Wellbeing Strategic Framework Engagement Process
UBC Wellbeing was launched in 2014 as a comprehensive process to identify priorities and create a more connected approach to promoting health and wellbeing across academics and operations. Two largely student-led projects — VOICE and Conversations in Wellbeing — directly engaged campus communities and helped inform the wellbeing priorities that are seen today in the Wellbeing Strategic Framework.
Throughout consultation for the UBC Strategic Plan, wellbeing was repeatedly identified by community members as an area of importance for UBC to focus on over the next decade. The Strategic Plan called for the development of a university-wide strategy to address wellbeing on our campuses, and soon after its launch in Spring 2018, UBC began a process to develop it.
Like UBC’s approach to embedding wellbeing, the process for developing the Wellbeing Strategic Framework was collaborative, drawing upon support, expertise, and diversity of opinion from all corners of the university, as well as externally.
Many thanks to the community members, committees, internal and external experts and other stakeholders who contributed their time, talents and perspectives in bringing this strategic framework to life. The final document is one that reflects our shared vision for UBC as a health-and-wellbeing- promoting university where all people, places and communities can flourish.
We look forward to creating a happier, healthier , more sustainable campus community together.
The UBC Wellbeing Executive Leadership Team provided direction and oversight for this strategic framework. Members represent the following portfolios:
- Associate-Provost, Academic Health Initiatives
- Associate-Provost, Health
- Director, UBC Wellbeing Secretariat
- Vice-President, Human Resources
- Vice-President, Students
The UBC Wellbeing Advisory Committee, a dedicated group of approximately 20 academic leaders, senior administrators, and student executives from both our Vancouver and Okanagan campuses, provided expertise and final review of the strategy. Portfolios represented include:
- Alma Mater Society
- Athletics & Recreation
- Campus & Community Planning
- Equity and Inclusion Office
- Faculty of Health and Social Development (Okanagan campus)
- First Nations House of Learning
- Graduate Student Society
- Human Resources
- Institute for Healthy Living and Chronic Disease Prevention (Okanagan campus)
- School of Kinesiology
- School of Population & Public Health
- Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Okanagan campus)
- Office of the Vice-President, Students
- Office of the Associate Vice-President, Students (Okanagan campus)
- Student Development & Services
- Student Housing & Hospitality Services
- UBC Health
- UBC Sustainability Initiative
- UBC Wellbeing
Members of the UBC Wellbeing priority area committees developed content for their respective areas, in particular descriptions of success, targets, and indicators.
Throughout the engagement process in 2018, the following individuals graciously provided expert reviews for the Wellbeing Strategic Framework:
- Rosie Dhaliwal & Alisa Stanton | Health Promotion Specialists, Health and Counselling Services | Simon Fraser University
- Sharon Doherty | Healthy University Coordinator, Healthy & Sustainable Settings Unit | University of Central Lancashire
- Mark Dooris | Professor, School of Community Health and Midwifery; Director, Healthy & Sustainable Settings Unit | University of Central Lancashire | Co-Chair, UK Healthy Universities Network
- Guy Faulkner | Professor & CIHR-PHAC Chair in Applied Public Health, UBC School of Kinesiology | University of British Columbia
- Trevor Hancock | Professor Emeritus, School of Public Health and Social Policy | University of Victoria
- John Helliwell | Professor Emeritus, Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia | Distinguished Fellow, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research | Editor, World Happiness Reports
- Heather Henriksen | Managing Director, Office for Sustainability | Harvard University
- Louise Nasmith | Associate Provost, Health | University of British Columbia
- John Robinson | Professor, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy; Director, School of the Environment; Presidential Advisor on the Environment, Climate Change and Sustainability | University of Toronto
- Paula Lee Swinford | Director, Office for Wellness and Health Promotion | University of Southern California
Fifteen additional stakeholders attended two special focus sessions to offer a range of diverse perspectives across teaching and learning, research, operations, community engagement. External members included:
- Representatives of the Musqueam Band,
- Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society,
- University Neighborhood Association,
- City of Vancouver,
- BC Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills, and Training.
An eight-member Strategy Planning Team made up of staff from the UBC Wellbeing Secretariat; the Health, Wellbeing & Benefits team in Human Resources; and the Health Promotion & Education team in Student Development & Services, operationalized the engagement process, captured community feedback, and drafted the content. Their engagement approach involved meeting community members in their places of work and study
Guiding Documents
The following documents informed the design and scope of the Wellbeing Strategic Framework
UBC’s approach to wellbeing also supports and is informed by several other UBC-wide strategic documents, notably:
Wellbeing Strategic Framework Engagement at a Glance
- 4 focus sessions at UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan
- 60 key informant interviews with staff, faculty, and students across our campuses
- 16 working sessions with five wellbeing priority area committees
- 4 workshops with wellbeing focused departments and units
- 10 internal and external expert reviewers
- Thousands of community participants in the VOICE Study and Conversations in Wellbeing over 3 years
- 12 targets for action identified