Building Healthier Communities

Reducing Barriers for Those Living with Chronic Disease

What is Walking to Wellness?

The Kidney Foundation’s Walking to Wellness initiative is a free, organized walking program open to any of your community members. It is primarily targeted at individuals with low fitness levels or limited mobility who may find current sport and fitness activities overwhelming and intimidating. Developed by a kinesiologist, it supports and provides incremental training to build fitness level, strength and endurance based on each participant’s starting point and goals.

Program Outline

  • Runs 15-20 weeks from January until the end of May, 2025

  • Operates once a week in the evening, led by team of trained volunteers with a strong sport, fitness, or health background

  • A group event is held at the end of the program to celebrate personal achievements

Why walking?

Walking is a simple, low impact activity that offers numerous benefits for our health. It strengthens the heart and improves circulation, and as a weight bearing activity can help maintain bone density. It is a great way to prevent or manage many chronic diseases, which is why the Kidney Wellness Hub has designed this program for the kidney community.

Walking has been shown to improve sleep and it can help regulate blood sugar levels and improve insulin sensitivity which is beneficial for the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes. Come and help us get your community up and walking.

What can Walking to Wellness do for your community?

  1. Provide a low barrier option for residents to get more movement in their lives

  2. Promote wellness, help prevent or manage chronic disease, and improve mental health

  3. Foster volunteer development by providing skill-building opportunities for community members

  4. Build community through social connections and gathering around the common goal of better health

How to get Walking to Wellness started in your community

Do you have an appropriate space for evening walking in your community? This could be a well-lit outdoor accessible pathway, sidewalk or track. An indoor walking space, such as a community centre, indoor arena, or mall, is especially ideal since a large portion of this program takes place during our darkest, wettest or snowiest months of the year (also the time when we are typically less active). Once a location is determined, we will be able to provide:

  1. Recruitment, training, support and supervision of community volunteers to lead the program

  2. Program promotion

  3. Participant registration and program management

Contact Us

If you are interested in being a volunteer lead, please see the position description below. Feel free to reach out to Teresa Atkinson at teresa.atkinson@kidney.ca for more information.

Volunteers Needed for Group Leads

To get the Community Meet Ups started, the Kidney Foundation is looking for enthusiastic individuals who would love an opportunity to improve the health and wellness of their community while building their coaching and leadership skills. If you are interested, please review the position description below. We look forward to hearing from you!

Ideal Group Lead

You are an active person who loves getting out for a run or a walk and would love to share that joy with others. You are an empathetic person, and sharing your skills and talents to help others reach their fitness and wellness goals would make your day better. If this sounds like you, join the Kidney Foundation’s Walking to Wellness Leaders team.

What do you need to have to volunteer:

  • Like working with others

  • Can be supportive and encouraging

  • Want to help people to achieve their walking goals

  • Empathy – many walking participants may have physical/health issues and/or other barriers that will make starting and maintaining a walking program hard.

  • Can comfortably walk 5km

Nice to haves:

  • Emergency First Aid with CPR Level C or equivalent

  • Coaching experience

  • Ability to communicate in another language other than English including, but not limited to: French, Punjabi, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog, Korean, and Farsi

What the Kidney Foundation will provide:

  • The Walking to Wellness Program – with walk training incremental progressions, warm up, warm down, and stretching program; weekly health and wellness topics with presentation materials

  • Training for volunteers to be a group lead covering the walk training progressions, warm-up, warm down, and stretching content

  • Ongoing support throughout the volunteer experience

What will you be doing as a volunteer:

  • Preparing for each weekly session

  • Greeting everyone when they arrive

  • Presenting the topic of the week related to health and wellness

  • Planning the day’s walk route (if needed)

  • Lead and support your pace group - encouraging everyone and keeping the group together

Timing and commitment:

  • Volunteer training late December and early January

  • Walking to Wellness volunteer position starts mid to late January

  • Runs one hour a week until the end of May

  • Completion celebration first Sunday in June