The Student Wellness Resource Center

Our Vision

The Student Wellness Resource Center utilizes the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Strategic Prevention Framework in concert with harm reduction and risk management strategies to assist our students in a kind, caring, and compassionate manner.  

Our Programs

In addition to the resources, both on and off campus, listed on our Resources page, the Student Wellness Resource Center provides education materials and presentations on a range of topics:

    • Bystander Intervention
    • Alcohol and Other Drug Education
    • Risk Management
    • Harm Reduction
    • Stress Management

For more information on our specific programs or to request a presentation visit our Prevention and Educational Programs page. 

Strategic Prevention Framework

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Strategic Prevention Framework is a guide for the Student Wellness Resource Center.  The Strategic Prevention Framework has five steps and two guiding principles for its implementation:

The five steps:

    1. Assessment: Identify local prevention needs based on data (e.g., What is the problem?)
    2. Capacity: Build local resources and readiness to address prevention needs (e.g., What do you have to work with?)
    3. Planning: Find out what works to address prevention needs and how to do it well (e.g., What should you do and how should you do it? 
    4. Implementation: Deliver evidence-based programs and practices as intended (e.g., How can you put your plan into action?)
    5. Evaluation: Examine the process and outcomes of programs and practices (e.g., Is your plan succeeding?)

Guiding Principles:

    • Cultural Competence. The ability of an individual or organization to understand and interact effectively with people who have different values, lifestyles, and traditions based on their distinctive heritage and social relationships. 
    • Sustainability. The process of building an adaptive and effective system that achieves and maintains desired long-term results. 

Harm Reduction

Harm reduction is a set of practical and doable strategies and/or ideas directed at reducing negative consequences associated with an activity or behavior.  Harm reduction strategies can address a wide variety of activities, though commonly associated with substance use on college campuses. 

The Student Wellness Resource Center provides guidance to help student develop harm reduction strategies for all activities they engage in, whether that is substance use, physical exercise, or mental health needs. 

Risk Management

Risk management is very similar to hard reduction – it aims to mitigate or eliminate negative outcomes of activities or behaviors. 

Harm reduction strategies tend to focus more on managing negative outcomes in short-term incidents, for example mitigating the effects of a hangover.  Risk management involves a more active approach to solving long-term outcomes.  Examples can be making changes to ones nutrition for a healthier lifestyle or investing money for retirement.

Staff in the Student Wellness Resource Center can meet with students and provide guidance and resources for students seeking to make meaningful changes to reducing risk in their lives.