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Belfast Healthy Cities

Our vision is that Belfast is recognised globally
as a healthy, equitable and sustainable city

Healthy Cities 21st Century

News Stories

Belfast Healthy Cities represents the city of Belfast, within the World Health Organization (WHO) European Healthy Cities Network.  We are now in Phase VII (2020 – 2026) of the WHO Healthy Cities Network and the core themes are People; Place; Participation; Prosperity; Peace; and Planet. Our programmes are delivered using a partnership approach and introduce new concepts to Belfast through membership of the WHO Network. 

Belfast Healthy Cities have launched the East Belfast Green Health Map.

Organisations and community groups were invited to find out more about the resource and how they can share and support use of the Green Health Map moving forward.

The resource was developed by Belfast Healthy Cities in partnership with EastSide Greenways and East Belfast Community Development Agency.

It brings together key messages linked to greening and health, and encourages people to use their local green spaces.

The Green Health Map supports individuals and communities to be: 

Practitioners working to address greening, health, and inequalities in Belfast have completed training with Belfast Healthy Cities and UKPRP GroundsWell Consortium, Queen’s University Belfast.

The Greening for Health Training Workshop: Using Evidence in Practice invited participants to consider how to formulate the right questions when searching for evidence, and how to identify, find, and appraise the evidence needed.

A celebration of the emerging findings of the innovative SPACE Project led by Queen’s University Belfast took place on Friday 30 June 2023. This popular webinar had over 80 participants registered from across academia, local and regional government, health, planning and third sector organisations.
 

Belfast Healthy Cities has led a delegation from Belfast to visit Cork to learn about the work being led by Cork Healthy Cities and Green Spaces for Health to address health inequalities, well-being and the environment.

19 primary school teachers from across Northern Ireland have completed Healthy Places, Healthy Children training with Belfast Healthy Cities. The programme will help teachers as they deliver lessons in the Healthy Places, Healthy Children programme to Key Stage 2 children, and pass on to their pupils the important learnings about their local area and living an active life.

Queen’s University Belfast innovative SPACE project explores the link between where we live and its effect on dementia and brain health as we get older. Preventing dementia and cognitive decline is a global health priority. During this webinar the WHO European Healthy Cities Network will outline the current priorities of the Healthy Ageing Task Force member cities to support ageing populations across Europe.

Would you like the opportunity to travel to a WHO European Healthy City to learn more about your area of work?

One of the major benefits of being a member of WHO European Healthy Cities Network is the opportunity to learn how other cities address health and well-being in its widest sense.  It provides new insights, knowledge and best practice, which can then be applied to work in Belfast.

Belfast Healthy Cities has been working in partnership with the Ministerial Advisory Group (MAG), Department for Communities and schools in east Belfast to pilot ‘walking buses’.

We have been excited to work with Braniel Primary School who pioneered the walking bus model during early March. The children were delighted to be joined by the Chronicles of Narnia characters. The walking bus supported over 500 individual walking trips throughout the week, with the busiest morning involving approximately 150 children.         

A partnership involving Belfast Healthy Cities; the Care Zone Project team; the Care Zone Community Champions; Youth Education health and advice (YEHA); primary schools and Expert Advisors to the Ministerial Advisory Group (MAG), for Architecture and the Built Environment for Northern Ireland jointly developed and trialled walking buses during ‘Walk to School’ week in May 2022.

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