Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

Isolation, a major stress factor in itself, turns into digital loneliness when amplified by digital communication: an illusion of companionship obscuring degraded social contacts and skills, often leading to mental problems and poor cognitive performance.
Cultural and creative activities on the other hand decrease social isolation and have major potential in mental well-being and endurance. Fighting digital loneliness with culture through advanced technologies is a concept never tested at urban level. It revolutionises the perception of urban culture and introduces creative activities as valid forms of regular mental training, reproducing the recent success of the body fitness movement.
CUP 4 CREATIVITY integrates passive consumption with creative contribution, lowers access barriers and involves people exposed to digital isolation into community-sourced activities. By sparking dormant creativity, residents of Újbuda also become mentally fit and shielded against contemporary urban stress factors. At the same time, they become connected, encouraged and anchored contributors of the Újbuda community and embrace its social and cultural identity.
The main process is community building, exploiting the same technologies that intensify digital loneliness: an online cultural community is created, gradually involving its members into attractive online and real-life cultural events, creative activities and shared adventures, taking advantage of contemporary digital, immersive and AR/VR technologies.
The overall objective is to improve life quality in Újbuda through increased mental well-being and attractive urban environment, built on a flourishing cultural and community life. The expected results are:
- A Cultural IT Ecosystem providing a complex, sustainable, community-sourced digital networking space, facilitating outreach, connecting, marketing and co-creation.
- New physical cultural facilities serving sensitization to high-end culture and digital arts.
- A cultural community representing at least 10% of working age Újbuda citizens, the majority of cultural institutions and CCIs, as well as representative corporate and commercial players, actively using either online or physical functions of the platform.
- A comprehensive monitoring system providing quantitative and qualitative information to maintain content quality, mutual trust and interest of users, and to support business and operational sustainability.

This report is the result of a Brainstorming Session organised through the Voices of Culture process, a Structured Dialogue between the European Commission and the cultural sector represented by more than 30 people affiliated to cultural associations, NGOs, and other bodies. This process provides a framework for discussions between EU civil society stakeholders and the European Commission with regard to culture. Its main objective is to provide a channel for the voice of the cultural sector in Europe to be heard by EU policy-makers. In addition, it aims to strengthen the advocacy capacity of the cultural sector in policy debates on culture at a European level, while encouraging it to work in a more collaborative way. this report has shown how cultural projects can have important spill-over effects into almost all other parts of society. Projects with migrants and refugees can have a considerable impact on people’s health and general wellbeing; projects with jobseekers can enhance their chances for finding work and create incentives for new businesses; projects with people from different sides of a conflict can help in conflict resolution; etc. The cooperation between the cultural sector and other sectors however often remains implicit or even absent. Therefore, the participants in the brainstorming session leading to this report called on policy makers:
- To encourage cooperation between cultural and other actors, such as health professionals, welfare providers, unions, local authorities, entrepreneurial organisations, etc.
- To stimulate networks that are transdisciplinary
- To encourage other sectors working with migrants and refugees to have a look at what the cultural sector is doing. The report states that culture promotes social cohesion and well-being all round. It acknowledges the strengths of culture as an instrument to deal with the reality of migration and the fact that cultural action is always heavily intertwined with many other aspects of life, beyond the cultural sector (including health and well-being). Most cultural projects have significant spill-over effects into widely differing fields, such as education, social welfare, economic development, policy making, health, etc. A direct investment in culture therefore entails an indirect investment in many other segments of life, and does not remain limited to the cultural field on its own.

The brainstorming report on “Social Inclusion: partnering with other sectors” is the result of the brainstorming process between 35 participating organizations, both from the cultural and other sectors (including the health sector). The report looks at the policy, qualities of partnership and research and development aspects of programmes and projects dealing with culture and social inclusion. It lists critical success factors as well as obstacles, and ultimately gives recommendations on how to improve the partnerships between the cultural and other sectors in this sphere. Furthermore, it also addresses the problem of rising exclusionary attitudes among the wider population and proposes possible actions.

