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Definition
"Healthy and sustainable cities project in schools" is a project aiming to improve life standards in cities by means of educational and school activities.
Goals
To exploit the great potential of school and education in order to make them a focal point to concentrate and to favour interaction among forces, resources and know-hows coming from diverse social segments, so as to develop a general awareness on healthy cities problems and to promote concrete and effectual initiatives in these fields.
To organize and to start up educational and innovative activities in schools, so as to lead young people to strive to a more healthy lifestyle and to future life.
To lay special stress on school and education as powerful means to improve services and, therefore, to sway authorities and public opinion to take them into consideration as possible and useful ways to answer to upsurging health and environment problems.
Method
Research studies on different environmental topics, planned and implemented by supervised schoolchildren. At the end of their work, they will exhibit products created during their work.
Stages
The project is divided into three stages:
Local phase: each school will organize separately from each other its own educational activity (updating courses for teachers, researches and studies brought forward by classes of pupils, etc.);
National phase: works and materials produced by each school will be used to organize a national congress; workshops devoted to specific topics will be set out, to prepare a series of documents intended to promote informed discussions.
International phase: the actions of the national phase will be repeated at an international scale, with the involvement of international bodies (UNESCO, WHO, etc.).
Product
Present: The project was initiated by the Italian Association of Doctors for the Environment. The Association's head office is in the city of Arezzo which is participating in the WHO Healthy Cities Project and which is coordinating the specific Multi-City Plan of the Italian Healthy Cities Network. The scope of the project has been enlarged and it now has started to take root at an international level. The Project was presented at the 1st World Congress of Health and Urban Environment (Madrid, 6-10 June 1998).
Future: The implementation of this project in a greater number of countries.
Key Words
School; education; healthy cities; ecology; sustainability; lifestyle; quality of life; interaction; social components.