The Okanagan Charter is a document that was published in 2015. It was produced in collaboration of many universities who convened in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada for the International Conference on Health Promoting Universities and Colleges to discuss what makes a health promoting university. This is the result. In Aotearoa, we have used this charter as a base for our own interpretation of what it means to be a health promoting university.
The Charter can be viewed here.
This report by Thursdays in Black is an investigation into student experiences of sexual violence prior to and during tertiary education in New Zealand. It includes statistics regarding the prevalence of sexual assault, an examination of the flaws in the current sexuality education at secondary school and tertiary level (particularly surrounding consent), and several urgent calls to action.
The report can be viewed here and the results of their sexual violence survey can be found here.
"The main aim was to review the effectiveness of population or settings-based strategies and approaches for promoting the mental wellbeing of students and staff within universities. This policy brief focuses on the papers relating specifically to mental health outcomes (around a third of the papers reviewed). The remaining two thirds of papers were focused on alcohol, tobacco or other drugs; we have included a short summary of these papers in the ‘Discussion’ section."
Full report available here
"Tau Ora is a holistic organisational wellness programme developed at Te Wananga o Aotearoa. The programme was launched in 2007 and has been hugely successful with more than 50% of staff engaging with the programme each year."
Website available here
The settings-based approach to health promotion can potentially enhance the contribution of universities to improving the health of populations and to adding value in the following ways: 1) by protecting the health and promoting the wellbeing of students, staff and the wider community through their policies and practices, 2) by increasingly relating health promotion to teaching and research and 3) by developing health promotion alliances and outreach into the community.
Full report is available here
"This Guide introduces health impact assessment (HIA) as a practical way to ensure that health and wellbeing are considered as part of policy development in all sectors. Policy-makers in any sector, at both central and local level, could use this Guide. Those who may be affected by policy may also find the Guide useful."
Full resource available here
This resource assists employers to make their workplaces healthy by encouraging supportive environment and policies and promote physical activity, healthy eating, smoke-free environments and mental wellbeing.
Full report available here
The Charter is an outcome of the 2015 International Conference on Health Promoting Universities and Colleges and was develop by engaging researchers, practitioners, administrators, students and policy makers from 45 countries (including NZ). It enables tertiary institutions to embed health and wellbeing into policies, services and environments for the befit of both staff and student.
Full Okanagan Charter available here