Rebranding: UC Berkeley's Faculty/Staff Health Programs /  by Ashley Villanueva

UC Berkeley’s faculty/staff health programs have rebranded! Same services, new name.

This project was sparked by a UCOP’s push for a systemwide faculty/staff health program rebranding. UCOP proposed the UC campuses adopt the “(insert university name): Living Well” model. Being Berkeley, the oldest university in the UC system, many of our services were created as problems arose, resulting in siloed and independently advertised programs for fac/staff. While we agreed it was time to “package” the services under one umbrella, we knew that “Berkeley Living Well” would not resonate with our audience.

Cue competitive analysis! 

We found other UC campuses naming their programs: UCLA Health -Wellness Initiative, Choose Well, Insight Employee Assistance Program, Faculty/Staff Assistance Program, Wellness Program, Work/Life & Wellness, Health & Wellness, and Employee Wellness. Across the nation, we found MHealthy (University of Michigan), LiveWELL Iowa, University of Arizona Life & Work Connections, Be Well@Stanford, UWellness (University of Washington), and Vanderbilt Health & Wellness. Now this got our wheels turning

Cue focus groups! Over the course of 6 weeks, the Communications team held focus groups with UC Berkeley staff, representing different levels of leadership and trades of work. We floated several different ideas: Faculty/Staff Health and Well-being, bWell at Work, Wellness at Work, Berkeley Work/Life, and Be Well at Work (hint: the winning candidate!).

Cue logo development!

Some of the early drafts looked like this:

And this is where we’ve landed:

Through this rebranding, we hope faculty and staff have a better sense of the breadth & depth of support programs and services available to them during their career span at UC Berkeley. As someone that was a student, then became a career staff member, and is now trying to navigate financial wellness, retirement, mental health and wellness, etc. I am rooting for this new “packaging” to succeed.

One step closer towards a more together, innovative, simplified, accountable, and service-oriented workplace… #GoBears!

Keeping the creative light on /  by Ashley Villanueva

I’ve been stuck in a creative rut lately. One way to I’ve remedied the dry spell is by writing down five ideas a day. (Credit: The Muse’s 7 Small Routine Changes That’ll Have a Huge Impact on Your Life)

At first, I came up with shallow ideas: #firstworldproblems status and more of an idea/concept than the actual execution plan. In other words, none of them would make it to Shark Tank. But now it’s day 6 and the real ideas are beginning to flow. Here’s my notebook. Note: It’s also fitting that my co-active life coach is the one that gifted me the WeWork notebook!

Some ideas worth sharing:

  • A way to render music visually (think light show, perhaps with emojis) and a 15-second clip of the song. Ends with a link to purchase the track or CD. People can easily post on IG. Goal: Get people to share music! Free promotion for artists.
  • A donation program for people’s old and obsolete technology. People can choose to write it off for tax purposes, get credit at Best Buy (or some other tech store), or get a small stipend. The technology will be sent to third world countries to inspire youth to get involved in STEM and improve their home country’s conditions. Name: One Man’s Trash
  • A student experience coordinator/consultant for colleges. This person is not a student counselor, student advisor, or residential director, etc. This person is appointed on campus for 6 months to a year to evaluate “student success.” At the end of their term, student body will show at least a 20% increase in awareness of resources and “connectedness.” States will require this two in one audit and solution for universities and state colleges once every 5 years.

Let me know if some of these already exist. I would love to learn more about the execution and strategy!!! Have any ideas? Post them in the comments!

Ah, I feel my creative energy coming back. Cheers!

AV

REST Zones at UC Berkeley: The Marketing/Branding Journey /  by Ashley Villanueva

A little about REST Zones

Relaxation Enhancing Study and Tranquility (REST) Zones seek to create healthy, comfortable spaces in which students (undergraduate and graduate) can sit, read, talk quietly with others, and take a break from the stressful pace of UC Berkeley life. Using a model of adaptive placemaking, REST Zones affordably integrate wellness promotion in existing campus buildings without the need for major structural or functional changes.

