The Prosperity of Belfast
The second chapter of our profile of the city has been launched, with an online seminar featuring expert speakers from Belfast and WHO. The Prosperity chapter follows the launch of the People chapter in May, and make up the first two chapters of the full Belfast - Profiling Health, Wellbeing & publication.
Prosperity analyses data in relation to a number of key topics, including the labour market, income, poverty & deprivation, and education, looking in particular at the trends in these topics across the four NI Assembly Constituencies.
The seminar was an opportunity for those working in public bodies, Council, health and community development across Belfast to learn more about the findings and the key trends, and how these link with health and well-being across Belfast. As with the other chapters, the aim of the Prosperity chapter it to help in the future planning of services across the city.
The first speaker at the event was Monika Kosinska, from the World Health Organization, who spoke about Commercial Determinants and their impact on health. She outlined how work on this relatively new concept is being taken forward; how the commercial sector can support bringing about improvements in health and the role the public sector has in influencing the private sector within contractual arrangements.
Erica Ison, expert advisor and author of Belfast - Profiling Health, Wellbeing & Prosperity, took attendees through some of the key findings of the report, particularly in relation to differences in the labour market across the four parliamentary constituencies that make up Belfast, as well as key aspects of educational outcomes and deprivation.
The final speaker was Jackie Redpath from Greater Shankill Partnership, who told the story of how the Shankill zone developed the Children & Young People Zone to improve outcomes in early years and education in the local area. Central to the success of the work of the Greater Shankill Partnership has been their achieving buy-in from the local community, and ensuring that there was conversations and ongoing dialogue as they developed pathways which will bring benefit to young children aiming to tackles issues before they would normally appear.
The Prosperity chapter can be read here, and the summary of all six chapters can be viewed here.
The remaining four full chapters will be launched in August.