Our mission is to intentionally cultivate a diverse and compassionate community with a sense of belonging, who will embrace human differences, and excel in the provision of occupational therapy with hope, humility, and creativity. As occupational therapists who believe in occupational rights, we will champion access to personally meaningful activities, and skillfully promote, and inspire positive change for the health, wellbeing, and resilience of all people.
We envision an effective interprofessional health care system, where occupational therapy is a diverse profession that is understood and valued for its unique perspectives and skills and sought after by community members who believe in the power of human occupation to improve health and wellbeing.
Our motto will be OT Unbounded, as we seek to create occupational therapists who will identify needs, and creatively generate collaborative and effective solutions that are not limited by the “traditional” occupational therapy practice boundaries within our U.S healthcare system. Our goal is to unleash a diverse occupational therapy force for change, with students who understand and appreciate the value of human differences, who understand that there may be multiple correct solutions and multiple opinions, who will seek out the knowledge of others within their learning community when needed, and who will actively work for change where change is needed.
We share the philosophy espoused by AOTA (2020) and Hooper and Wood (2019), that humans are occupational by nature and require occupation to thrive and flourish. Occupations influence health, well-being, and quality of life. The occupational therapy profession’s core values of altruism, equality, and justice, therefore, insist that we must adopt the stance that equal access to occupational opportunities is a human right (Hammell, 2015).
We believe that humans have evolved as social beings who naturally and intentionally engage in occupations and seek human connection and belonging. Humans continually shape and are shaped by their families, culture, communities, environments, opportunities and/or circumstances. Therefore, no two human lives are identical. Each life is a dynamic adventure created by one’s occupational choices. These individually fashioned patterns of occupational engagement influence health and wellbeing. We believe that while all humans have the right to engage in a variety of meaningful occupations, not all humans have equal access or opportunity. Therefore, we pledge to do our part to forge changes to make occupations accessible within our communities.
Many creatures on this planet engage in “doing” and many live in social groups, however, humans have the capacity to self-reflect, make meaning, create community, plan, create, imagine, innovate, and choose to alter their lives. Occupational therapy supports human hope, change, and growth, imagining with our clients, lives that are filled with valued and meaningful occupations.