79% of staff indicated satisfaction with BCCS as an employer, up two points from 2019 and 7% above the national benchmark.

For information or to enter, visit here.