UBC Inclusive and Healthy Cities Commission

Inclusive and Healthy Cities Commission consists of the former commissions on Health and Social Affairs and Sport. The kick-off meeting of the new Commission was held on 9–10 June 2015 in Gdynia, Poland.

Inclusive and Healthy Cities Commission has started working from the assumption that an Inclusive city is a city governed by the community, and a healthy city is well-connected, accessible and safe, thereby getting involvement and movement. Self-dependency, independency and inclusion are other important elements for a healthy city. 

The Inclusive and Healthy Cities Commission has started out focusing on Open social spaces, and have had a number of study visits arranged based on this concept. Open Social Space is a place where a community can get together, work and play together, talk to each other and discuss matters important for the community, and act together in order to make their living better. It can be an “arranged space”, set up by the municipality with staff helping with the activities, or a “spontaneous space” where people meet naturally, such as parks, playgrounds or shopping malls. It can be physical or virtual. It is possible to build local strategies for strengthening and development, and also to work with integration etc. using the open spaces.

Current activities

The Commission is now trying to further this concept. One way of doing this is by arranging study visits to member cities, while at the same time having room for discussions and exchanges of experiences.

Watch the movie about the refugee influx in the autumn of 2015 produced by the city of Trelleborg: https://youtu.be/FU23aAVMuek

Meetings of the Commission

Commission meeting in Gdynia, 9-10 October 2017
Commission meeting – Open Workshops in Trelleborg, 22-24 March 2017
Commission meeting in Espoo, Finland, 26-28 October 2016
Commission meeting in Trelleborg, Sweden, 18-20 May 2016
Commission meeting in Karlstad, Sweden, 8-10 March 2016