Conference Creating Active Communities

COP4HL is an Erasmus+/Knowledge Alliance project that involves a unique combination of the Healthy Ageing and Entrepreneurship priority areas at Hanze UAS.
One of the biggest economic and social challenges for Europe is to improve the health (healthy ageing with a focus on prevention) of the European population. COP4HL focuses on this by promoting an 'active and healthy lifestyle'. While a lot of research has been conducted on this topic, one of the major challenges is ensuring that previously developed interventions are actually put into practice, so they can take effect. To this end, the main emphasis of COP4HL is on 'the collaboration and the learning process' among partners/institutions active in a range of industries to achieve an 'active and healthy lifestyle', making it a social innovation

Central to this is collaboration between the sectors of sport and exercise on the one hand and care and well-being on the other when promoting an active and healthy lifestyle. We achieve this collaboration by developing so-called 'communities of practice', partnerships between various parties (companies, municipalities, universities of applied sciences, end-users) aimed at reaching a common goal and learning from each other.

What makes COP4HL unique is the collaboration between different types of organisations and sectors. One characteristic of an Erasmus+/Knowledge Alliance is the collaboration that takes place between the business community and higher education, which in the case of COP4HL also includes local and regional authorities.

COP4HL is developing communities of practice in five European cities. The alliance in place in the municipality of Groningen is an example of a 'good practice' for Málaga (Spain), Lisbon (Portugal), Kaunas (Lithuania) and Odense (Denmark). Though the individual local COPs may vary in terms of scope, they are similar in terms of objective, set-up and process guidelines. For example, the COP in Málaga focuses on promoting an active and healthy lifestyle among the elderly in various ways, including through the fitness and well-being industry, while the COP in the Kaunas region focuses on promoting the same in school-age children through their parents, schools and the local communities.

More info about COP4HL: here