Announcing NIRSA’s Wellbeing Collaborative, in partnership with Wellfleet

NIRSA is excited to introduce the NIRSA Wellbeing Collaborative, in partnership with Wellfleet—a year-long, high-impact initiative that supports campus recreation departments in embedding wellbeing into their culture, operations, and strategy. This first-of-its-kind pilot brings together four campuses—the University of Utah, Towson University, Radford University, and Western Michigan University—who will use NIRSA’s Recreation for Wellbeing online course as the foundation for learning, receive guided coaching from NIRSA Health & Wellbeing Advisory Group members, and disseminate multi-modal learnings via the NIRSA Promising Practices model.

Moving from learning to doing

While NIRSA’s Recreation for Wellbeing course provides the foundation for understanding systems-level change, the Collaborative goes a step further. It creates a structured environment for applied learning, where campus teams can immediately put concepts into action, test new ideas, and learn from one another in real time. Rather than engaging with the material as passive learners, participants will become active practitioners, equipped to design, implement, and refine strategies that embed wellbeing across their operations, policies, and practices. Each institution will receive individualized coaching from members of NIRSA’s Health & Wellbeing Advisory Group. This personalized guidance will help teams navigate the complexities of translating theory into campus-specific action, ensuring that learning leads to meaningful and sustainable outcomes.

The power of community and connection

A central element of the Collaborative is its learning community: a small, focused cohort of campuses learning alongside one another. This design fosters shared accountability, curiosity, and collective problem-solving. As participants test new approaches, they’ll have the opportunity to collectively reflect, share insights, and adapt strategies. In doing so, they’ll contribute to NIRSA’s Promising Practices resources—not as a polished, end product, but as a living record of real-time learning. This approach celebrates progress over perfection and recognizes that systemic change happens through iteration, collaboration, and community.

Why this matters for you

Exercise and recreation are among the most powerful interventions we have to improve health and wellbeing—often more effective than medication. But to truly move the needle on student outcomes, campuses must think beyond programs or facilities and address the complex systems that shape the student experience. The NIRSA Wellbeing Collaborative is built on this understanding. By focusing on applied learning within a community framework, it empowers recreation leaders to act as catalysts for change, aligning recreation with student success, belonging, and holistic health. As these four institutions chart their paths, they’ll create insights that other campuses can learn from and build upon, turning insight into impact across higher education.

Partnership with Wellfleet

NIRSA is grateful for Wellfleet’s partnership in this initiative. As part of its Campus Health 360 strategy, Wellfleet actively seeks opportunities to collaborate with organizations that share its commitment to supporting healthier campus communities. Campus Health 360 was designed to improve healthcare and wellbeing outcomes for entire student populations. Its reach goes beyond Wellfleet members—they aim to broadly impact campuses by sharing expertise in college health, offering proven tools and resources, and fostering collaborations that drive meaningful change.