Amid a global pandemic that continues to create much uncertainty, many of us are thinking about what we can do to keep Brown and the families in our surrounding communities healthy and safe.

Brown is fortunate to have a strong community that believes deeply in caring for one another. From the earliest signs of the virus on campus last spring, students, faculty and staff at Brown have joined together in countless ways that reflect our values of conscience and caring to support the well-being of all those who work, study and live at Brown.

Based on these values, today we’re excited to announce “Brown Takes Care,” a community-wide effort to promote healthy behaviors during this pandemic.

Brown Takes Care is a prevention and education initiative coupled with a public health campaign, calling on each of us to embrace behaviors that support safe ways of working, socializing and living — whether it’s wearing a face covering on campus, maintaining 6 feet of distance while in line for food or mail, reimagining events, or finding new ways to connect with our friends and colleagues. We know that it will take each and every one of us exercising personal responsibility to confront COVID-19 and help Brown get to a place where we can be together safely in the months to come.

The campaign is designed as an inclusive and iterative community effort that directly engages students, faculty and staff as storytellers and influencers to promote the health practices that are essential. It brings together social media, video, web communications, training modules, community activities, student activity kits, signage and more, as well as a range of flexible templates and digital assets that Brown community members can use to bring the campaign to their cultural and identity groups, schools and departments, student organizations and sports teams, and social groups.

Brown Takes Care is uniquely Brown, having been created by students and staff working in close collaboration to root it firmly in our University values of care for one another. Brown Takes Care is designed to be easily adapted by on- and off-campus individuals and groups to evolve over time as new health guidance emerges. And it is a resource and a guide for amplifying best practices in individual ways that have meaning for each of us. Through the campaign, you are encouraged to share messages of prevention, tell your “Why I Care” stories, and show how you “Show Care by Doing” (wearing a mask, social distancing, cleaning, contact tracing). A new website makes downloadable resources available for Brown community members who want to use their voice and join the effort.

Visit the Brown Takes Care website at https://care.brown.edu to access digital tools and resources to share and adapt, including the following:

•  Healthy behaviors tips and messaging
•  Instagram stickers and GIFs
•  Snapchat geofilters, stickers and GIFs
•  Facebook profile frames
•  Digital poster backgrounds
•  Shareable cards for social media -
• Printable posters

Brown Takes Care webpage: https://care.brown.edu

This initiative is aligned and integrated with a holistic education and prevention effort across the University that includes Brown’s COVID-19 Campus Safety Policy; targeted online training modules for students, staff and faculty; a robust Testing & Tracing program; and a Student Commitment and Employee Acknowledgement that outline the responsibilities we have to ourselves and to one another to safeguard the well-being of our campus and our surrounding communities.

We want to thank the many, many individuals who have contributed their insights, creativity and expertise over the past months to help shape the Brown Takes Care effort. Thank you to the students, staff, faculty and administrators on the Prevention Education Subcommittee of the Healthy Fall 2020 Task Force, BWell interns and peer educators, undergraduate and graduate students who served on focus groups, and our colleagues in University Communications for their creative support.

In the era of COVID-19, it takes all of us working together to promote healthy behaviors for the sake of the people living and working around us. We hope you’ll join the Brown Takes Care effort. Contact browntakescare@brown.edu with questions and ideas for promoting a healthy Brown.

Sincerely,
Tanya Purdy, Director of BWell Health Promotion; Co-Chair, Prevention Education Subcommittee

Amy Nunn, Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Professor of Medicine; Co-Chair, Prevention Education Subcommittee