Ozarka College will soon complete a year-long Comprehensive Health and Safety Improvement Initiative made possible in part by a $46,909 grant through the Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas (BYF). The grant award supported a Quick Response Health Care Initiative, initiated a Cardio Wellness and Fitness Challenge, and established a Safety in the Workplace Initiative; efforts aimed at promoting healthier lifestyles and creating a safer campus for the hundreds of students, employees, and visitors of the College.  

The College surpassed every defined goal within the grant proposal. Accordingly, the College outfitted all four campus locations with automatic external defibrillators (AED) and advanced emergency response beacons. Also, with grant support, Ozarka has trained and certified more than 100 employees and 65 community members in Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and AED user training.  

"The Blue & You Foundation grant provided for a very comprehensive program at the College," said Dr. Richard Dawe, Ozarka College President. "The installation of AEDs and emergency alert system upgrades and emergency response training have provided a   safer environment for all who visit the College."

The impact of the grant initiatives also reached far beyond the College campus. The Cardio Wellness and Fitness Challenge initiative challenged College employees and students as well as members of the community to adopt healthier, more active lifestyles. The College set goals to enlist at least 100 participants in a 10,000 mile fitness challenge. The College is pleased to report that more than 200 participants collectively logged over 110,000 miles, crushing every milestone challenge throughout the year.  

The Blue & You Foundation award also strengthened the College partnership with the Northcentral Arkansas Education Service Cooperative (NAESC) and the nine public   school districts in the College's four-county service area (Fulton, Izard, Sharp and Stone).   Specifically, the College provided adult and infant training manikins for NAESC to loan for quick response health care training, such as CPR and AED, in the local school districts. In addition, the grant initiative provided for the cost of training one personnel at each of the nine school districts to become a licensed CPR and AED training provider.

"The College enjoyed getting to partner with the education cooperative and the local districts, " said Josh Wilson, Ozarka College Associate Vice President of Planning and Institutional Research. "Having additional training providers in-house provides sustainable, quick-response training solutions for our schools. It also supports the state-mandated CPR training requirement for high school students. "

The Blue & You Foundation was established by Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield as a charitable foundation to promote better health in Arkansas. Ozarka College was one of only 35 grant applications funded out of 202 grant applications received for the 2015 cycle.