Cooperation agreement signed with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs

Czech Healthy Cities value not only the exchange of good practices but also active cooperation with a number of expert partners. These include especially ministries and their professional organisations, universities, national NGOs and other expert organisations. The most important of them, both at national and international level, conclude agreements or memoranda of cooperation with Czech Healthy Cities.

The most recent example of such cooperation is an agreement concluded with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs which is one of the key partners of the Association and its members. The agreement mentions the cooperation of both institutions in the areas of systemic approach to social issues locally and regionally, community planning of social services or sharing of data and information for evaluating the social environment in cities and regions. It goes without saying that the agreement also encompasses the exchange of good practices and the dissemination of information related to possibilities of solving social issues.

Although these cooperation agreements do not involve financial implementation, they entail a commitment that a particular issue will be handled with certain amount of coordination and bilateral cooperation.

Other partners of Czech Healthy Cities can be found at: www.ZdravaMesta.cz/partneri.

Czech Healthy Cities webinar focused on conceptual approach to POPULATION AGING in cities | October 2019

On October 11, 2019, a special Healthy Cities webinar sequel was held to look at conceptual preparation of Czech cities for demographic changes related to the aging of a large part of their residents.

The webinar covered the following questions:

• What does demographic change entail?
• How can cities prepare effectively for the aging of their populations?
• Where to find examples of good practice and how to do it?
• What does "healthy aging" mean and what are its benefits for individuals and municipalities?
• At what age should preparation for aging begin?
• What is the difference between social services and activation programmes?
• Intergenerational coexistence or a municipality friendly to older people is a municipality for all generations.

Webinar (only in Czech) is available here: Czech Healthy Cities YouTube channel.

Mayors and urban energy experts exchanged their experience and good practice in Munich

The Bavarian metropolis welcomed a dozen of Czech mayors and energy experts as part of a study visit whose main topic was “Sustainable energy and transport - real practice and where to find inspiration?” 

The event was hosted by the Association of Energy Managers of Towns and Municipalities with the support of Energy Cities and in partnership with Czech Healthy Cities. The aim of this meeting was to enable the exchange of good practice examples and to foster further partnerships in the field of sustainable energy and transport at local level. The participating cities included: Litomerice, Hodonin, Hradec Kralove, Prostejov, Roznov pod Radhostem, Tabor, Rakovnik, Zdar nad Sazavou.

The event also included various workshops and discussions, presentations of successful projects, excursions - e.g. to the district of Freinham which is a newly constructed low-energy neighbourhood with a geothermal energy source and an energy storage facility.

Discussions on the SmartCity issues included public lighting regulation, charging points for electric cars, collecting traffic data and providing Wi-Fi from street light poles, multimodal mobility with an emphasis on clean modes of transport, energy savings in houses and households, or use of geothermal energy.

The participants of this visit highly valued that their German hosts were very open-minded and frankly reported on both their achievements and difficulties in implementing the SmartCity project.

The event was organized in cooperation between SEMMO and HCCZ, supported by Energy Cities and the Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy through European Comission.

Evaluating sustainability in small towns

The Methodology for evaluating sustainable development of small towns was approved. It completes a number of methodologies for evaluating sustainable municipalities and regions and provides a detailed description of the evaluation through Sustainable Development Audits. The audits focus on ten core development themes of the international Aalborg commitments and assess the state and trends of the themes monitored with regard to long-term sustainable development of cities.

In addition to the authoring team of Czech Healthy Cities and Charles University Environment Centre, the methodology update was also carried out by a group of 40 experts from various fields to cover all the assessed themes.

The Sustainable Development Audits in line with Methodologies provide important analytical data for strategies and concepts. The methodologies are linked to the implementation of the Czech Republic 2030 document and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in territorial self-governing units.

More information on this topic including the Methodologies is available (only in Czech) HERE.

Czech Healthy Regions exchanged experience and good practices in Ostrava | October 2019

The annual meeting of Healthy Regions and other interested parties took place October 9, 2019, in Ostrava. This year´s event was hosted by the Moravian-Silesian Region and organised by Czech Healthy Cities.  

The meeting was attended by more than twenty representatives of five regions who seized this opportunity to present their activities and to hold a discussion with the guest of the meeting Dr. Alena Steflova, the Deputy Minister of Health.

Furthermore, the meeting included the presentation of examples of the Czech Healthy Regions practice in the areas of public engagement, strategic planning and management, promotion of health and quality of life, or cross-border cooperation, etc.

For further information in Czech language, click HERE.

Czech Healthy Cities discussed their experience of participatory budgets

On Tuesday, September 24, 2019, the Conference Centre of the Czech Standardization Agency was the venue of the meeting of the representatives of Healthy Cities, Towns and Regions to discuss their experience of participatory budgeting.

The participatory budgets are among the most frequently cited topics which currently interest Czech Healthy Cities, Towns and Regions, and they wish to share their practice and procedures in this area.  Fifty representatives of Czech Healthy Cities´ members from thirty cities, towns and regions confirmed their attendance at this discussion event.

The topics discussed included: experience / strengths and weaknesses / online voting /timetable / rules /project selection etc.

The European Mobility Week with the slogan “Walk with us” took place | September 2019

As in the previous years, the 2019 campaign of European Mobility Week (16-22 September), held annually since 2002, is aimed at promoting safe and environmentally friendly modes of transport in cities and towns. This year too, the campaign will be joined by the members of Czech Healthy Cities, who were one of its early adopters in the Czech Republic.

The list of EMW activities in Czech Healthy cities, towns and regions is available on the Healthy Cities´ website: ZdravaMesta.cz/etm

The European Mobility Week provides the perfect opportunity to present sustainable mobility alternatives to local residents and to explain challenges cities and towns are facing with the aim of changing citizens´ behaviour and making progress towards the creation of a more sustainable transport strategy for Europe.

The human body is made to move, yet, in the modern world most of the work and entertainment takes place while seated. We mostly sit when working, but also when driving or taking the bus or train on our journey to work. And in the evening, we are sitting in front of the TV to relax. However, walking is the most natural way of movement which won´t scare off even those who are not much into sports. And that is why it should become part of our everyday lives. And those who find walking a little boring may jump on a bike or scooter. The more people walk and cycle, the nicer our cities and towns and the healthier their residents.

More information is available on the website of the Ministry for the Environment, which is the main coordinator of this campaign, and on the European Mobility Week website.

Notice for members of Czech Healthy Cities: We will be glad to inform other cities and journalists about your activities. Please upload your activities related to the campaign though the terminal.

Czech Healthy Cities got over 20,000 Facebook fans

In August 2019, the Facebook of Czech Healthy Cities hit a record number of 20,000 likes. In the Czech Republic, this is a pretty good result in the non-commercial website segment. Czech Healthy Cities has been using Facebook for promotion since 2011.

The Association is also active on visually-oriented Instagram which is ideal for publishing pictorial information and photos and is used for wider promotions of small initiatives from Healthy cities, towns and regions.

Twitter is aimed at invitations and hot news where it is possible to find not only up-to-date information about Healthy Cities national events and activities but also shared news from the Association´s members.

"We are pleased with this interest shown by our followers, which is important in terms of the target group and awareness of the international Healthy City programme. We believe that our subscribers will appreciate our best practices derived from the progress of Healthy cities, towns and regions towards the quality of life, health and sustainable development," said the Czech Healthy Cities director Petr Svec.

We will be pleased if you accept our invitation to become fans of Czech Healthy Cities on social networks!

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NSZM.CZ
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ZdravaMesta (#zdravamesta #inspiromat)
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZdravaMesta (@ZdravaMesta)