Flagship Fund Investments 2026
Brick & Belong: A 12-Week Project to Rebuild Connection and Reclaim Attention
Erinn Guzick
Brick & Belong is a campus-wide initiative designed to help students create healthier relationships with their smartphones and make more room for attention, connection and wellbeing. The project will place communal “Brick” devices at locations across campus, allowing students to temporarily block distracting apps and create intentional phone-free periods throughout their day. A smaller group of students will participate in a 12-week program with devices available for semester-long use.
Led by Curry Health Center Counseling Services, UM Wellbeing and UM Athletics, the initiative responds to growing concerns about the relationship between excessive smartphone use and stress, disrupted sleep and fragmented attention. The project will explore whether simple, intentional breaks from smartphones can improve student wellbeing, focus, sleep and in-person connection.
Wellbeing through Cultural Arts and Traditional Practices
Brian Reed
Wellbeing Through Cultural Arts and Traditional Practices will bring students, faculty and staff together through weekly opportunities to participate in traditional Indigenous arts and cultural practices, including beading, moccasin making and teepee raising. Facilitated by Indigenous artists, elders and culture bearers, the program will create welcoming spaces for making, storytelling, connection and cultural learning. While open to the entire campus community, the initiative is designed to be especially affirming for Native and Indigenous students by recognizing cultural connection as an important source of belonging, resilience and wellbeing. Building upon UM’s Dimensions of Wellness framework, the pilot will demonstrate how culturally grounded programming can strengthen community and student success while creating a model that could be expanded through future partnerships and funding.
Veteran Wellness Coach Program
Patrick Beckwith
The Veteran Wellness Coach Program will strengthen peer-based wellbeing support for UM’s community of more than 400 student veterans and 100 current servicemembers. Building on a successful pilot in which UM’s first Student Veteran Wellness Coach generated the highest caseload among student wellness coaches, Flagship Fund support will fund a lead veteran wellness coach for the 2026-27 academic year.
The student veteran serving in this role will provide one-on-one and group wellness support informed by the distinctive experience of transitioning from military service to college. A partnership between the Wellbeing Center and Military and Veteran Services Office, the program will also connect with academic programs and UM’s Veteran First Year Seminar. The investment will allow UM to sustain this promising peer-support model, better understand its impact and explore opportunities for long-term funding and future growth.
Soft Monuments: Textiles as a Tool for Community Wellbeing
Jennifer Combe
Soft Monuments will bring UM and the broader community together to transform recycled textiles into monumental public artworks. Built around the fall 2026 residency of internationally recognized artist Amanda Browder, the project will invite students, families, elders and community members to participate in open sewing sessions at UM and locations throughout western Montana. Their collective work will culminate in large-scale fabric installations on the UM campus and a historic downtown Missoula building, with high school students also creating installations at their schools.
By combining art-making, conversation and shared labor, Soft Monuments uses creative practice to foster connection, wellbeing and belonging while strengthening UM’s relationships with community and educational partners. The project also demonstrates how UM’s visiting artist program can become a catalyst for civic engagement and community-building.