Wellesley College
IN-27: Innovation D

The mission of the Wellness Outreach Collaborative is to meet the diverse and evolving needs of Wellesley College students by fostering a total learning environment that inspires them to cultivate life­long habits of wellness and empowers them to make a difference in their world. Through our collaborative efforts, Wellesley College students will learn to practice sustainable self­care that is essential to their physical, emotional, and spiritual growth;actively engage in the processes of self­discovery, self­acceptance, self-advocacy, and transformation; and integrate the knowledge necessary to make healthy and positive choices, including awareness of how to access the resources and support available to them in the community. The Wellness Outreach Collaborative (WOC) is composed of representatives from: -Health Services -Physical Education, Recreation and Athletics (PERA) -Stone Center Counseling Service -Student Involvement -The Office of Religious & Spiritual Life -The Office of Sustainability -Wellesley Fresh/AVI A popular program is "Take a Break" during Reading Period. More information on all programs for students to recuperate from mental and physical stressors can be found here: https://www.wellesley.edu/studentlife/wellness_outreach_collaborative/takeabreak

Wellness Outreach Collaborative Synopsis The Wellness Outreach Collaborative (WOC) was organically established to prepare Health Services, PERA and the Stone Center for programmatic integration upon creation of a fusion building that would house all three departments. Although the fusion building would not come to pass, the benefits of integrating the work of our respective departments were clear. The WOC focused on meaningful collaboration and creating efficient and effective student programming with limited resources. Over time, the WOC created an inclusive and ambitious mission statement: The mission of the Wellness Outreach Collaborative (WOC) is to meet the diverse and evolving needs of Wellesley College students by fostering a total learning environment that inspires them to cultivate lifelong habits of wellness and empowers them to make a difference in their world. Through our collaborative efforts, Wellesley College students will ● learn to practice sustainable selfcare that is essential to their physical, emotional, and spiritual growth; ● actively engage in the processes of self-discovery, self-acceptance, self-advocacy, and transformation; and ● integrate the knowledge necessary to make healthy and positive choices, including awareness of how to access the resources and support available to them in the community. Recognizing that student well-being is everyone’s work on campus, the WOC continually grows to include more members. Currently the Wellness Outreach Collaborative includes the following representatives: ● Health Services ● Physical Education, Recreation and Athletics (PERA) ● Stone Center Counseling Service ● Student Involvement ● The Office of Religious & Spiritual Life ● The Paulson Initiative ● Wellesley Fresh/AVI ● Residential Life ● 2 SOAC appointed student representatives Background In Fall 2013, the Associate Dean of Students led a multi-disciplinary task force to define the term "Wellness" for Wellesley College students. The Wellness Outreach Collaborative (WOC) began in Spring 2014 to operationalize that definition. Each year since then, the WOC has added new members from different areas of the College, recognizing that maintaining student wellness and creating a healthy campus culture is everyone's work. 2014-2015: The WOC focused on reducing redundancy in our respective wellness programming, pooling our resources to offer students higher quality student events, and creating a sustainable structure for the Collaborative's operations. The WOC's built upon Health Service's efforts to re-envision Lake Day, a Wellesley tradition. Lake Day began as a surprise day off from classes hosted by the Schneider Board of Governors (SBOG), when students could simply relax, have fun, and enjoy Lake Waban. The Lake Day as students know it now is shortened to a lunch time celebration, though one that is still very well attended. In addition to the festivities SBOG provides, WOC members and partners augment Lake Day with a health fair, meeting students where they are. Today, dozens of students line up for flu vaccinations while hoola hooping, eating cotton candy, and engaging with many of the support resources on campus. 2015-2016: The WOC continued refining our approach to wellness programming, branded our work with a logo and language on the College Health & Wellness website, and created a Mission Statement to guide our collective efforts: The mission of the Wellness Outreach Collaborative is to meet the diverse and evolving needs of Wellesley College students by fostering a total learning environment that inspires them to cultivate life long habits of wellness and empowers them to make a difference in their world. Through our collaborative efforts, Wellesley College students will ● learn to practice sustainable self care that is essential to their physical, emotional, and spiritual growth; ● actively engage in the processes of self discovery, self acceptance, self advocacy, and transformation; and ● integrate the knowledge necessary to make healthy and positive choices, including awareness of how to access the resources and support available to them in the community. 2016-2017: The WOC created a system for allocating it's financial resources and continued transitioning programs and events that were formerly siloed into Collaborative programs. One example of such a program is the Take a Break Calendar, which was originally a Health Service program. Through the joint efforts of the Collaborative members and partners across campus, this program offers students an incredibly wide and rich variety of opportunities to relax, connect, energize, or just breathe during final exam period. The WOC also continued exploring opportunities for curriculum infusion. Chaplain John Bailes' 6-week mindfulness course was over subscribed, and will be offered for credit next year through the Physical Education, Recreation and Athletics Department (PERA). 2017-2018: In the coming year, we will review models and frameworks for health and wellness in higher education and either adopt an existing model or create a Wellesley-specific model. (e.g Healthy Campus 2020, Okanagan Charter). We will also expand our membership to include two students appointed by College Government and continue engaging academic partners. A specific goal for the incoming year is to partner with the Pforzheimer Teaching and Learning Center to create an award for faculty members who create learning environments that foster the health and well being of students.