Good practice:

Change Center- Healthy Vibes

Change Center was implemented by the Healthy Vibes organisation which in 2015 started to develop regional researches, organise conferences, camps, seminars. In 2017 developed a long-term lifestyle changing program, paying attention to sport, nutrition, stress factors and diseases. The organisation involved more than 35 athletes, mentors, doctors and trainers to develop a huge reliable system for the clients. How it works in practice? Each customer gets personalized and long-term lifestyle changing program including nutrition, stress management and workout plan which can be followed in an online system or physically in the center. To get proper information about the clients profile they use professional and medically approved devices. Every client has to follow the program for a minimum of 6 months, and they are followed by the trainers online. During the programs they put emphasis on habits and not results like weight loss, because the mission is to help the society to maintain and develop a long-term healthier lifestyle. Knowledge is another important aspect of the program and this is why every period is filled with free courses for the participants about healthy cooking, proper grocery shopping, different dishes, core training, stress management or heart rate monitoring. The Change Center was developed to meet the needs of an innovative place where the mentality of the Romanian people can be further developed in order to own a more self-conscious and healthier life.

The Change Center was supported with funds by the Romanian government and future funding options also can be used for other development activities, however international collaborations, innovative equipments, training and marketing/management tools are always welcomed.

In the last 2-3 years more than 100 people got tested by the program. The results of the analysis phase like physical abilities, eating habits, stress and diseases have been analyzed already. Participants reached important result by the end of each period so the evidence of the success can be easily proved by concrete numbers. The Change Center is a great progress for the organisation where all the activities can be managed in one place and international online version also is under development.

Finding the proper equipment and personnel for the center was the biggest difficulty in the implementation. On the other hand, they face further funding difficulties for other important equipment needed to the center.

The Change Center was developed by the needs of the population. They realised that each country and region have several differences by the culture, so the current online available programs are not suitable in each case. As nutritional habits, available and traditional food products, the sport system and the mentality of the people are very different between the western and eastern countries, so these factors need to be calculated in this kind of programs if we wish results. On the other hand, it was not developed in the early phase as a business, more like a social act to help people live healthier, but this is why it became naturally a promising one.