Newsletter Czech Healthy Cities and Regions

The Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic have exactly 100 members

HCCZ have been operating in the Czech Republic for 18 years already and currently unite one hundred members of various sizes – from small municipalities and their associations to statutory cities and regions. In the course of 2011, the association was joined by 10 new members: Liberec Region, Plzen Region, statutory city Opava, cities of Breclav, Dacice, Klatovy, Turnov, municipalities of Karlovice, Okrisky and Zakolany.

Healthy Cities won a number of major awards

HCCZ members won a number of awards for the successes in various spheres of development. Healthy Cities also succeeded this year in The LivCom Awards which took place at the end of October in the Soul-Songpa, South Korea. The Healthy City of Jihlava won the Silver Prize and third place overall in the category of cities with 20 to 75 thousand inhabitants. The Healthy City of Chrudim even won three awards: the Silver Prize for the project "Healthy City Chrudim - City Worth Living in", the Golden Prize and second place for the project of "Reconstruction of St. Joseph Church and Monastery Gardens" and Golden Prize for the fulfilment of criteria in the "Healthy Lifestyle" category. The Healthy City of Tabor and the Town of Kladno also made it to the finals.

The Healthy City of Prachatice succeeded in the Family-Friendly Municipality competition, announced together with the partners by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. Prachatice ranked second and won a subsidy of CZK 500 thousand in the category of 10 to 50 thousand inhabitants.

In 2011, the Healthy Cities of Litomerice and Vsetin received the status of Fairtrade City, awarded for the support of sales of goods from small producers in less developed countries for fair prices and under "fair" conditions. More than 1,000 cities have been thus awarded in the whole world, Litomerice and Vsetin are the first Faitrade Cities in the CZ.

The projects by the Healthy Cities of Prachatice a Breclav ranked on top spots in this year of the Routes in Cities competition, focused on traffic calming. Prachatice won the category of spot solutions and 120 thousand crowns with their design bridge, the category of line solutions was won by the cycling path in Breclav.

The Healthy City of Uherske Hradiste won in this year of the City of Trees competition, organised every year by the Partnership Foundation in cooperation with the Town of Strakonice. The competition jury appreciated the processing of the proposal for the planned one-year campaign of Uherske Hradiste, where the municipality will try to raise the local inhabitants' interest in town greenery. Uherske Hradiste among others gets a unique opportunity to participate in the international Entente Florale Europe competition.

Successful progress of local governments in the field of public administration quality was officially awarded by the CZ Ministry of Interior within the 7th National Conference on Quality in Public Administration in Chrudim. The Silver Prize for quality in public administration for LA21 realisation was won by the Healthy Cities of Chrudim, Litomerice, Koprivnice, Vsetin and Healthy City District Prague-Libus. The Silver Prize for other methods of quality in public administration was won by the Healthy Cities of Ceska Lipa (ISO 9001), Chrudim (model CAF 2006/2009) and Strakonice (model CAF 2006/2009). The Bronze Prize for LA21 application was received by the representatives of Healthy Cities of Hlucin, Letovice, Ricany, Prachatice and Usti nad Labem, the Bronze Prize for other methods of quality in public administration was received by the representatives of Healthy Cities of Chrudim (EMAS), Prestice (ISO 9001), Tabor (BMK). The Prize for innovation in public administration in 2010 was also won by the Healthy Cities of Prachatice (operation of advisory board of the handicapped and seniors as a means of efficient communication between the city management and the public) and Vsetin (processing of dynamic strategic plan of the Vsetin Town using a Balanced Scorecard method).

The Healthy City of Kurim succeeded in a competition that evaluates the freedom of access to information in public administration offices. Kurim finished right behind the Supreme Administrative Court and CZ Constitutional Court in the 9th year of competition OPEN X CLOSED.

