What is the Year of Emotional Well-Being?
Emotional well-being is the knowledge and pursuit toward optimal psychological functioning. It involves the recognition of our thoughts and feelings in relation to our sense of self, relationships, life circumstances and reality, and aids our ability to manage stress, overcome adversity, reduce feelings of negativity, and approach life in a positive manner.
The Year of Emotional Well-Being offers an opportunity to engage collectively with a focus on restoring and enhancing our emotional well-being. The pandemic certainly has underscored the importance of fully supporting the emotional welfare of students, faculty and staff as everyone navigates the new terrain. This is a time of burgeoning research and collective reflection on our emotional needs and the qualities that make for a good life. Undoubtedly, our Year Of topic will also yield learnings that better people's lives well beyond the boundaries of the University.
What is the Year of Emotional Well-Being Funding Opportunity?
The Steering Committee for the University of Pittsburgh Year of Emotional Well-Being invites funding requests for $500 up to $5,000. Proposals should thematically connect to the Year of Emotional Well-Being’s focus on restoring and enhancing our emotional needs and the qualities that make for a good life.
What types of projects will the Year of Emotional Well-Being Funding Opportunity support?
Proposals may be considered for the following audiences, as well as the Pitt Community at large:
Faculty Well-Being Examples
- Cross-disciplinary conference discussing how emotional well-being influences various aspects of the research process
- Weekly wellness newsletter with tips for supporting faculty throughout the year, as well as how faculty can support students in the classroom
- Workshop on how to create a healthy balance between academic responsibilities and life responsibilities
Staff Well-Being Examples
- Bringing in LifeSolutions to do a presentation for all staff, including those on third shift
- Stress release series focused on different aspects of mental wellness at peak times of stress during the staff lifecycle
- Yogathon for staff to encourage an understanding of deep breathing and balance, as well as other best practices
- Coordinating a series of well-being workshops for third-shift staff
Students Well-Being Examples
- Campus recreation 4-hour yoga-thon
- Anti-procrastination event at the library that encourages students to store phones and other distracting devices elsewhere for a night of studying with scheduled breaks
- Healthy relationships workshop to help students recognize the signs of an unhealthy relationship and provide information about supporting peers who have been affected by misconduct
Supervisor & Administrator Well-being Examples
- Lunch & Learn discussion how to best support employees’ emotional well-being in the workplace
- Implementing a Recognition Event to thank staff for their contributions to the university community throughout the academic year
- Training on how to identify stress and anxiety in the workplace and best practices for how to mitigate that amongst direct reports
Who is eligible to apply for Year of Emotional Well-Being funding?
Students (graduate and undergraduate), faculty, and staff (including postdocs) at all University of Pittsburgh campuses.
When are proposals due?
The first deadline for proposals is December 1, 2022. The final deadline will be February 1, 2023. Proposals will be reviewed on a rolling
Where do I apply for the Year of Emotional Well-Being Funding Opportunity?
You may access and complete the application on Competition Space. You will also need to download the Year of Emotional Well-Being Budget Template needed for the application and upload your completed version with your application in Competition Space.
If I am faculty or staff, am I required to provide a letter of support from my department chair or supervisor?
Staff and faculty should follow their unit’s standard guidelines and practices when applying for University opportunities of this sort. While the application process for this funding opportunity does not require a letter of support from the department chair or supervisor, that practice may be the standard for your department and should then be followed. Such letters can be submitted as supplemental material through the submission portal. The committee recommends alerting your chair/supervisor and your financial administrator prior to submitting an application.
Will there be information sessions for applicants prior to the deadline?
Yes! We will have a series of information sessions and post the recordings on the Year of Emotional Well-Being website. Note: Applicants are not required to attend an information session. You can also email questions to yearof@pitt.edu.
How will proposals be evaluated?
All proposals must demonstrate:
1. Alignment with Year of Emotional Well-Being theme
Applicants must address how their project will foster well-being (defined as the optimal and dynamic state that allows people to achieve their full potential); the proposal must demonstrate that it considers and accounts for considers subjective or objective well-being; the proposal must highlight how the request will contribute to the emotional well-being of both individuals and the community.
