Thrive began as an idea between two colleagues at UBC in the spring of 2009. Patty Hambler was working primarily in student health promotion at the time and Suzanne Jolly in a similar role that focused on staff and faculty.
They shared common goals in wanting to help create a campus environment that better understood the importance of mental health and well-being as well as one that was supportive of individuals to make choices that promoted not only healthy bodies but healthy minds.
Creating this type of a cultural shift was not going to be an easy task but they decided to try a new approach: combining wellbeing programming to include student, staff and faculty audiences.
2009: First annual Thrive week launched at UBC Vancouver with 20 different events and the tagline ‘Health, Community, Commitment’.
2014: By far Thrive’s biggest year yet. Over 65 partners and 100 events and activities marked a highly successful initiative that reached over 35,000 campus community members. Thrive events were hosted on two UBC Campuses and in 7 different locations.
2018: VIU hosts its very first Thrive Week.
Thrive is now celebrated at numerous campuses across Canada, providing opportunities for important conversations about mental health to take place.
VIU gratefully acknowledges and thanks UBC for their generosity in sharing this brand to support our students.
