Mission:
To enhance connection to others, belonging, and sense of community in order to promote the sustained well-being of students, faculty, and staff and to ensure that the campus physical environment, policies, and resources support optimal emotional/psychological for students, staff, and faculty. By promoting public social spaces, supporting cultural diversity awareness, and strengthening communication the subcommittee strives to make UCSB the healthiest place to work, learn, and live.
- Better Sober UCSB
- Divine 9 Engagement Committee: The revitalization of Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLO)
- Decolonizing Our Lives Project (DOLP)
- Sense of Belonging: Creating and Maintaining an Inclusive Campus Ecology for Underrepresented Ethnic, Racial, Biracial, and Multicultural Staff and Faculty (LUNA)
- MAPAS
Draft Goals:
*Please note that these goals were drafted by the Mental and Cultural Health Sub-committee of the Healthy Campus Network and are still in the vetting process. If you would like to give feedback on these goals, please email the Sub-committee Chair, Katie Maynard.
Short-term Goals:
- Promote existing public social spaces and identify areas where additional public social spaces are needed.
- Repair the classroom and meeting space at the Greenhouse and Garden Project.
- Inspire community gatherings.
- Wellness for all videos offered in Spanish and English.
- Create better linkages between student-run cultural groups and their staff/faculty counterparts.
- Common sensitivity training such as safe zone trainings more widely adopted or required.
- Wellness welcome wagon for new staff.
- Expand LUNA workshops and programming.
- Launch the Food for Thought workshop series.
- Launch the Home Cooking workshop series.
- Identify resources and location for a mindfulness garden.
- Identify and highlight existing landmarks across campus and in Isla Vista that are or could become spaces to relax. One space on each side of the campus is designated or highlighted in a way that facilitates taking a break in a restful area.
- Create a centralized wellness center where all wellness services are provided and accessible.
- Bring together partners who are or could offer psychological wellness, stress reduction services, or sleep hygiene workshops to discuss current and needed programming for staff, faculty, and students.
- Assess psychological health needs, including stress reduction and sleep, for students, staff and faculty at least bi-annually to determine the most salient needs of each group.
- Extend stress reduction services and resources that are available to students, to include services for staff & faculty. Expand current mindful UCSB program & establish online options to use on a short work break.
- Identify social & cultural barriers to accessing psychological health promotion.
Psychological wellness services are informed by culture based leaders.
- Host an annual mental health conference for students, staff, and faculty to share and receive information/resources about emotional and psychological health.
- Extend 1st year employee onboarding process of engaging staff in wellness activities.
- Identify ways to incorporate emotional and psychological health information into the first year experience for students.
- Initiate policy review for student workload issues in week 10.
- Healthy campus network steering committee and subcommittees initiate collaboration with IV community leaders and governance to work on student issues in the community where they live.
- Create nap stations.
Mid Term Goals:
- Create new public social spaces.
- All HCN programs offered in multiple languages.
- Develop a plan for creating a mindfulness garden on campus.
Collaborations for stress reduction services/resources on campus for students continue to strengthen and expand.
- Students, staff, & faculty consistently engage in stress reduction programs and activities before, during, and after their work/school day, they take breaks, and know whom to contact for information and support.
- Conduct second bi-annual needs assessment for staff and faculty psychological health resources and services on campus.
- Regular stress reduction services/resources on campus for staff & faculty continue to strengthen and expand.
- Staff and faculty consistently engage in stress reduction programs and activities before, during, and after their workday.
- Develop a phone app that highlights psychological and mental health resources.
Long-term Goals:
- Mindfulness garden for campus community is established.
- Stress reduction programs, specifically mindfulness programs, are growing in depth and consistency of use by students.
- Conduct third biannual needs assessment for staff and faculty psychological health resources and services on campus.
- Stress reduction programs, specifically mindfulness programs, are growing in depth and consistency of use by staff and faculty.
Visionary Goals:
- Build community and use of mindfulness garden.
- Student workload during week 10 facilitates integration of learning new information.