Celebrating the health & wellbeing of Belfast with Healthy City Awards

Belfast Healthy Cities is celebrating the work that has been undertaken to make Belfast a healthier city with their annual awards. The 2021 Healthy City Awards have been launched, with the help of 2020 Healthy City Award winner Maria Burke from Ligoniel Healthy Living Centre.

Now in their 9th year, the Healthy City Awards aim to recognise the work undertaken by organisations across Belfast to improve the health and wellbeing of the citizens living there.

The categories this year reflect the current priorities of the WHO Healthy Cities programme. The  four award categories are Active Travel and Healthy Transport, Community Prosperity, Greening the City and Mental Wellbeing.

The awards are open to statutory, voluntary, community and private sector organisations. Previous winners include the Ligoniel Healthy Living Centre, HERe NI, Groundwork NI and Council for the Homeless.

Belfast Healthy Cities are encouraging organisations who have been working to promote health across the city and address health inequality with projects that have a particular focus upon this year’s categories to apply for the awards. 

Launching the 2021 Awards, Joan Devlin, Chief Executive of Belfast Healthy Cities, said “Community groups, sports clubs and charitable organisations play a vital role in the wider health and wellbeing of the people of Belfast. From mental wellbeing to physical health, these groups are supporting people and making local communities stronger. Throughout the Covid pandemic these groups have stepped up to support vulnerable groups and raise the spirits of local people, and they continue to do so.

“The 2021 Healthy City Awards once again will celebrate the amazing work being done across the city. This year we want to hear from groups who have been improving the mental health of local people, encouraging active travel, tackling climate change by developing green projects and supporting community prosperity. So if you have been working to improve your local community and the lives of local people, then I would encourage you to submit an entry for the awards.”

Speaking at the launch of the awards, Maria Burke from Ligoniel Healthy Living Centre, who were one of the 2020 Award winners, said “We were delighted to win a Healthy City Award last year, which recognised the hard work we undertake to make our local community stronger. These awards are an important part of supporting the health and well-being programmes across Belfast, by celebrating them and shining a light on this work. I would encourage anyone working at the forefront of enhancing community wellbeing and reducing health inequalities to put themselves forward.”

Further information is available here. The closing date for entries is Friday 12 November.

Please email awards@belfasthealthycities.com or contact Caroline Scott on 028 9032 8811 for an application pack.

Awards will be presented in line with coronavirus regulations on Friday 10 December 2021.