Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

The objective of this research is to develop a pan-European methodology and territorial analysis on the impacts of cultural heritage on society, considering well-being, social inclusion and other aspects. The research shall cover both material and intangible cultural heritage and the impact should be associated with: - Presence of material cultural heritage (stock of buildings and other objects).
- Consumption and use of cultural heritage. - Digitalization of cultural heritage.
- EU funded investments in cultural heritage.
- Activities (policies) aimed at increasing the positive impact of cultural heritage and diminishing the negative impact.
The geographical scope of HERIWELL encompasses all 32 European countries participating in the ESPON Programme (EU countries, UK, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland).
Expected Results:
The main outcome will be a methodological framework defining the most important societal domains in which the impact of cultural heritage can be observed and evidence of such impact. In principle it would mean a profound focus on societal benefits of cultural heritage in terms of quality of life in European regions, by looking at material well-being, education, health, social inclusion and equality, life satisfaction and happiness, etc.'
The study will quantify the impact over the past 10 years by establishing comparable socio-economic indicators and engaging in data collection from national statistical institutes, registers. Big data where applicable. The research will aim for an overall illustration of the extent to which cultural heritage has an impact on societal well-being in Europe and provide comparative analysis of different European regions where appropriate.
The impact of European, national, regional and local policies, strategies, legal mechanisms and regulatory frameworks aimed at preserving and maintaining cultural heritage or increasing its use will be addressed to support research process and findings. Over 40 thematic or country experts and other specialists from across Europe will be involved.
The research project should thus answer the following key policy questions:
- How can the societal impact of cultural heritage be defined? In which societal domains does cultural heritage contribute? How significant is this contribution?
- How to measure the societal impact of cultural heritage? How to express it in quantitative terms, considering reliability and validity, at the territorial level?
- What are the differences between the societal impact of cultural heritage in different types of territories?
- How to compare the results on impact of cultural heritage across different European regions?
- How can digitalization of cultural heritage have an impact on well-being in terms of education, knowledge, etc.?
- What are the impacts of EU funded investments in cultural heritage on societal well-being in cities and regions?

EUREGA’s main objective is to have food, food habits and gastronomy included and recognised in EU, regional and national strategies and policies both as a cultural asset and strong element in regional cultural identity and as a necessary tool to boost sustainable products and services. This should lead to creating stronger and more resilient regions by protecting and stimulating gastronomy as part of their cultural heritage and also by identifying new opportunities for economic development. As a result of international partners working together for four years the seven Action Plans, each region is to produce as main outcome will introduce significant improvement to the targeted policy instruments (Operational Programmes or Regional Development Strategies) leading to economic revival of the food and gastronomy sector as cultural heritage in the regions involved. EUREGA wishes to focus on the following sub-themes of “Gastronomy AND:
- support for SMEs (including SMEs in strengthening and developing short regional food supply chains)
- education (increasing the representation of gastronomy and creativity in educational programmes)
- sustainable tourism (improving policies to meet sustainable tourism objectives)
- linking urban and rural (linking urban and rural development strategies as relates to gastronomy)
- health (exploiting cultural heritage in relation to well-being, education, tourism and hospitality)

The EKIN project is a digital platform that enables people residing in social or medico-social establishments and every voluntary citizen to establish a relation for sharing cultural and recreational moments and being involved in a solidary way. It is a platform that proposes three types of services on POCTEFA cross-border territory.
1. Shared cultural and recreational activities (e.g. a person or some people propose going together to a cultural or recreational activity to a person residing in a social establishment; an establishment that organizes a trip with some of its residents suggests to other establishment or available people to join).
2. Voluntary associative participation (e.g. an association is looking for participants or volunteers for their activities or events and wants to invite people living in social establishments).
3. Call for solidary projects (e.g. students have to create projects or develop initiatives for and with people residing in social establishments, organizations that are looking for stakeholders for the project).
EKIN is another way of creating inclusive solidarity, placing the well-being and the socialisation of everyone at the heart of a territorial experimentation.

The project has been thought to answer to needs of sanitarian and social taking over of populations suffering of visual disabilities in cross-border territories. In particular, users’ associations and project partners have underline two main problematics: the remoteness of people of visual tests programs and re-education services; the weak density of specialised services in rural mountain areas. The project has 6 objectives: 1) Bring an answer of proximity un a medical desert and allow the access to ophthalmologic cares. 2) Give the possibility to do an early ophthalmological test in order to avoid taking over costs, bigger on the long term. 3) Contribute to the well-being in remoted territories through the development of social and cultural activities. 4) Contribute to the maintenance of populations of all ages in cross-border territories. 5) Raising awareness of Public Health policy institutions on the importance of proximity services. 6) Purpose a model of decompartmentalized cooperation to a multidisciplinary health, social and environmental taking over based on WHO (World Health Organisation) recommendations and purpose a more economic model of intervention. The project also included events where cultural activities were used to work with visually impaired children, for example through music therapy, theater, dance, cinema, the creation of illustrated tactile books, etc. The goal of these activities was to allow kids to be in touch with the real world in order to help them clarify their knowledge and capacities of sensory perceptions, to see better, to feel better, to touch better, to hear better.

