The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has adopted the Okanagan Charter as a member of the United States Health Promoting Campuses Network (USHPCN).
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is part of a cohort of 34 universities in the United States that adopted the Charter as of 2025. The University of Alabama at Birmingham was the first institution in the U.S. to adopt the Okanagan Charter, in December 2020. They were joined by seven more institutions in 2021, six in 2022, eight in 2023 and 10 more in 2024. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign becomes the second institution to adopt the Charter in 2025 following Furman University who adopted two weeks ago with more expected in the coming weeks and months.
Health Promoting Campuses (HPCs) are an international community that aspire to transform the health and sustainability of current and future societies, strengthen communities, and contribute to the well-being of people, places and the planet. Evidence shows that people who are well are more productive, are better able to engage in deeper learning, have a greater sense of belonging, and have a stronger sense of community.
The USHPCN is guided by the Okanagan Charter: An International Charter for Health Promoting University and Colleges, which calls on higher-education institutions to embed health into all aspects of campus culture and to lead health-promotion action and collaboration locally and globally. Created in June 2015, the Charter provides institutions with a common vision, language, principles and calls to action to become health- and well-being-promoting campuses.
A part of the International Health Promoting Campuses Network (IHPCN), the USHPCN is one of 16 international networks, comprised of 310 USHPCN Network Institutional Members, that encourages members to support one another other and collaborate on the work of becoming a health promoting campus.
“Congratulations to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Chancellor Jones and their leadership team for making this historic commitment to wellbeing. It takes visionary leadership to become a health promoting campus and to embed health into all aspects of campus culture and it will pay off in the wellbeing and success of all members of the university community,” said Chris Dawe, Chair of the USHPCN and Assistant Vice President for Health and Wellbeing at University of Houston.
Similar networks are active internationally, including in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Germany, Canada and Ibero-America. The establishment of this network is supported by the International Health Promoting Universities & Colleges network.
By adopting the Charter each HPU is making institutional commitments to both the charter and its own strategic plan for how it lives out and implements health promotion on its campus and in its community. By doing so, health promoting universities and colleges improve the health of the people who live, learn, work, play and love on their campuses and strengthen the ecological, social and economic sustainability of their communities and wider society.
“Formalizing a commitment to translate the Okanagan Charter into action is an enormously important signal of a university’s commitment,” says Matt Dolf, Ph.D., Director of UBC Wellbeing at the University of British Columbia and Co-Chair of the International Health Promoting Campuses Network.
Robert J. Jones, Chancellor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign had this to share about the importance of being a health promoting university, “The well-being of all students, faculty, staff and visitors is essential to our collective success. By prioritizing wellness, we create an environment where all individuals can thrive and support student resilience as they move toward graduation. Alongside our domestic and international partners who are also committed to promoting well-being on their campuses, we recognize that providing comprehensive support is foundational to our role as a public land-grant university and consistent with our values of collaboration, inclusion and empowerment."
Through its adoption of the Okanagan Charter, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign commits to:
- Include well-being in the institution’s strategic, master and budget planning.
- Ensure that all members of the campus community have equitable access to resources and opportunities for well-being.
- Institute sustainable campus design and practices that promote physical and mental health.
- Invest dedicated resources in health promotion initiatives and outcomes.
- Regularly publishing comprehensive reports on health promotion systems and settings work, the outcomes and future planning.
- Actively collaborate across the USHPCN and international network.
- Integrate well-being into its core policies, practices and decision-making.
“Student Affairs is dedicated to empowering students to achieve and sustain health and wellness by fostering access, balance and resilience. Through the adoption of the Okanagan Charter and its strategic external partnerships, we are enhancing the support available to students, ensuring that resources, programming and services around all dimensions of wellness are tailored to meet the diverse needs of our campus community and promote holistic well-being,” remarked Dr. Danita M. Brown Young, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs.
In thinking about the ways being a part of a cohort of health promoting campuses will enhance the ways the university supports its students, Dr. Jim Hintz, Acting Associate Vice Chancellor for Auxiliary, Health and Wellbeing, had this is share, “Promoting health and wellness is woven into the fabric of everything we do at the university. Through the strong collaborative partnerships the Okanagan Charter offers, we will ensure that students have the support they need to maintain their well-being. Wellness is an ongoing, dynamic journey, and we want to empower students to take active steps toward a healthier, more balanced life. As part of the USHPCN, we are empowered to foster a health-conscious campus where well-being is prioritized in all our activities, helping students thrive both academically and personally.”
About the Okanagan Charter
Okanagan Charter: The Okanagan Charter is a guiding and aspirational document that was developed as an outcome of the 2015 International Conference on Health Promoting Universities and Colleges. Health promotion scholars and professionals from around the world gathered to create this document. Its purpose is to guide colleges and universities, using their unique positions and roles in research, teaching and service to their communities, to be leaders for the world in developing and modeling health-promoting strategies in their campus settings. Local communities could then learn from their example and modeling, thus influencing global health and wellbeing strategy. The key is moving beyond traditional approaches of influencing individual behavior and moving upstream to systems level and environmental strategies that influence the health and wellbeing of person, place and planet.
About the U.S. Health Promoting Campuses Network
Initiated on January 15, 2020, the purpose of the U.S. Health Promoting Campuses Network (USHPCN) is to facilitate, advance, and promote the adoption of the Okanagan Charter: An International Charter for Health Promoting Universities & Colleges for U.S. Colleges and Universities. The adoption of the Okanagan Charter as an aspirational document represents the beginning of an aspirational journey toward campus wellbeing utilizing a comprehensive settings and systems-level approach. The USHPCN is a support network that helps campuses define, develop, and create strategies and metrics that help define what it means to be a health promoting campus, recognizing that it will be different for each campus based on their unique circumstances, resources, and needs. There are currently 310 members of the network. Each member campus appoints liaisons who meet regularly to learn from, collaborate with, and support each other in this work by sharing resources, best practices, and lessons learned. The USHPCN also collaborates with international networks and is one of sixteen member networks within a more extensive international network, the International Health Promoting Campuses Network.
