| Overall Rating | Platinum |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 86.18 |
| Liaison | Chris Adam |
| Submission Date | Dec. 30, 2024 |
Dawson College
EN-7: Employee Educators Program
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
1.93 / 3.00 |
Jenn
De Vera Program Development Sustainability Office |
Part 1. Percentage of employees served by a peer-to-peer, sustainability educators program
Total number of employees served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
Percentage of employees served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
1st program
A brief description of the employee educators program (1st program):
2024 - The program is taught by Dawson employees (HR, Phys. Ed. faculty, alumni, sustainability office) to their peers in various work sectors. Support staff and professionals from one group, faculty another, and managers. 1-2 sessions are offered every year. All had the opportunity to join a session (mangers had to approve presence of their employees during work time). Each group has specific considerations (i.e. schedules, content, actions) which are catered to. Sustainable Happiness (SH) covers all aspects of sustainability and how it influences happiness as part of well-being. The program involves a pay-it-forward portion as part of the certification which involves still more college employees as certificate participants use their acquired knowledge of SH to develop a project that creates positive action in the community. Participants give workshops, presentations, help integrate SH topics into curricula with, or to, peers (project examples: conference workshops on SH, gratitude activities, workshops on reducing the carbon footprint of meals, GHG inventories, biophilic office changes, compassion workshops, SH introduction presentations). This helps scale the impact of the program throughout the academic year.
A brief description of the employee educators program’s target audience (1st program):
Invitations go out to the entire community (faculty, professioanls, support staff) through the Dawson DNews newsletter several times per year and through email invitations. Programs are offered each semester and are in both an intensive format and a 10 week program format. A community of practice meets regularly to review developments and debrief previous sessions.
Number of trained employee educators (1st program):
Number of weeks the employee educators program is active annually (1st program):
Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained employee educator (1st program):
Total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (1st program):
Website URL where information about the employee educators program is available (1st program) :
If reporting employees served by additional peer-to-peer programs, provide:
2nd Program
A brief description of the employee educators program (2nd program):
Any Dawson employee can apply to take a 9 month Sustainable Happiness Facilitators Training Program. A 120 page training guide has been written and each participant follows readings, video presentations, and peer presentations weekly. Trained facilitators teach the 20 hour SH certificate to peers to build awareness, review current sustainability principles, review positive psychology and the connection of both to happiness and well-being. This is connected to the College mission and vision (Well-being for All, Sustainably) and rich discussions are facilitated about supporting each other on a journey to plan and implement a project that gives back to the community. Facilitators activities include participating in a community of practice of fellow facilitators, guiding individual participant projects for the community and integrating the SH philosophy through workshops in their various departments (e.g. Quality Assurance, HR, Office of Academic Development) to further raise awareness and skills about practicing SH both personally and professionally. Facilitators give workshops to their peers within departments with more theory in current sustainability research, psychological concepts, and the causes of non-sustainable behavior within society.
What is SH?: https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/sustainable/sustainable-happiness/
SH Certificate: https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/sustainable/sustainable-happiness/who-are-you/staff/
A brief description of the employee educators program’s target audience (2nd program):
Once a facilitator finished their training program, they can offer a SH certificate to other staff and will advertise this through the Dawson employee newsletter, DNews.
Number of trained employee educators (2nd program):
Number of weeks the employee educators program is active annually (2nd program):
Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained employee educator (2nd program):
Total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (2nd program):
Website URL where information about the employee educators program is available (2nd program):
If reporting employees served by more than two programs, provide:
Additional Programs
1. Living Campus tours and projects - all employees are invited to participate in over 50 sustainability office projects throughout the year. This involves workshops, team-teaching, practical lab work, regular meetings re curricula, UN SDG integration, and training in current sustainability accomplishments so tours can be given for internal and external groups by peers. Support staff, professionals, managers and teachers are all targeted. Some activities that involve the Living Campus concept target the entire community and other programs are specific to employment groups (i.e. support staff or teachers) with designated people from each employment sector having leadership positions.
2. Meditation and Yoga are offered free to staff daily with meditation offered by peers (weekly)
3. Gardening club - meet weekly
Number of trained employee educators (all other programs):
Number of weeks, on average, the employee educators programs are active annually (all other programs):
Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained employee educator (all other programs):
Total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (all other programs):
Part 2. Educator hours per employee served by a peer-to-peer program
Hours worked annually by trained employee sustainability educators per employee served by a peer-to-peer program:
Optional Fields
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Open to all employees:
SH activities in 2021-2024
- Two student SH Certificate programs; 5 outreach (other institutions) certificates
- SH for faculty
- SH Certificates for Support Staff x 5
- SH Certificate for other colleges x 3
- SH Certificate for national organization x 1
- SH facilitator presentations (conferences, webinars, keynotes) x 5
Others
8. Gardening club - weekly (1 project lead)
9. Living Campus Tours (6 leads)
10. Meditation & Yoga (2 leads)
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.