Implementing Healthy Urban Policy

To inspire city leaders to adapt best practices from around the world to create inclusive healthy cities. 

From October 14 to November 4 of 2021, 8 80 Cities hosted city leaders from Edmonton, Waterloo and Winnipeg for a four-day virtual workshop series on creating healthy cities called ‘Implementing Healthy Urban Policy Virtual Workshop’.  

Over the course of the workshop, the multidisciplinary teams, comprising of Healthy Cities researchers, elected officials, and public health, transportation and planning staff heard from experts from Denmark, Netherlands, India, and the United States and gained an understanding of the high-level policies and on-the-ground implementation practices that go into creating healthy cities with a focus on public spaces and mobility. 

On the last day, we hosted a workshop where participants develop action plans for adapting their learnings from the previous sessions to the specific contexts of their home cities. 

The workshop was initially planned to be held in Copenhagen in Spring 2020 but with the pandemic, we had to change plans and relaunch it in a virtual format. While nothing can replace an in-person trip to Copenhagen, the city leaders were able to take part in some engaging presentations and discussions and leave with new ideas to transform their cities into healthy cities.