2. Evidence of need, challenge, and/or opportunity and benefit
Applicants must provide a justification for the project, sharing the need, opportunity, or challenge that it will address. The proposal should clearly define the target group that will be impacted by your project.
3. A commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion values, such as through:
- Cultivating positive and healthy relationships within a diverse community
- Critically interrogating wellness practices to ensure that they account for the intersectional needs of diverse individuals
- A commitment to equitable and inclusive practices in wellness offerings
- Events and projects that consider emotional well-being in unique, creative, and inclusive ways
4. Sustainable impact beyond Year of Emotional Well-Being by:
- Generating new knowledge/understanding
- Supporting long lasting changes (curricular changes in a program, policy, organizational, or structural changes)
- Sharing of knowledge or products with peers to extend impact
- Strategically connecting to existing programs or infrastructure at the University of Pittsburgh and beyond
Priority will be given to proposals that provide matching funds or in-kind contributions. Projects also including one or more of the following are especially encouraged:
- Involve interdisciplinary teams that bring together more than one department at Pitt
- Involve team members with different roles at and connections to Pitt (student, staff, faculty, community members, alumni)
- Connect the University of Pittsburgh campuses
My proposal did not receive funding. Can I revise and resubmit?
Yes. If your proposal is not accepted during an earlier round, we encourage you to take advantage of resubmission opportunities in the following round(s) of funding.
Will grant funds be distributed in a single payment?
Yes
I am a student. If I, or my student group, is awarded funds, how do we receive the funding?
Student groups on the Pittsburgh campus are provided an account number by the Student Organization Resource Center. Please contact that office to find out the appropriate University account number to which the Year of Emotional Well-Being Initiative can release the funds.
Students on the regional campuses should contact the Business Office and the Office of Student Affairs on their respective campus.
If your proposal is not affiliated with an official student group, funding can be released to your department. For example, a student in the English Department who proposes a project of their own can, with the approval of the Department, have awarded funds dispersed to the English Department; the Department would then handle dispersal of funds to the student. Students should come to an agreement with their Department before funds are requested.
Must awarded funds be expended during the 2021-2022 academic year? (2022 – 2023)
Funds must be expended by June 30.
Can Year of Emotional Well-Being funds be used for staff/faculty/student salary support?
Funds cannot be used to support faculty or staff salary.
Applicants can apply to support students. Please note that there are University requirements around GSA salary and tuition support.
I want to use Year of Emotional Well-Being funds to buy equipment for our project or event. Is this allowed?
Equipment purchased with University funds belongs to the University. If your budget includes equipment to be purchased with Year of Emotional Well-Being funds, please make sure the narrative states which University department has agreed to take on the equipment after your project or event is complete.
What are the reporting and participation expectations for award recipients?
Award recipients will be asked to submit a brief report to yearof@pitt.edu by May 30, 2023. Award recipients will also be encouraged to share their activities at the Celebration of the Year of Emotional Well-Being in April 2023 and make their project outputs available through a Canvas site for instructional materials or D-Scholarship@Pitt for posters, papers, and data.
1. Report: Please submit a brief (~750-1000 word) summary of your project activities and reflection. Your report will be made available through the Year of Emotional Well-Being website and should address the following:
- What was the need, challenge, or opportunity that your project addressed?
- Briefly describe the main activities of your project (who, what, when, where…). If you hosted an event, please let us know the attendance (and share photographs if you have them!). What were some successes or things that went well for you in this project? Challenges or barriers?
- What has this project positioned you take on next? Or what is a next step that you may be interested in pursuing?
- What can others learn from your project and/or its outcomes? How can others improve their own practices based on your findings? Or, what were some of the main take-home messages from your event?
2. Sharing: You will be asked to submit your instructional materials for inclusion in a central Pitt repository of data curricula and educational resources. In doing so, your materials will be shared with the Pitt community. For awardees creating other outputs, such as posters, papers, and datasets, we invite you to make your work available through the D-Scholarship@Pitt institutional repository.
3. Participation in the Celebration of the Year of Emotional Well-Being (April event): In April 2023, we will celebrate your Year of Emotional Well-Being activities at an event for the University. This event will also include a closing speaker. You will be invited to attend the event and represent your project in a way that best suits it (a poster, lightning talk, demonstration, or table). Award recipients will be contacted in March 2023 with information about ways to participate.