Baltic Region Healthy Cities Association is a WHO collaborating centre for healthy cities and urban health in the Baltic Region and its office is located in the city of Turku, Finland. From Finland the city of Kuopio is also a member of Baltic Region Healthy Cities Association.

The terms of reference of the Baltic Region Healthy Cities office is to:

The Baltic Region countries are Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Russia, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland. 

The members of the Baltic Region Healthy Cities Association are the City of Turku, the University of Turku, The Social Insurance Institution of Finland, Åbo Akademi University and Turku School of Economics and Business Administration. The member organizations of the association provide the expert services to support the goals of the Healthy Cities activities in the Baltic region.

The collaborating centre's work is targeted on all the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, especially to 1) the cities in the Healthy Cities network, 2) the cities in the national Healthy Cities networks, and 3) the cities/municipalities interested in joining these networks.

The location of the Baltic Region Healthy Cities office is in Turku, Finland.

Health is everybody's business! Healthy Cities offer a comprehensive approach to the health of the people. It is collaboration at the municipal, national and international levels.

The Baltic Region Healthy Cities Association will support the cities and national networks to develop common projects to implement the core developmental themes.

An Active Living strategy has been developed in the network cities and many practical, operational models for health enhancing physical activity for various age groups have been applied and shared.

The Active Living Network has defined its goal as bringing physical activity into the resident's everyday lifestyle. An important target group consists of people in different age groups who are not sufficiently active physically. Active network cities currently (2004) are Belfast, Bergen, Horsens, Glasgow, Rotterdam, Sheffield, Stockholm and Turku. Each city is a pioneer of promoting physical activity in its own country.

Active Living operations and co-operation is based on strong scientific evidence of the diverse effects of physical activity on physical, psychological and sociological health and well-being. The framework on which the operations are based on is the WHO’s Global Strategy for Physical Activity, Diet and Health, as well as WHO’s Healthy City Network main themes.

Cities in the Baltic Sea Region and in the European networks organize physical activities to promote health and wellbeing, but they are many times missing a comprehensive approach or a strategy, which is an area that needs to be developed. The activities and experiences, which have been carried out in the European network and in Turku, will be extended to the Baltic Sea Region and to the to the activities of national networks. The cities in the Baltic Region national networks in particular are encouraged to implement the principles of the world-wide strategies locally in order to promote physical activity.

The next three projects are connected to each other to support the application of the Global Strategy for Physical Activity, Diet and Health on local level. 

Baltic Region Healthy Cities Association
Finland
Ms. Mari Siimar (Office Manager), tel. +358 2 2514 909

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Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Quality of life

Health