The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health has an important goal: to create a community where all learners, staff, and faculty feel valued, included, and empowered.
Building Community, a fundamental movement and transition in how we approach our working and learning environment, is the school’s climate improvement program. It is both a mindset and an action plan.
Operationally, it is a series of work and strategy teams made up of SMPH community volunteers who work to spark conversation, design resources, host events, and create change. At its core, it is a commitment by everyone in our school to get involved and utilize these opportunities to build a more inclusive, collegial, and respectful community.
News and Updates
How our community said ‘thank you’ in 2021
November 22, 2021Building Community Well-Being Strategy Work Team
November 10, 2021- More Building Community posts
About Building Community
Building Community is at the heart of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health’s vision of modeling its core values as we train the next generation of health care professionals and researchers.
The goal is to improve the learning and working environment at the School of Medicine and Public Health, one in which social impact and belonging is valued in all aspects of our work. By innovating new solutions and enhancing our investment in current successes, we are creating a culture that rewards skillful behavior that exemplifies professionalism, respect, altruism and empathy as we work and learn together. We also are refining and clarifying expectations about accountability for inappropriate behavior.
Our shared values
- Integrity and Accountability – Every person, every action, every time.
- Compassion – Treat all with kindness, understanding, and empathy.
- Social Impact and Belonging – Advance health and health equity by respecting the rights, dignity, and differences of all.
- Excellence – Strive for the very best in all we do.
Priorities
- Promote awareness, understanding and commitment to our shared values of integrity, accountability, compassion, social impact, belonging, and excellence
- Ensure that the learning and working environments across SMPH are welcoming to all and allow all individuals to feel connected and to flourish
- Continue to build a varied community of faculty, staff and learners where everyone can belong
- Promote a culture in which there is zero tolerance for discrimination and harassment
- Ensure individuals and departments have resources that will allow them to enact transformational change in our organization’s culture
Resources
- Shared Guidelines for Professional Conduct: This document was developed in 2020 by members of the Building Community Shared Understanding Work Team and endorsed by the Building Community Steering Committee. It outlines overarching guidance on the shared responsibility of everyone at SMPH and their partnering institutions to act with the highest levels of respect, integrity and accountability—and according to appropriate ethical and legal standards—in their daily activities inside and outside SMPH.
- Building Community Visual Toolkit: Download the Building Community logos (.png file type is recommended for most digital uses), PowerPoint template, and flyer template.
- Building Community 2018-2023 Strategic Plan (PDF): This five-year strategic plan summarizes how Building Community began and where the program aims to go in the future. One of the plan’s key strengths is how it couples inspiring individual action with institutional process and structural improvements.
Additional resources will be added to to this collection on a continual basis.