The Army Training Center and Fort Jackson held a Defending Wellness Virtual Symposium and Leader Professional Development for senior leaders Aug. 11 at the 1917 Club on post.
Roughly 35 senior leaders attended the informal event where five subject matter experts delivered quick 10-minute sessions to bring awareness to specific areas of wellness.
The speakers were there to talk about “prevention, talk about wellness and defending wellness from a holistic point of view,” said Aljournal “Ajaye” Franklin, director of the Integrated Prevention Advisory Group, and facilitator of the event.
Maj. Gen. Daryl O. Hood, Fort Jackson commander, provided opening and closing remarks. Also speaking were: Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Michael Oliver who spoke on spiritual resiliency; retired Command Sgt. Maj. Lamont Christian who talked about post traumatic growth; while Dr. Julie Hughes with the University of South Carolina spoke on bone density research. Chris Allen spoke about holistic prevention as a challenge, and Deshawn Wilson talked about being the best version on yourself.
Franklin said, “the speakers spanned 90 minutes with insightful and stimulating discussions that provided the audience, consisting of Basic Combat Training commanders and command sergeants major from the battalion level and above with useful tips for personal and professional health and wellness improvement.”
“We thought it would be great to get you all together today to what they has to say, as well as those who will be watching by video,” he said.
“The topic of today starts with education,” Hood said to open the event. “Why is education so important? It’s important because when you know better you can do better. When you are not necessarily aware ... you’ll find out that things tend to just move along or slide by and before you know it it’s a slippery slope.”
Education “can help identify risk,” he added. “We can look at warning signs, and more importantly get you plugged into resources.”
Hood voiced his appreciation of the topics and the presentations and encouraged those in attendance to make note and use the information they received.
The event was livestreamed to YouTube and can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/live/kOeNUYK6\_Fo.
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