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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

Learning from the wider WHO European Healthy Cities Network is a key aspect of being a healthy city. Many cities have developed expertise in addressing particular themes that can be used to inform approaches in Belfast.

Belfast has participated in the World Health Organization (WHO) Healthy Cities Business and Technical Conference in Kuopio, Finland.  The event, which is an annual conference of the WHO European Healthy Cities Network and Network of European National Healthy Cities Networks, took place from Wednesday 24 June to Friday 26 June.

On Wednesday 16 June 2015 the second event in the ‘Beyond Bricks and Mortar: How Spatial Planning Can Improve Public Health’, a seminar series for public health professionals was held at The Mac, Belfast.

Creating the conditions for health is a key theme within the Northern Ireland public health strategy Making Life Better. The strategy also emphasises the role of place in improving local health and wellbeing. Key issues within this include healthy lifestyles, active travel, healthy ageing and better outcomes for children. 

On Friday 5 June 2015 Belfast Healthy Cities hosted a seminar for public health professionals, ‘Beyond buildings: How spatial planning shapes health’ at The MAC, Belfast. The event was the first of a series of seminars ‘Beyond Bricks and Mortar: How Spatial Planning Can Improve Public Health’ intended to develop capacity in the sector.

Reminder: The 2015 Belfast Healthy City Explorer Bursary is open for entries until Tuesday 7 April 2015

The Bursary was launched in 2013 in recognition of 25 years of Belfast as a designated WHO Healthy City. This is a unique opportunity for someone working in health and wellbeing or healthy urban planning in Belfast to visit another European Healthy City or National Network to study their approach to addressing a key issue relating to health inequalities.

Inequalities are interpreted and understood in different ways by sectors and agencies in Belfast.  A wide range of work is currently being undertaken across the city to tackle poverty, life and health inequalities.

On Thursday 26 February a workshop, jointly hosted by Belfast Healthy Cities and Belfast Strategic Partnership, focused on the tasks of agreeing a definition of inequalities and initiating the development of a tool to support organisations to assess the impact of their policies and practice on inequalities and poverty. 

KidsSpace events took place on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 February at both Victoria Square and CastleCourt The events transformed areas of the centres into colourful, fun filled, family friendly places engaging hundreds of children. It is an initiative that has demonstrated the positive effects of making the city centre more open to children and their families over the past four years. It is part of wider work led by Belfast Healthy Cities, under the auspices of the World Health Organization, and involving interagency collaboration to develop a Child Friendly Strategy for Belfast.

The next Kids Space event will take place on Saturday 21 March at CastleCourt.

Belfast Lord Mayor, Councillor Nichola Mallon, has joined Belfast Healthy Cities and some of Belfast’s younger citizens to launch the latest KidsSpace events which will take place on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 February at both Victoria Square and CastleCourt, and again on Saturday 21 March at CastleCourt.

The free events will transform areas of the centres into colourful, fun filled, family friendly places guaranteed to capture the imagination of children and parents alike.

KidsSpace is a free event that offers children activities to spark ideas and encourage their creativity in the heart of the city.

Join the fun at Victoria Square 20/21 February and CastleCourt 20/21 February & 21 March

Follow @belfasthealthy for more information.

Inequalities are interpreted and understood in different ways by sectors and agencies in the city. The purpose of this workshop is to agree a definition of inequalities and to initiate the development of a tool to support organisations in the city to assess the impact of their policies and practice on inequalities and poverty.

This workshop is being jointly hosted by Belfast Healthy Cities and Belfast Strategic Partnership. It will take place instead of the planned Belfast Strategic Partnership meeting.

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