Theatres, cinemas, operas, art galleries, museums, community arts groups have been forced to close at short notice as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools were shut to most students, some have fully re-opened in Wales, many across Europe have a mixed approach with some year groups in full time and others a mix of F2F/online learning. This situation has left many young people stressed/concerned about their current and future lives. Many students have missed school for friendship and support from school staff and are now worried about catching up on their education. This has impacted negatively on their emotional wellbeing. This project is a partnership of 6 schools, 4 creative arts experts and 2 education support organisations carrying out the following activities:
- Creative Arts methodology within schools as one of the support mechanisms to improve students’ health & emotional wellbeing. This will be developed into an in-depth Research based impact evaluation review carried out with support from an independent researcher to produce a robust & dynamic impact evaluation report to drive policy development with policy influencers.
- Online workshops/modules developed by creative arts experts to upskill teaching professionals and stored as a digital repository on open access sites. A toolkit of resources/lessons/activities produced by teaching staff developed after attending the online modules to develop and deliver high quality creative arts lessons/activities in schools. The majority of students targeted are learning in a bilingual environment and to support their language acquisition skills we will create between teaching professionals, students and creative arts experts a LEXICON of EMOTIONAL WELLBEING, which will be one of the unique features of this project. This will be developed into a progression route strategy for 3–19-year-olds as part of each school’s Health & Wellbeing curriculum/policy.

The project "Culture and Health" was a three year Finsam project developed by Blekinge Competence Center in collaboration with the Blekinge Region, Blekinge County Education Association and all five municipalities in the county. The aim of the program was to help people with a psychiatric diagnosis and long-term mental disability and/or psychosocial problematic have an improved perceived health, increased participation and an improved or maintained ability to engage in working activities.

Dance to Health is a programme created and delivered by Aesop Arts and Society. Aesop is a charity that uses the arts to help solve a challenge society faces. Dance to Health is a nationwide pioneering community dance programme for older people. It combines evidence-based falls prevention principles with the creativity, expression and energy of dance. Dance to Health programme uses dance to help people improve or maintain their strength and balance. This is important to ensure they continue to get the most out of life. It also reduces pressure on their health system. Dance to Health was created to demonstrate that an arts intervention can address a major challenge. This prompted a key question: what ingredients must an art program have for it to be taken up by the health system and made available to every patient who could benefit?

Founder of Dance for Health and responsible for its method and courses is Anna Duberg. She combines the work of disseminating Dance for Health (companies), with innovation coaching and continued research There are a total of 600 trained Dance for Health instructors across the country in about 185 locations. The central expression in this method dance is "Come as you are". Regarding implementation, you could say "Start where you are". Dance for Health was named by Dagens Medici as "Innovator of the Year in Swedish healthcare" 2019. Dance for Health was developed with the support of the Social Impact Lab at Örebro University in 2017. It was formed in the form of a company and now the focus of the business is on offering instructor courses in the method and providing support in the implementation process and follow-up. Dancing for Health's key factors (joy of movement, resources, unpretentiousness and community) has proven valuable; it is an appreciated method that has been shown to strengthen the health on several levels in many participating young people. A group of about 12 participants meets twice a week for two semesters in a venue suitable for dancing. The group works with choreographies in various dance genres but also with relaxation techniques. The cultural school can be the partner that holds the courses. A study association can also have suitable premises and a trained instructor. To lead a group in Dansa without requirements, an instructor who is trained in the method is required A close collaboration with the student health or a youth clinic makes it easier, as they are the ones who have contact with the target group and can invite and motivate them to participate.

The project Laughter for everyone! of the HAHAHA Institute, which seeks to promote access to culture, art and citizenship for the elderly public in ILPIs and hospitals through artistic interventions, needed to reinvent itself during the Covid-19 pandemic. Such an encouraging work and of great relevance for a population already fragile and/or in a difficult time due to the onset of some disease needed to be rethought. For 8 years Instituto HAHAHA has been working bringing joy, laughter and providing a rich exchange of experiences between the actors involved in person in hospitals and ILPIs. The moment was of great challenge, but Instituto HAHAHA continues to bring joy, entertainment and culture to the elderly and in hospital, also in a virtual way. They provide this with the possibility of serving not only the elderly population, in some channels it is available to the entire population, helping to reduce the damage caused by social isolation and also social and health vulnerabilities.

Casa da Juventude in Tapada das Mercês is the target of an artistic intervention realized by the Coletivo Criatividades in an initiative that is part of the larger Community Intervention Project. The young people involved in the intervention have put all their dedication, energy and talent to offer the community of Tapada das Mercês their artistic vision of the world and their creative process can already be observed at Casa da Juventude. The Coletivo Criatividades is a group of artists that has come together with the objective of creating value, dynamism and social inclusion, in order to promote culture, education and sustainability. Coletivo Criatividades intends, through graffiti, to carry out interventions in the public space, mobilizing the young people of the community to deepen this art with them