As we move into October, National Recovery Month has come to a close; however, the importance of recovery at Ursinus College remains a prevalent part of campus culture. September was an important month at Ursinus, as we are the first U.S. college to be certified as a “recovery-friendly workplace.”
What exactly does “recovery-friendly” mean? Well, the non-profit organization Recovery Friendly Workplaces (RFW) certified our campus based on a year-long self-assessment process and actions such as including recovery under disability protections. For more information, you can attend Katie Bean’s monthly “UC is a Recovery Friendly Workplace: What does this mean for me?” session. The next session is on October 6th at 3 pm via Zoom.
But what does it mean for the students and staff who are actively in recovery and in need of support?
Bean explains, “At Ursinus, we believe that people are our most valuable asset. As an employer, we want our employees to feel seen, heard, and valued. Our comprehensive benefits package and all our policies signal our commitment to our employees’ well-being. We want all people, and especially those with mental and behavioral health conditions, to know they can bring their whole self to work, and they will be welcomed and accepted.”
This people-first mentality means that Ursinus wants students and faculty to grow. Often, addiction is treated as a sort of failure of the individual to be dealt with in secrecy. Ursinus strives to have a people-first mentality in which addiction is destigmatized. The student or the staff member must be supported through their recovery. Just as we support those who are sick with physical ailments, we treat addiction and mental health issues with the same mentality.
This past month, the college hosted a harm reduction training and an allies of recovery training – both of which educate members of the campus on how to actively move to a recovery-friendly mindset and away from the shameful and dismissive attitude often associated with addiction struggles.
Additionally, Ursinus is looking to broaden the sense of the word addiction beyond drugs and alcohol. Addiction can intrude upon many areas of life beyond what we conventionally consider to be addictive. Besides substances, activities such as gambling, watching porn, self-harm, and eating habits can all be addictive and just as harmful. On September 7th, Senior Prevention Specialist Hope Wilde hosted the event, “Know the Odds: Protect your Brain from the Pull of Sports Betting,” which exemplified applying recovery to other areas of addiction.
Bean acknowledges that “We always have room to grow, and so we’re trying to offer more supervisor training on how to be recovery-friendly, and have a survey going this month to help us understand what our community knows/doesn’t know about our services so we can improve.” Students and staff can find this survey at: https://www.ursinus.edu/offices/health-promotion/recoverymonth/
Students and staff still need support in their recovery journeys. Every Friday from 7-8 pm, the Hive hosts a peer-led All Recovery meeting where students can connect with their peers and share their experiences. In the upcoming months, Ursinus intends to host another Allies of Recovery Training for those seeking to learn how to support those with addiction. In October, they also plan to have a suicide prevention session and a dating and domestic violence session. These educational resources help to challenge the stigma surrounding addiction. As an RFW, Ursinus takes recovery beyond the month of September and into the daily atmosphere of campus.