According to the results of the unique comparative research Place for Life, the life is best in Plzen Region. The absolute victory of the West-Bohemian Region was decided not only by the statistical data, but also by the weight calculation of a 14-member collegium comprising of leading home figures. The victory of Plzen Region was ensured for instance by good highway connection of Plzen with western Europe - on the other hand, the region can boast low traffic accident rate.

The office of City District Prague 18 won in this year of competition titled Health-supporting Business in the category of small businesses. The victory in the category of large businesses was defended by the Regional Office of Vysocina Region. The competition is organised by National Institute of Public Health under the auspices of the Ministry of Health.

Healthy City Forum engages the public in the decision-making processes

Healthy City Forum is a regular meeting with the public, where people discuss the most burning local problems. In 2011, the Forum took place in 45 Healthy Cities, Municipalities and Regions and hosted up to 3000 participants who showed active interest in the development of location they live in. The attendance of events grew approximately by 10% since the last year. The participants of these meetings determined "10P - ten problems" in a given location, which were then verified in a poll that a wider circle of citizens participated in. The verified list of biggest problems then passes to the local authorities who include the solutions to individual topics in the planned documents including the budget. The Forums take place annually, the public meetings thus eanble the citizens to get information on how their inputs from previous years had been dealt with.

The highest number of citizens joined the Forums in the Healthy Cities of Chrudim, Litomerice and Uherske Hradiste. Historically first Forums in 2011 took place in Cesky Brod, Pocatky, Karlovy Vary, Mseno, Steti, city district Usti nad Labem-Strekov and in the municipality Krizanky.

In 2011 the Healthy Cities also hosted so called "young forums". Problems formulated by pupils and students were just like those from "adult" Healthy City Forum verified in a poll and then submitted for discussion to the city board and authorities. Workers of ecological education centre SEVER, who have ample experience in this field, helped with preparation of these meetings in the Healthy Cities.

Year 2012 to be the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations

In the long run, the Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic have been gathering best practice examples from the field of care for seniors. The examples are available at www.ZdravaMesta.cz/Seniori. The Two-year Cooperation Contract 2010-2011, concluded between the Regional Office of World Health Organisation for Europe and CZ Ministry of Health, among others produced a brief information leaflet "Senior-friendly cities" that can serve the representatives of cities and their offices as an inspiration for other activities aimed at seniors.

The Healthy Cities also introduced themselves at a seminar that took place on June 6 in the CZ Parliament Senate under the auspices of senator Milan Pesak, member of the Health Care and Social Policy Committee, The seminar topics for instance included the anticipated population ageing, the importance of physical activities, injury prevention, support of voluntary services or announcement of year 2012 as the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations. The seminar also brought specific examples, not only from the Healthy Cities.

In 2011, HCCZ also participated in the international activities

The representatives of Healthy Cities and national networks that unite these cities in the individual countries of Europe met in June 2011 in Liege, Belgium. Experts in various scientific fields discussed specific issues and problems related with municipal development and its impact on inhabitants' health and the surrounding environment. Networks of Healthy Cities were also represented among the tens of workshops. HCCZ Presented its systematic approach to the Healthy City Project development, introduced some of its successful events, such as its popular programme "Amusingly About Old Age" or "Young Forum of a Healthy City" and also offered the possibility of cooperation with other networks. An inspiring meeting of the networks of Healthy Cities as such took place in Oeiras, Portugal.

The way individual European countries approach sustainable development on the local level formed the main topic of another meeting within so called LA21 Roundtable that took place twice in 2011. In January the representatives of national institutions and associations of cities, municipalities and regions met in Milano and discussed the development in the field of LA21 and shared their experience. The Roundtable was hosted by Ambiente Italia organisation in cooperation with international ICLEI organisation and was attended by representatives of 10 countries. The Czech Republic was represented by the representatives of the Ministry of Health and the Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic. Another meeting formed a part of wider conference within the framework of ICLEI project "Informed City Forum" that took place in Naples in October. The meeting, where HCCZ was also represented, was primarily dedicated to the issues related to measuring the sustainability in the cities and to collaboration with researchers and research organisations.