U of G’s SHINE: Mental Well-being Awareness Week runs Nov. 14 to 18, promoting mental wellness and providing students with resources to help support their mental well-being.
“While the start of the year is exciting for students, it’s also a time when they can easily feel overwhelmed,” says Rebecca Skelhorn, wellness educator in Student Wellness Services. “We want to support students in making connections with resources and with other students on campus to help boost their overall well-being and find balance.”
SHINE Week includes more than 25 in-person and online events designed to help support student mental health, including:
- workshops and trainings
- discussion groups
- social and physical activities
See the full event listing on the Student Wellness website. All SHINE: Mental Well-being Awareness Week events are free. All students, staff and faculty are encouraged to attend.
Harkamal Samra and Selina De Paiva, senior peers with the Wellness Education and Promotion Centre’s Forward Minds team, are among the students supporting SHINE Week planning.
“Students are looking for a sense of community,” says Samra. “Some are half-way through their degrees but are still experiencing university life for the first time, so it’s important for them to be aware of, and have access to, the available supports.”
The events to support SHINE Week are a collaborative effort across campus. “SHINE Week invites campus partners such as faculty, student clubs, departments and organizations to create mental health programming catered to the students they know best, allowing much more effective and inclusive mental health promotion,” says De Paiva.
Organizers say SHINE Week emphasizes that caring for our mental health isn’t just important – it can also be fun and enrich our lives.
“I hope that our events demonstrate this to students and help them find new tools that they can use beyond SHINE Week,” says Skelhorn.