The cities, municipalities and regions have many opportunities of how to create friendly environment for senior age population. Elimination of barriers, sufficient offer of health and social services, but for instance also that of leisure activities. All these elements help to enhance the life of seniors. The Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic have been collecting in the long run the best practice examples, among others from the area of care for elderly. Now you can find the inspiration gained as well as range of other information, data and partners "under one roof" at the new Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic website of Age-friendly Cities that was launched on the occasion of International Day of Older Persons on October 1, 2013. The thematic portal can serve as inspiration for age-friendly activities to municipal representatives and their offices, but also to all other organisations. The cities can further learn how to accommodate senior age people and use the potential brought by the elderly to the society.

The thematic portal of HCCZ primarily draws attention to topics related with seniors, selects good practice and inspirations from the field of elderly care, healthy ageing and other regularly updated topics. Newly there are introduced statistical data to the given topics, you can also find links to the municipal and regional plans related with the topic. Find out more at www.MestoSeniorum.cz

The thematic portal was realised using HCCZ funds and it was also supported within the Biennial Collaborative Agreement 2011-2013, concluded between the Regional Office of World Health Organisation for Europe and Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic.

The representatives of Czech Healthy Cities Network were invited to take part in a panel discussion during the Open Days in Brussels - the 11th European week for European Regions and Cities. The conference named “Towards a European Model of a Sustainable City” was dedicated to the ongoing Reference Framework for European Sustainable Cities (RFSC) – a toolkit for integrated approach in planning of the development of cities and regions.
The RFSC is an online toolkit designed to help cities promote and enhance their work on integrated sustainable urban development. It is available free of charge to all European local authorities and offers practical support in integrating sustainability principles into local policies and actions. It is a joint initiative of the Member States, the European Commission and European organizations of local governments (see more on www.rfsc.eu).
The Conference offered also training and networking sessions including experts and practitioners from across Europe. There was discussed the role of local and regional actors in the EU 2014-2020 perspective.

The RFSC Conference 2013 was opened by Johannes Hahn, the Commissioner for Regional Policy. High level speakers and representatives of European institutions, international or national local government organizations, national ministries and European municipalities shared their experience in using this tool. They emphasized the role of the tool and its possibility to be used throughout all EU countries (it is translated to all EU languages) regardless the size of the city/region. The RFSC can be used also to share best practices or to check if the concrete strategy or project is taking into account sufficiently the integrated approach (regarding sustainable development, spatial planning etc.). The following discussion panel also pointed out the possible obstacles or municipality needs in the usage of this tool. The Czech Healthy Cities (HCCZ) emphasized mainly the necessity of sharing and linking up this tool and its information to other databases and tools already being used in municipalities in order not to double or triple the work of municipal representatives and to increase the effectivity of their work. J. Bouskova (HCCZ) also mentioned its pluses such as possibility of sharing of good practice in planning activities or projects internationally or the possibility of getting inspiration from the “indicators pool” available in the toolkit that can be used for planning and managing purposes in cities. The RFSC as a toolkit will be a very interesting option for municipalities as far as there are enough municipalities and information loaded in and shared.
Find the whole program, presentations and other info about the RFSC Conference 2013 here.

20th Jubilee HCCZ Conference took place this year on September 18 and 19 in Olomouc. The two-day event was opened with a presentation of the most advanced cities, municipalities and regions who hold the category "B" of Local Agenda 21. The cities presented included Chrudim, Koprivnice, Litomerice, Prostejov, Vsetin, Krizanky municipality and a sub-region of Drahanska vrchovina. Information to the support of LA21 or in general to financial resources for municipalities has been introduced by the representatives of the State Environmental Fund or Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Regional Development and international organisation Energy Cities. The first day of the event was attended by 140 persons.

The professional expert programme was followed by a ceremony reception connected with celebration 20 years of association's activity in the Czech Republic. The recollections and observations to the creation and operation of Healthy Cities have been presented by a number of distinguished guests and long-term partners - among them e.g. the head of WHO Regional Office in Prague, Dr. Alena Steflova, chief health officer Dr. Vladimir Valenta, deputy mayor of the City of Olomouc, representatives of Palacky University in Olomouc and a number of others. Representatives of the founding Healthy Cities also appeared on stage and received small presents. The evening gala included a reflection over the previous activities of the association and evaluation of successes and obstacles. It also represented the beginning of the twentieth year of its activity and positive outlook to the future.