REST Zones can be found at the following locations (pics attached):
· ASUC Student Union – Eshleman Mediation Room
· Bechtel Library
· Tang Center
· Wurster Library
· Moffitt Library (Fall ‘16)
· Tolman Tech Lounge (coming soon)

Full list of places to nap on campus: tinyurl.com/berkeleynaps

Brought to UC Berkeley by the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC),
University Health Services (UHS), and the Wellness Initiative Fee!

Why REST Zones? 

In a study conducted by the ACHA-NCHA II on the University of California, Berkeley campus in 2014:

  • 44.6% of students reported feeling tired, dragged out, or sleepy in three to five days of the last week in which the study was conducted.
  • 90% of students believed that sleepiness was a problem during daytime activities.
  • Only 9.7% of students reported getting enough sleep to feel rested in the morning in the previous 6+ days. Lack of sleep can negatively affect students’ mood, judgment, work performance, safety, and physical health.
  • According to the same ACHA-NCHA II study in the past 12 months:
    • 38.4% of students felt so depressed that it was difficult to function
    • 60.8% felt overwhelming anxiety
    • 8.9% seriously considered suicide
    • 3.1% attempted suicide
    • 94.2% experienced an average, higher than average, or tremendous amount of stress.

My role in moving this narrative forward

Melissa Hsu, ASUC Academic Affairs Vice President, and the Wellness Committee had been working on gathering support and funding since 2014 (maybe earlier). In October 2015, the UHS team was looped in for support. I was charged with coming up with the visual communications and marketing for the project. I began by proposing two directions:

Option 1: Rain City – The idea was to use the look and feel of a postage stamp as an analogy of taking a break and transporting yourself to a safe, calm, and restful place.

Option 2: NEXT – Using the wavy, topographic look paired with the color gradient to make the letters have that calming visual effect. Inspired by the NEXT: Corcoran Thesis Exhibition 2015 >>

I also proposed the following creative brief and color schemes:

After weeks of back and forth, we settled on:

Last, we decided it would be just as important to have sleep literacy, or education around why rest is important. Inspired by UC Davis’s sleep campaign, we created a brain character:

To complete our push for sleep, we invested some funds towards giveaways. Students can’t resist a good giveaway! Eye masks and ear plugs were the natural choice! Isn’t it so cool to see the REST logo on them!?

REST Zone Launch

The AAVP office rolled out the zones as soon as the furniture arrived. The official launch happened after the first four locations were established on Thursday, February 18, 2016. For the launch, we had students write on the REST Zone bags (filled with a postcard and giveaway) where their favorite places to nap were:

Their favorite places to sleep didn’t have to be a REST Zone. We really wanted students to think about where they would go if they needed to recharge, to bring awareness to taking care of their health in this way. We wanted to dispel the hype around all-nighter studying culture and the fact that “sleep debt” or trying to catch up on lost sleep is not effective and not a healthy practice.

Nap pods:

Social media wins

On social media, we received an overwhelmingly positive response from students:

A personal victory

As a Cal alumna, I feel a very close connection to this project. During my time as a student, I was perpetually caught in the “Am I good enough to go to this school?” I was always half-expecting a message from Admissions like: “Uhm, we admitted you on accident. You don’t even go here *Mean Girls reference*!!!” As a result, I constantly sacrificed my sleep and my health. I would pull all-nighters, and even considered taking prescription drugs, to keep up with my peers. By the end of my final year, I had severe eczema from the lack of sleep, poor diet, excessive drinking habits, and high stress.

It’s been argued that this is an obscene amount of money for zones that can only accommodate about 40 people at a time, but hey! It’s better than no official place on campus. And the furniture purchases were one-time only purchases (very little long term maintenance fee due to the adaptive placemaking). It shows that students and administrators alike identify this as an issue and are being proactive about it. This will especially help serve commuter students, students with chronic pain or illness, and student parents! It’s been an honor to be a part of this effort.

I love my campus! Go Bears!

Signed,
Ashley Villanueva
Proud Cal staff and alumna

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