President Flanagan Announces the Signing of the Okanagan Charter
On April 7, 2021, the University of Alberta joined the World Health Organization in observing World Health Day. Thanks to the Days of Action committee, faculty, staff, and students had the opportunity to participate in a number of virtual events to learn new strategies for managing their health and wellbeing.
The U of A's annual World Health Day celebrations align with the ongoing work happening across our campuses to respond to the priorities of the Healthy University Strategic Plan. The plan sets health and wellness as a key priority for the university, and provides a shared framework to foster healthy working, learning, and living environments.
When the plan was launched in 2017, mental health emerged from the community consultations as the overarching priority to focus on. This past year of the pandemic has challenged our mental health in new ways, and supporting the mental health of the U of A community remains an important priority. We continue to provide services and resources for students and employees, and introduce new supports and programming to meet evolving needs and concerns.
Since the implementation of the Healthy University Strategic Plan, the U of A has also launched these ongoing and important initiatives:
Today we also announced our 2021 Wellness Champions and celebrated the signing of the Okanagan Charter.
The U of A is now one of 30 Canadian post-secondary institutions to have signed onto the Okanagan Charter—an international document intended to inspire action on post-secondary health promotion. The U of A’s Healthy University Strategic Plan was founded, in part, on the core principles contained in the Okanagan Charter, and we are thrilled to be formally joining this network. Signing onto the charter will provide the university with a public platform from which to further coordinate health initiatives on campus and demonstrate the university’s commitment to the health and wellbeing of our campus community.
The community achievements we celebrate on World Health Day will continue to play an important role in U of A's ongoing efforts to support the health and wellness of our community. Thank you to everyone who contributes to creating a safe, supportive, and healthy environment at the U of A.