The above mentioned Palacky University and its Department of Recreology prepared the programme of the second conference day. It was focused on physical activity of all generations and what cities can do for improvement of the conditions for physical activities and in general for the health of their inhabitants. The presentations pointed out a number of alarming and interesting contributions including best practice examples. The event was accompanied with a number of interesting follow-up excursions.

In the recent years, Healthy Cities have been using short videos for their presentation, whether as attractive invitations to events or brief and well-arranged coverages of the municipal affairs. On the page of www.ZdravaMesta.cz/video you can find an overview of the most interesting material - selected videos of association describe in words and pictures the real-life meaning of notions such as Healthy municipality, city and region. The above mentioned video channel is an opportunity to further promote activities and inspire others. We naturally welcome more contributions that present the international Healthy City programme in this way.

The considerable success is also achieved in the Czech Republic and abroad by the Facebook, presentation of Healthy Cities. The presentation is already "liked" by almost nine and a half thousands of visitors. Join us too.

The Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic have been collaborating actively with a number of professional partners, whether ministries, their professional organisations, university workplaces, nationwide non-profit organisations and other expert organisations. Partnership with significant institutions has been confirmed by a concluded agreement or memorandum on collaboration.

The association newly signed a memorandum on collaboration with Centre of Expertise in Longevity and Long-term Care - CELLO. This institution is a specialised interdisciplinary research workplace of the Faculty of Humanities at Charles University and concentrates on analysis of topics related with longevity and ageing of population in the society. Collaboration with HCCZ will in particular concentrate on topics such as support of seniors' health, active ageing or concrete programme of Age-friendly City. The memorandum on collaboration brings an obligation that the given topics will be dealt with in coordination and mutual collaboration.

You can find other HCCZ Partners at this link www.ZdravaMesta.cz/partneri.

In 2013 the Healthy Cities, Municipalities and Regions once again participated in the European Mobility Week campaign (16. - 22. 9.) and in the European Car Free Day (22. 9.), coordinated by the Ministry of Environment. The topic of this year of the campaign is "Clean air - It's your move!". Within the framework of the campaign, the cities and municipalities adopt permanent measures for the support of public transportation, cycling and walking.

The list of participating Healthy Cities and links with their most interesting events are available at  www.ZdravaMesta.cz/etm.

The European Mobility Week also featured the announcement of this year's results of Routes in Cities competition, organised by the Partnership Foundation. Healthy Cities also succeeded in this competition focused of traffic calming. The first prize in the category of local solutions was won by the project of traffic terminal in Telc. The project of Mseno town centre revitalisation won the special prize of Modern Municipality magazine. We congratulate both Healthy Cities and wish them many similar successes. You can find the complete competition results here.

Examples of volunteering activities from various areas of the country and from abroad and much more can be found in the database of Healthy Cities at www.DobraPraxe.cz (partially translated on www.Good-Practice.eu). The database contains interesting information, inspiration and best practice examples from the cities, municipalities, sub-regions and regions. Currently, you will find there more than 218 best practice examples from various areas of life in the municipalities, such as living environment, transportation, social services, free time etc. The database also includes model solutions, "topic grooups" or so called "inspire-spots" - short clear and actual examples or activities that have proven successful in practice and what may inspire others. You will find them directly on Czech home page or at dobrapraxe.cz/cz/priklady-dobre-praxe.

The traditional Health Days Campaign, which is a celebration of healthy lifestyle, mostly takes place in Czech Republic in the first half of October. The campaign features various events focused on physical activities, but for instance also tasting of healthy food. In the course of Health Days campaign, citizens will have an opportunity to have their physical values measured free of charge (weight, pressure, blood sugar level, etc.), they may also undergo further examinations or at least get some information as a part of free consulting. The accompanying programme is traditionally intended for all generations including children and seniors.

The list of activities of the participating municipalities and regions in Czech Republic is available at www.ZdravaMesta.cz/dzd. The list is updated regularly.