Background

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 cultural shift was not going to be an easy task but they decided to try a new approach: combining well-being programming to include student, staff and faculty audiences. The first annual Thrive Week launched that same year at UBC Vancouver with 20 different events and the tagline ‘Health, Community, Commitment’.

By 2014, Thrive had 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.

In 2018, McMaster Human Resources Services joined up with the Student Wellness Centre to host the first campuswide Thrive Week at McMaster University.