A commitment to wellbeing

In 2021, UC Irvine officially became a health-promoting university through the adoption of the Okanagan Charter. In this edition of the UCI Podcast, Doug Everhart, director of Student Wellness and Health Promotion, will discuss what it means to adopt the Okanagan Charter, how it enables UC Irvine to be a health-promoting university and explore the creation of its comprehensive wellbeing initiative.

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TRANSCRIPT

From the University of California Irvine, I’m Sheri Ledbetter and you’re listening to the UCI Podcast. Thank you for joining me. Today, I am speaking with Doug Everhart, director of Student Wellness and Health Promotion. Doug has been with UC Irvine for 14 years, in the UC system for 27 years, and in the wellness field for 34 years. Back in 2021, UC Irvine officially became a Health Promoting University through the adoption of the Okanagan Charter, and Doug was the force behind this initiative. Today we’re going to explore what it means to adopt the Okanagan charter, how it enables UC Irvine to be a health-promoting university and explore the creation of its Comprehensive Wellbeing Initiative. Doug, thank you for joining me today.

Doug Everhart:

Thank you for having me.

Sheri Ledbetter:

Let’s start at the beginning. What is the Okanagan Charter?

Doug Everhart:

Well, the Okanagan Charter is a document that was created in 2015 in Canada on the campus of the University of British Columbia, which sits on the lands of the Okanagan people. That’s where it got its name and health promotion professionals from college campuses all over the world gathered to write this charter to basically outline ways that campuses can become what we call now a Health Promoting University. And that means just philosophical guidance on aspirations that would support the concept of a campus being declared a Health Promoting University.

Sheri Ledbetter:

So what were some of the first steps of establishing UC Irvine’s Comprehensive Wellbeing Initiative in terms of being a Health Promoting University?

Doug Everhart:

There’s two countries that really have led the way in making the Okanagan Charter a, a national movement – the UK and Canada. And in 2018 at a conference in Portland, Oregon, the leaders of those two countries, Dr. Mark Dooris from the UK and Dr. Matt Dolph from Canada, came and introduced the Okanagan Charter officially to the United States, even though we kind of knew about it. They really came to share what they’ve been doing in their countries, and they have national networks already set up. Campus has already bought in. So that’s really when it got introduced to the United States. So after 2018, I got excited and came back to campus and just started talking to people about it, sharing it with everybody I could in meetings on campus in things like the Office of Inclusive Excellence Certificate Program, where we talked about it quite a bit.

So from 2018 to 2021, I had just been sharing it with people and said, you know, we can become a Health Promoting University by officially adopting this charter. And it was probably Doug Haynes, who was at the time our vice chancellor of diversity, equity and inclusion, who was the biggest supporter in this initiative and helped me get it introduced to the Chancellor’s cabinet. In addition, Richard Demerjian, who was our main campus planner, also helped me with talking about the built environment. I got my degree in engineering, so when I heard about the built environment and all of the design aspects of how the built environment contributes to a Health Promoting University, that got my ears perked up. So I wanted to start working in that area. So I just started developing these different partners, and then eventually, we decided we had enough of a core group to introduce this and propose it to the Chancellor’s cabinet.

Once we established that and proposed it to the Chancellor’s cabinet, they adopted it pretty quickly, which was surprising. Not that I didn’t think they would, but we really said to them that the campus is already doing a lot of this great work. This is just a way to galvanize the campus around the concept of making wellbeing an institutional value, and kind of rallying everybody around that so that they understood that they were part of a bigger initiative. So, as far as first steps, once we adopted, the first thing we did was we had to understand how is this different than other health and wellness initiatives that we’ve had come and go on campus. So the main thing we wanted to make clear was what health and wellness people understand is human behavior. The thing about the Okanagan Charter is it goes way beyond just programs and services and the specific focus on human behavior.

So the Okanagan Charter really talks about the wellbeing of people, place and planet is the language that’s used. So yes, people are important, but it’s the place, meaning the campus, the whole campus, the setting of the campus and the planet beyond the campus. How do we take care of our natural resources, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the planet itself. All the sustainability things that the campus is becoming famous for, fell right into place with this Okanagan Charter adoption. So that was the first thing we did was let’s leave health and wellness alone, because there’s lots of people and departments and initiatives that are already doing great work for human health and wellness. So we didn’t want to change that understanding for people, but when we talk about wellbeing, it’s kind of a new term that people are really kind of jumping onto now. Especially with this self-promoting work, is wellbeing goes beyond human behavior. And, really, it’s everything that contributes to a culture and a feeling and a vibe of wellbeing. That means the nature scapes on our campus, the environment, the culture we have, just how people feel at UC Irvine. So ultimately the goal is just by being at UC Irvine, whether you’re a human, you’re a bird, you’re an insect, you’re the water that flows through the campus, you feel like you have the opportunity to thrive and flourish. So that’s the wellbeing of people, place and planet.

