NIRSA Promising Practices: Ohio University’s purpose-driven approach to systemic change

On behalf of NIRSA’s Health & Wellbeing Task Force and the Promising Practices Work Group, the Association is proud to share its eighth Promising Practice—Ohio University. Promising Practices are collaborative or integrated wellbeing initiatives and campus-wide efforts that—driven and realized by the efforts of campus recreation staff and leaders—support the campus community.

Ohio University’s Thrive initiative is a purpose-driven approach to student care that ensures wellbeing is integrated into every facet of university life, creating a more connected, supportive, and healthy campus environment. This approach has become a model for fostering holistic student wellbeing, enhancing interdepartmental cooperation, and driving systemic changes in campus wellbeing.

“The real work was in fostering a cooperative environment that focused on why and how we were supporting students, allowing the whats—like programs and services—to evolve naturally over time,” says Mark Ferguson, Assistant Vice President of Well-Being at Ohio University.

In the process of developing their wellbeing efforts, Ohio University recognized that Thrive is merely the tip of the iceberg—an outward expression of deeper systemic changes focused on understanding the “why” and “how” of student care. The goal was not just to create a new initiative but to rethink how wellbeing resources were organized and accessed beyond organizational structure and ensuring that students received the support they needed in a more cohesive and intentional way. The Thrive initiative is just one of the outcomes of this ongoing effort to build a comprehensive support system for OU students to meet them where they are both in physical location and on their wellbeing journey.

Click on the video below to learn more about Ohio University’s Thrive initiative and its impact on their campus.

Download the publication

The Promising Practices concept is intended to be a three-part, multimodal learning experience that supports the pursuit of collaborative and integrated approaches towards holistic wellbeing. “By providing an example of how one school built its framework and how their campus came together on their initiative, we’re hoping to encourage other schools to lean into this work because we believe it has the power to transform a campus community,” says Josh Downing, Associate Director of Programming at Indiana University and co-chair of the NIRSA Health & Wellbeing Task Force.

NIRSA is proud to offer this publication for free so that members, and their colleagues across campus, can learn from the significant, systems-change efforts at Ohio University.

Register for the December 11 webinar

After downloading the publication, register to join the webinar on Wednesday, December 11 at 2:00pm Eastern/11:00am Pacific. Join representatives from Ohio University to learn more about the Thrive initiative and OU’s purpose-driven approach to systemic change.