Finally, a Different Company Sponsors a Wellness Initiative at a Black Event

I’m purposefully posting this to praise Chrysler for their #ChryslerWellness pavillion they sponsored at the National Association of Black Journalists conference that took place this past weekend.

credit: the @Chrysler twitter account

Why?

Because Chrysler isn’t a fitness company, a food company, or any other company that might have ulterior motives in promoting wellness to its employees, their families, and their customers. It doesn’t feel like there’s some smarmy PR scheme driving the entire program.

I went digging for info, and came across this blurb:

Chrysler Group LLC and the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) will host an interactive health and wellness pavilion at the association’s national convention in Kissimmee, Fla., August 1-3, 2013. More than 1,500 journalists are expected to attend the convention.

The purpose of the pavilion is to raise awareness to the need for better health and wellness education in multicultural communities in order to address health disparities faced by these communities. The goal is to raise awareness of achievable best practices among journalists who are often key influencers in these communities.

In order to help bring the pavilion to life, Chrysler Group has teamed up with its health plan partners, recognized health and wellness leaders and advocates, to bring their tremendous expertise to this engaging and interactive experience, which will touch many key areas of health and wellness, including exercise, food and nutrition, health awareness and education, and health screenings.

“Chrysler Group is thrilled to be furthering health and wellness education and awareness in the African American community,” said Kathleen Neal, Director – Integrated Health & Disability, Chrysler Group LLC. “Many communities face serious challenges to their health and sustainability. This creative collaboration with our health plan partners will create an engaging demonstration of health and wellness best practices we hope will make a meaningful impression on journalists attending the conference and, by extension, the larger African American community.” [source]

Every single company out there should have an initiative to promote wellness to its work force because, if you’re investing in the knowledge and skill of your employees, you need them to be around for as long as possible.

At the last two major Black events I’ve seen photos from, two particular brands have dominated the sponsorships. Two brands that have major work to do as far as cleaning up their image in regards to them causing most of the dilemmas that the US (and, now, other countries) is facing.

I’m not entirely knocking what those brands are doing – hey, it’s whatever – but I am curious. Outside of Chrysler, who else has been backing major health, wellness and fitness pushes to their customers/employees? Does your job have a health and wellness initiative? Care to share a bit? I’m curious.