Sheri Ledbetter:

I’m so glad you took us through that narrative of not only how this came to be to where we are today, but also that sort of explanation, if you will, that we already do a lot of things with wellness. How does wellbeing fit into to that? So that’s really helpful. And you talked about the built environment and I looked around at the website – and we’ll promote that a little bit more at the end of this – but tell me, so that there’s four pillars involved with this, and I wondered if you could take a moment and talk about how those came to be and, and what they are.

Doug Everhart:

Yeah. So once we define the health, wellness and, and wellbeing pieces, then it was putting together structure. How are we going to make this initiative stick? So we came up with four pillars that we felt were critical to this initiative. UC Irvine is a very diverse place, mostly known for its diverse student population, but we’ve been working very hard about the diversity of our staff, our faculty, and all of those areas, as well. So diversity, equity and inclusion, we know is a pillar of the university. So we wanted to make sure that it was included as a pillar of this initiative as well, because if we’re going to talk about the wellbeing of people, we have to talk about the wellbeing of all people. We can’t just talk about broad strokes. We have to find out what people’s needs are and every identity they may have.

And there are lots of different identities individually, as well as intersectionality of identities. So we felt that was very important and that’s where Doug Haynes really came into big play in  moving this forward. The next pillar we talked about, I talked about working with Richard Demerjian and the built environment. So from a campus plan perspective, they were just introducing at the time, the nature scape plan for the campus. And once I first saw it, I was just amazed because it just fit beautifully with what the Okanagan Charter is all about. It talks about the natural green spaces and the landscapes, and bringing some water up from underneath the campus up to the surface in Aldrich Park and creating a water feature and all these different themed gardens and outdoor classrooms and connecting walking paths from the campus to the community.

Richard talked about the idea of connecting a path that goes from the center of Aldrich Park to the exterior of campus and connecting to a community park that goes all through the canyons and can get you all the way to Crystal Cove Beach. So there is one path that connects the center of Aldrich Park to Crystal Cove Beach where you don’t even have to, well, you might have to cross a couple of streets, but for the most part you’re not walking along streets, you’re walking through natural paths. And it’s about 15 miles. So, it’s a trek. But it’s really cool that the campus is connecting to the local environment and connecting us to one of the most beautiful resources we have at UCI, which is we’re a few miles from the ocean. So the built environment just really excited me.

And to hear the campus planners and those talking about our built environment now using the, the language of wellbeing and how it contributes to wellbeing is, is the ultimate goal. So they do their work, but they also see how their work contributes to a culture of wellbeing. So that was the second pillar. The third pillar is sustainability and that one sold itself. We’re winning all kinds of national and global awards – the Ashe Stars Award, which recognizes and measures success and sustainability efforts. We had the highest score in 2021, not just in the country, not just in the UC system, but in the world as a campus. So that’s something again that I knew we were doing incredible work in. I’m seeing all kinds of faculty and academic departments doing great research in sustainability efforts and new clean fuel systems and energy sources.

So that one sold itself, right? I basically just talked to the cabinet, said we’re doing this work, we’re winning global awards. Let’s just make this a conduit to becoming a health-promoting campus. And then the last one was a culture of wellbeing. Again, the whole idea behind the Okanagan Charter is to move beyond the traditional work that most people know in health and wellness and really getting to what we call systems-level work – the policies, the structures, the infrastructure that supports a culture of wellbeing. So we decided what we would do is pull all of those people and departments and organizations together from the campus that do health and wellness work, and really talk about how can we take that work to the next level and think about structural things like policy development and structural things. One of the things we’re really excited about right now is there’s a contemplative faculty group that’s working on mindfulness techniques and mindfulness practice.

They’re teaching classes in this, and they’re doing workshops on this, but the campus doesn’t really have some great spaces to do this. I mean, we have Aldrich Park, but it’s not always accessible and available. So what one of the things that we’re looking at is some campuses and places in Southern California have what we call a labyrinth. It’s a contemplative place where you can kind of walk a path and just be peaceful and in thought, and there’s academic ways to support the importance of that and how that actually works. So this group of faculty and staff that are doing this contemplative work are going to be touring this summer some of the labyrinths around Southern California. And we’re going to look for a way to create and construct a labyrinth on campus somewhere. We don’t know where yet. We don’t know how much it’s going to cost, but we’re excited about creating that place for these faculty who are teaching this work and then have a true outdoor great space that is built for the work that they’re doing. So that’s a way of taking health and wellness work and the people that do it, and really creating a structural piece for the campus that supports that work in a systems level way.

Sheri Ledbetter

Well, we will look forward to when that day comes. Is this kind of an exclusive right here with that information?

Doug Everhart:

It is. I haven’t mentioned that publicly, so yes, you kind of caught me on that, but I’m excited to share it.

