CU Well-Being Collective | About | Health & Wellness Services

In August 2023, CU Boulder became the 19th institution in the United States to formally adopt the Okanagan Charter, pledging a commitment to take a holistic and sustainable approach to becoming a Health Promoting University.

“Signing onto the Okanagan Charter highlights the innovative ways in which CU Boulder is already leading in this space, and it also creates a shared language and common framework for how we infuse health and well-being across campus” - Chancellor DiStefano

CU Scenic Our Approach

The CU Wellbeing-Collective is a comprehensive, cross-functional, and aspirational approach to creating a campus-wide culture of well-being. It is also a systems-level approach that considers the intersections of people (students, faculty, and staff), place (the CU Boulder campus/community), and planet (the built environment and our natural resources). The CU Wellbeing Collective is guided and grounded by the Okanagan Charter: An International Charter for Health Promoting Universities & Colleges.

We aspire to make CU Boulder a health-promoting university and global leader in championing the well-being of students, faculty, staff and community. We’re developing a holistic, campus-wide approach, recognizing diversity of identity and prioritizing sustainability as central to the health and well-being of our community.

We understand that mental health and well-being are not isolated matters, but a state connected to one’s environment, as well as social and policy factors. This effort cannot be accomplished by a single unit or department alone. It must be something we create collectively as a community, with everyone contributing to make CU Boulder a better place to live, work and learn.

We are implementing our work through the collective impact approach:

Collective impact describes an intentional way of working together and sharing information for the purpose of solving a complex problem / challenge

Collective impact is more likely to solve complex problems than if a single entity were to approach the same problem(s) / challenges on its own

Collective impact centers equity and inclusion in making sustainable change

Charter Adoption (CU Commitments) Formal Adoption

Model of Well-being

Well-being is defined as the personal experience of health, happiness, and a sense of belonging and matter. Our holistic approach is a collaborative, campus-wide effort to make CU Boulder a healthy place to live, learn, and work. We design services, programming, and educational opportunities to balance across the eight dimensions of wellness.

Well-being dimensions

The University of Colorado, Boulder prides itself on providing a campus experience where faculty, staff, students, and alumni lead, innovate, and impact. These three values are what it means to “Be Boulder.” At the same time, a growing body of evidence is telling us that more and more students are struggling to maintain academic endeavors and their own mental health and wellness. The growing mental health needs of students, amplified by the lingering effects of a global pandemic and exacerbated by the impacts of institutionalized racism, has created an emerging imperative for higher education.

Adopting the Okanagan Charter

The University of Colorado, Boulder became one of the first 20 US colleges and universities to adopt the Okanagan Charter, formally becoming a health promoting institution in August of 2023.

The Okanagan Charter: An International Charter for Health Promoting University and Colleges calls on postsecondary schools to embed health and well-being into all aspects of campus culture and to lead health-promotion action and collaboration locally and globally. It provides institutions with a common vision, language, and principles, and calls them to action.

Calls To Action:

Health promotion requires a positive, proactive approach, moving beyond focus on individual behavior towards a wide range of social and environmental interventions that create and enhance health in settings, organizations and systems, and address health determinants.
As such, health promotion is not just the responsibility of the health sector but must engage all sectors that take an explicit stance in favor of health, equity, social justice, and sustainability for all, while recognizing that the well-being of people, places, and the planet are interdependent.

In order to comprehensively address these two calls for action in the Okanagan Charter, CU Boulder is establishing working relationships with existing committees and units across the campus to expand upon the already great work being accomplished across our institution. This approach allows for experts in each area of campus to come together and address the complex and ever-changing health and well-being needs of CU Boulder.

3 Key Themes

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Sustainability

Culture of Well-being

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CU Well-Being Collective | About

We are implementing our work through the collective impact approach:

3 Key Themes