What Helps Us Thrive?
Inspired by the Okanagan Charter, UConn commits to pursue well-being for our planet and all those who currently and will live, work, play, and love on our campuses.
Join us in the Health Promoting University Movement!
UConn’s Institutional Well-Being Commitments
Crafted using the six cross-cutting focus areas from the Strategic Plan & the Okanagan Charter’s calls to action: UConn commits to pursuing:
- Research & Policy: Engage in research and policy revision/development to address health disparities, food insecurity, human & planetary health.
- Community & Belonging: Cultivate an environment that promotes belonging and inclusion across cultures, identities, and abilities, and empowers each individual to feel connected to the Husky community.
- Culture & Environment: Improve supports for students, faculty, and staff; promoting caring and healthy campus environments.
Making progress toward these three commitments requires additional understanding about student, staff, and faculty’s current experience. The Health Promoting University Movement’s first step is to establish a common agenda:
Common Agenda: a shared vision for change, one that includes a common understanding of the problem and a joint approach to solving it through agreed upon actions.
Our Big Goals
For Academic Year 26/27:
LISTEN
To Different Perspectives.
UNDERSTAND
What Life At UConn Is Like.
CONNECT
With Everyone We Can.
CO-CREATE
A Common Agenda For Well-Being.
Higher Education Holds A Unique Role In Our Communities And World.
“Higher education has a unique opportunity and responsibility to provide transformative education, engage the student voice, develop new knowledge and understanding, lead by example and advocate to decision-makers for the benefit of society.”
Share Your Perspectives, Experiences, And Ideas.
Help us find common goals that support the well-being of our students, staff, campuses, and our planet.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who Is Involved?
Institutional Champions connect the Health Promoting University Movement to UConn’s strategic plan and operations.
Steering Committee members represent a cross-section of students, staff, and faculty.
Advisory Boards broaden our collective understanding even more, enabling additional voices to join the conversation.
Operationally supported by Student Health and Wellness’ Health Promotion staff.
Where Did This Work Come From?
A health promoting university is an institution of higher education that has made an active commitment to integrating well-being into every facet of campus life. The global movement advocating for transformational change to promote health in university settings was catalyzed by the Okanagan Charter, An International Charter for Health Promoting Universities. An outcome of the 2015 International Conference on Health Promoting Universities and Colleges, the Okanagan Charter was developed by health promotion scholars, researchers, and practitioners from 45 countries around the world. The Charter is an aspirational document, urging higher education institutions to leverage their unique positions and roles in research, teaching, and service to their communities, to be leaders for the world in developing and modeling health-promoting strategies in their campus settings.
The Okanagan Charter was formally discussed in the United States at the 2018 NASPA Strategies Conference in Portland, Oregon by Dr. Mark Dooris (U.K.) and Dr. Matt Dolf (Canada), who shared the work they were doing to advance systems-level work in health promotion on campuses across their countries. In January 2020, at a NASPA Strategies Pre-Conference session, representatives from 40 universities, including UConn, gathered in New Orleans, Louisiana to discuss the Okanagan Charter and the movement to create a national network. By March 2020, more than 40 campuses were actively involved in what became known as the U.S. Health Promoting Campuses Network. The University of Connecticut formally adopted the Okanagan Charter in April 2024, making an ongoing commitment to leverage settings-based approaches in improving the health of people, place, and planet.
Since then, UConn has moved from commitment to action. The university has built a Steering Committee to guide this work, engaged deeply with its campus community to shape an emerging shared vision — a common agenda — for well-being at UConn, and launched wellbeing.uconn.edu as a hub for interconnected well-being efforts at UConn.
How Does This Fit With UConn’s Strategic Plan?
The Health Promoting University Movement at UConn closely aligns with UConn’s Strategic Plan. Before adopting the Okanagan Charter and officially signing on to be a part of this work – we mapped out areas of overlap between the UConn’s Strategic Plan and the Okanagan Charter’s Action Framework Steps. We found quite a lot of similarities!
The Okanagan Charter’s Action Framework shares the most overlap with the UConn’s Wellness of People and Planet and the Student Success Journey cross-cutting initiatives.
How Do I Get Involved?
Check out the four ways you can contribute your voice to the Health Promoting University Movement.
This land doesn’t belong to us.
This land belongs to seven generations down the road.
I pray that the water that we drink, the water that we swim in,
will be there for our great, great, great grandchildren. As well as all over the world.
I pray that the land that we walk on, the trees that we enjoy,
will be there for our generations to come.
These things, they all come together with health.
Health of humans. Health of the animals. And health of the Mother Earth.
-Closing Prayer by Okanagan Nation Elder, Grouse Barnes,
2015 International Conference on Health Promoting Universities and Colleges