Lake Claire promotes ‘Healthy Lifestyle’

This past year, the on-campus Lake Claire Community redesigned the Healthy Lifestyles Community.

This community provides first-year students the opportunity to live in an environment free of alcohol, tobacco, illegal drugs and not currently-prescribed prescription drugs.

The Healthy Lifestyles Community currently consists of two buildings that accommodate almost a hundred students on a first-come, first-serve basis.

This unique living opportunity was created so that students who value a substance-free lifestyle could live and interact with each other at the same cost that other students pay to live in the apartment-style dorms in the Lake Claire Community.

According to Jeremy Foskitt, Lake Claire area coordinator, in the past the Healthy Lifestyles Community focused solely on being substance-free. This past year, they branched out to encourage overall wellness.

Each month has a theme of healthy living, and the residents of the Healthy Lifestyles Community are encouraged to attend programs related to healthy living in all aspects of their lives.

The programs include topics such as relationships and safe sex, physical and emotional health, professional development, spring break safety, alcohol awareness, diversity and social justice, and many other health issues that affect college students today.

These programs are hosted by resident assistants and campus departments including the Recreation and Wellness Center, UCF Police Department, the Counseling Center, Health Center and the Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) Prevention and Intervention Services office. Living in the Healthy Lifestyles Community has a number of benefits, according to Lake Claire resident assistant Matthew Smolinsky.

"Our residents feel safe," Smolinsky said. "They don't have to worry about coming home to intoxicated roommates and anything unsafe happening in their apartment."

According to the area coordinator, there were zero conduct-related issues reported in the Healthy Lifestyle Community this past school year.

"The students in the Healthy Lifestyles Community seem to be more involved and outgoing and willing to attend the programs being offered," Smolinsky said.

Smolinsky also encourages living in the Healthy Lifestyles Community.

"When I was a first-year student, I actually lived in a type of Healthy Lifestyle dorm, but it was substance-free and I absolutely loved it. I met people that had the same interest as I did with not drinking and shared the same views as I did on other issues. It was actually a secure environment and I really like it. "

Fall 2011 Healthy Lifestyles residents will be given an opportunity to live an even healthier lifestyle. A peer education training class (HLP 2701) will be offered exclusively for the Healthy Lifestyles Community residents.

"This class is designed to educate students who have already committed to not using alcohol and drugs on ways that they can empower their peers to learn about not only alcohol and drugs and the dangers of them, but other contemporary issues as well, such as sexual health, relationships and social justice and how that fits into the overall picture of what it means to live well," Foskitt said.

In the future, the Lake Claire Community is looking to expand its programming and include buildings that focus on other specific groups, such as Volunteers UKnighted and Burnett Honors College, in an effort to encourage positive living.