The Student Wellness Collective: Advocacy in Action

The Student Wellness Collective's Origin

Our humble attempt at creating a bridge for the barriers students face, was started with a small kindness station outside the office of Dr. Kinzie Craig (Hall) and continued through Senior Instructor Kristen Kahanek. They saw a need for students to have access to resources that are often difficult for college students to obtain due to a variety of hardship reasons that often lead to barriers to accessing basic needs.  These areas begin as a simple place for students to receiving free condoms and feminine hygiene products and as since grown into a student ran resource collective for students in need.

Ms. Kahanek’s Clinical Sociology: Introduction to Social Work (Soci 374:001) at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette has begun revitalizing the original efforts of Dr. Craig's kindness corner.  It was rebranded by the students as "The Student Wellness Collective" (TSWC). This revitalized resource area in Mouton Hall allows students and faculty to access free resources ranging from clothing, hygiene products, sexual health educational information, contraceptive support resource packets, opioid overdose reversal packets and educational information, and mental health resources/information.

Our Mission:

UL students recognized that their peers would greatly benefit from a program/resource dedicated to their needs.  One that is accessible, non-discriminatory, and free with the purpose of combating stigma, providing access to resources, and addressing barriers experienced by those within our campus community. 

Why should we care?

Within the field of sociology, advocacy is a large component of the practice. A number of students within Sociology go on to pursue a career in the human behavioral health field, with social workers being one of the most common career paths. As students of sociology, utilizing the sociological imagination is important to understand the community that is being served and to advocate for, educate, and empower them. There are groups of people who are marginalized and may be socially and economically vulnerable, and as social and human behavioral health workers, it is important to understand how/why these groups are at risk and what they need to prosper. The definition of advocacy, is after all, engaging in purposeful actions that will help people advance their rights, opportunities, causes and human dignity.

How to find us?

We are located on the second floor of Mouton Hall (NOT F.G. MOUTON).  If you need assistance you may speak to the administrative assistant in MO 221 or you may email sociology@louisiana.edu.