Belfast Healthy Cities

Children care about their environment and community, and many care deeply about their local neighbourhood. The environment children grow up in also shapes their habits, attitudes and social relationships, which affects their health and lifestyle choices later in life. Healthy Places, Healthy Children aims to give children aged 8-11 an opportunity to share their views and ideas for their local neighbourhood. It is a teaching resource designed to support the delivery of the NI Curriculum particularly in relation to teaching concepts such as place and planning, but above all it aims to provide children with an opportunity to research their local environment and develop ideas and proposals for how to make it more child friendly. 

Healthy Places, Healthy Children has been completed by 10 primary schools across the Greater Belfast area, all of whom have developed and delivered projects to benefit the whole school community. Each school also developed their own Community Charter, where they put forward what they believed to be the rights of the child.