GWI unveils new Wellness Communities initiative

The non-profit Global Wellness Institute (GWI) has added an initiative called Wellness Communities and Real Estate in order to further the international conversation about the many ways in which wellness can be enhanced.

Joining more than 30 industry-specific collaborative groups hosted by GWI, the new programme will build on the GWI’s 2018 Build Well to Live Well research.

As a sector that has seen considerable recent growth, the initiative has attracted experts across both wellness communities and the real estate sector.

Aiming to quantify how both health and quality of life can be optimised by creating ‘built environments that are proactively designed to support the holistic health of those who live, work, play and learn there’, the initiative will be co-chaired by Helen Foster and Teri Slavik-Tsuyuki.

Foster runs Foster Strategy, whose clients include wellness community developers such as Rancho Mission Viejo, a growing southern California-based wellness community of 3,500 homes.

Slavik-Tsuyuki is one of the architects behind the America At Home study ,which surveyed US consumer sentiment about design, health and wellness in homes and communities as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The two co-chairs said: “As neighbourhoods and communities became more central to our daily lives during Covid-19, more of us are aware that health and wellness outcomes are a direct result of the environments where we live, work and play.

“Understanding how homes and neighborhoods can increase personal wellness is key to the GWI’s mission of empowering wellness worldwide.”