Healthy Village Burgenland
About this good practice
The "Healthy Villages" project is a service designed for municipalities that aim to enhance the health and well-being of their citizens by actively involving them in the process. Regional managers assist in establishing structures and concepts to support these efforts.
Experience has shown that different types of active mobility, in particular walking and strolling are activities often proposed and implemented by citizens. These range from themed walks, such as herb walks, exploring local communities, or charity walks, to activities tailored to specific groups, such as stroller tours around the municipality. Promoting walking to school, such as through the use of "walking school buses," is also a popular initiative.
Currently a project in several participating municipalities, which aims to fight loneliness and isolation through common strolling, is implemented.
An interested municipality must make a formal decision to participate in the pro-ject. A collaborative agreement is then created to define the terms of cooperation. In an initial workshop, residents are invited to share their ideas and suggestions for making their village healthier. Topics such as traffic and mobility are among the many areas that can be addressed.
A working group, composed of both voluntary citizens and municipal representa-tives, is formed to develop an action plan that outlines the activities to be carried out. The working group meets regularly and is accompanied by the regional managers.
Resources needed
The annual budget is about € 245.000. The main part of it is human resources with about € 200.000 or about 110 weekly employee-working hours. In Austria the project is funded by the public health insurance.
Evidence of success
In Burgenland there are currently 118 municipalities (out of 171 in total) and around 1.369 volunteers taking part in the project. In 2023 3.297 events with 14.076 participants were organized.
In each participating municipality at least one walking event per year is organized.
Potential for learning or transfer
Citizens are interested in the life quality in their own community and they are willing to participate in improving the conditions for health. This bottom up approach is particularly suitable for rural regions were social networks are strong and the ways of communication are short.
Further information
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