Sheri Ledbetter:

That’s great. And you know, you specifically mentioned faculty, but I’d like to maybe talk with you a little bit more about how the adoption of the Okanagan Charter and our Comprehensive Wellbeing Initiative and how this really impacts the whole campus. It’s not just a faculty thing, right? Or just a student thing?

Doug Everhart:

That’s correct. So this again, even goes beyond humans. So not only is it not just for students, faculty and staff who are human inhabitants, occupants of UC Irvine’s campus, but it’s also again about the plants and the animals that occupy campus. I used to come to campus early because I commute 60 miles each way to work. And I would get here at 7 a.m. and I would turn on my computer, let it boot up, and I’d take a lap around Ring Road at 7 a.m. and I would hear the birds and the sun coming through the trees. And occasionally I’d see a family of raccoons cross Ring Road or different things on campus. And to me, that just made the campus more beautiful because I realize, you know, there’s students, faculty and staff that call UC Irvine home, but there’s also all kinds of birds and animals and insects that call UC Irvine home too. The fact that we take care of them is important. But back to your question: students, faculty, and staff – yes. It’s not just for any one of those populations, it’s for everybody.

Sheri Ledbetter:

What is next for the Comprehensive Wellbeing Initiative, would you say? And where can people find out more about this?

Doug Everhart:

So the last few years we’ve really focused on building the structure. We want to make sure that this initiative lasts for years to come. So we wanted to set up the structure that we knew was going to take us into the future. So that’s why we set up the pillars. We’re now recruiting students, faculty, and staff to be on each pillar’s team. So during Earth Day last year we had a town hall that kind of introduced the Comprehensive Wellbeing Initiative to the campus. This year we focused on promoting it. We spent a lot of this year building a new website, which you mentioned the website can give you lots more information. And then this year what we did was, after the website was built; now how do we drive traffic to the website? So Earth Day this year, we set up a table on Ring Road and just kind of told people about the initiative that were walking by: students, faculty, staff, whomever would listen and ask them to come hear a little bit about the initiative, an elevator pitch, so to speak.

And then we asked them to either write down a quote that they felt like described how they engage with health and wellness? Or what does the built environment do to support your wellbeing? Different questions that they could ask about the pillars or answer about the pillars. And then we also recorded some video quotes from people that wanted to share their quote on camera. So we collected those. We’re going to add those to the website to give the website some personal stories and testimonials and quotes of how this initiative is really impacting, again, students, faculty, and staff. If we could interview the animals and insects, we’d probably do that too, but, we’ll leave that for a later time.

Sheri Ledbetter:

Will you include their photos on the website?

Doug Everhart:

Yes. The website is actually filled with all kinds of great photos.

Sheri Ledbetter:

I’m excited. The website is healthpromotinguniversity.uci.edu and I encourage everyone who’s listening to visit the website. It’s beautiful and it really encapsulates the four pillars that you’ve talked about. And I think there’s just so much more room, sort of a “go forward” room. I mean, this thing is still, it’s a couple years old, but it feels relatively new and people were still getting the word out and getting the engagement out. And it seems like Earth Week is kind of the benchmark for kind of reengaging in those kinds of things. So, we’ll look forward to seeing how that grows in the future. Is there anything I didn’t ask you that you’d like to share?

Doug Everhart:

I would just say on the website, like you said, there’s tons of information. The story page talks about kind of the history piece, but I would also look at the page, because that gives you the history of how we built the structure, who’s involved in the leadership of each pillar and of the whole initiative. We also have our annual reports. So you can actually see the first report is what we submitted to become a Health Promoting University to adopt the charter. And then each subsequent year we’ve talked about the progress, and it’s a living document that grows each year. So rather than write a new report and start from scratch, we just add to the previous year. And anything that is new in that current year is highlighted in red. So you can actually see from year to year what was done in that year to move the initiative forward.

So now we’re just trying to grow the initiative. If you’d like to get involved, you go to the get involved tab and there’s just a brief form to fill out with your name, your contact information, and then in the notes, after you’ve reviewed the pillars and maybe something speaks to you and says, oh, I’d really love to get involved in this work, just let us know which pillar you’d like to be involved in. And then we’ll add you to the roster of that pillar. And the pillars are meeting throughout the year about monthly. And then at the end of each year, we’ll have a town hall in April, again during Earth Week. And all the pillars will share the work they’re doing and make some goals for the next year for the whole initiative.

Sheri Ledbetter

Just to recap, can you just recite those four pillars again?

Doug Everhart:

Yes. So the four pillars include diversity, equity, and inclusion, the built environment, sustainability, and a culture of wellbeing.

Sheri Ledbetter

Perfect. Thank you. And again, that website is healthpromotinguniversity.uci.edu. Doug, thank you so much for speaking with me today.

Doug Everhart:

Thank you for having me.

Sheri Ledbetter

The UCI Podcast is a production of Strategic Communications and Public Affairs at the University of California, Irvine. I’m Sheri Ledbetter. Thank you for listening.