Since it opened in 1989, the Crosby Wellness Center has always been a special place with exceptional staff, programs and services focused on improving the physical and social wellbeing of residents from Winter Park and surrounding communities. It will be the cornerstone of the new Center for Health & Wellbeing when it opens late 2018.

Seventeen years ago, the Winter Park Health Foundation formed its partnership with the Central Florida YMCA to manage the Crosby Wellness Center. Years before the facility temporarily closed (December 2016) to make way for its new home in the Center for Health & Wellbeing, the Winter Park Health Foundation and Central Florida YMCA began dreaming and planning the new $9 million Crosby Wellness Center.

In November 2014, representatives of the Central Florida YMCA and Winter Park Health Foundation participated in the national Medical Fitness Association conference to identify best practices in wellness center operations as well as new ways to ensure integration with the healthcare community. Learnings from the conference validated the original vision for the Center for Health & Wellbeing – to bring wellness, fitness and medicine together in one convenient location – and inspired both of our organizations to prepare and plan the new Crosby Wellness Center to operate as a medical fitness facility and seek certification by the Medical Fitness Association (MFA).

With a focus on medically sound prevention and rehabilitation programs, MFA certified fitness centers feature the professional expertise and programming necessary to safely and effectively assist people, regardless of their age or current health status, to develop, initiate, and maintain active lifestyles to minimize the risk of illness, injury and disease.

The Central Florida YMCA recently decided not to continue its collaboration with the Winter Park Health Foundation to operate the Crosby Wellness Center when it reopens next year in the new Center for Health & Wellbeing. The Winter Park Health Foundation and Florida Hospital — the Foundation’s partner in ownership and programming of the Center for Health & Wellbeing – remain committed to the medical fitness model which will make the Crosby Wellness Center truly leading edge and innovative. In fact, designation as a certified medical fitness facility will bring the Crosby Wellness Center back to its original roots as a unique facility working closely with healthcare providers to improve the health of our community.

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