Policy project co-funded by the European Commission. From 2018 to 2021, the project has developed new ways for cities and regions to bring together the public administration and the cultural sector to co-create public policies. CCSC shows that culture and commoning practices can transform neighbourhoods and cities into more sustainable places, catalysing better lives for their communities. To achieve the overall goal of the project, three key objectives were set:
1. Explore: Explore and test how to best approach current urban challenges through commoning practices, co-creation and policy development.
2. Learn: Foster and facilitate peer-to-peer learning, exchange and training of commoning practices within cities and between cities and regions.
3. Research, Disseminate & Sustain: Research and document the outcomes of peer-to-peer learning and make them available for wider use via open-source models, both for policy development, commoning politics and co-creation.
One of the reports produced during the project, ”Mapping of EU projects, policies, programmes, and networks: a policy report to support Cultural and Creative Spaces and Cities”, maps the recommendations, best practices, and key case studies of 20 previous EU-funded projects, programmes, initiatives and networks related to the policy issues of CCSC. It builds upon the indicators developed during the project and the CCSC charter, to compare the ways in which previous projects have explored themes of culture as a common good, urban commons, participation at the local level, and bottom-up decision-making. It also includes examples of initiatives linking culture and well-being/ health (e.g. Work Plan for Culture 2019-2021, Turku European Capital of Culture 2011, etc.).

The project aimed to take stock of existing cultural management practices in cities and regions all over Europe, to exchange and promote transfer of knowledge, to better understand successful cases of cultural investment and to go into the details of policy planning and implementation. The project led to a new EU-funded initiative: Cultural Heritage in Action that started in 2020. Three main dimensions were explored throughout this project:
- Culture and the creative industries for local economic development and urban regeneration
- Cultural heritage as a driver for economic growth and social inclusion
- Culture for social inclusion, social innovation and intercultural dialogue.
One of their policy recommendations mentioned in the project’s final report links culture and health: Encouraging inter-clustering - between cultural and creative industries and ICT or health sectors for example. The report also elaborates on why we should care more about culture: ”Our experience shows that cultural initiatives have become one of the main agents for change in society. Cultural investment and cultural workers influence the attractiveness of places (cities and regions), the spirit and morale of people, as well as being the focus of policies, whether social cohesion, entrepreneurship, wellbeing, or investment.” Culture is essential for well-being and a good quality of life, since it: generates fun and entertainment (well-being and social cohesion) through festivals and cultural events; boosts the morale, confidence, and spirit of the local population by being a great place to live with a strong cultural offer and strong city / regional brand and identity.

wISHfUl: Ict for Smart Healthcare toUrism aims at creating a synergy between territorial tourism and healthcare offers, a real opportunity to promote a systemic approach and define a collaborative interregional network. Through a dedicated ICT platform, the territories involved in the Programme will share their health and tourist offers addressed to different target of users. This will create a coherent and integrated ecosystem inside the area, focused on the valorisation of territorial health excellences and cultural heritage that will grant to each user the definition of tour package services perfectly calibrated on their personal needs and diseases. The platform in fact has the task of combining supply and demand, in order to offer that combination of carefully measured services for the health needs of the users.

The main aim of MIMO was to develop and to apply art-based methods for preventive youth and social work in close cooperation with young people, teachers, health care professionals, artists, and social and youth workers. The main target group and beneficiary of the project results are the young people aged 13 to 17 years at risk of social exclusion and the professionals working with them. MIMO has its starting point in the fact of social exclusion as a problem emerging among youth across Europe. There are cross-border issues of youth alienation, low level of school attractiveness, students’ extremely low feeling of subjective wellbeing, frequency of acts of school violence and the changing demographics regarding youth multiculturalism and diversity. It is addressed in research that culture and art are means of enhancing well-being. However no comprehensive training, knowledge of professionals and applications of art-based methods in preventive youth work exist in Southern Finland and Estonia. MIMO will build cooperation between youth organizations, schools and MIMO partners: universities, an NGO and an enterprise in order to develop multi-professional teamwork (MPT) and practical tools of art-based methods for preventive social and youth work. In this cross-disciplinary work there will be professionals from university degrees of Performing Arts, Film and Media and Health/Social Care.

Social exclusion and loneliness have significantly negative impacts on physical and mental health. Such problems are increasingly prevalent in remote and sparsely populated regions of Europe. The lives of older citizens are further complicated by growing health and social care needs. Additionally, older people may be particularly impacted by the wider challenges faced by remote and rural communities, including the interrelated problems of declining economic activity, youth migration and limited access to goods and services. While ICT may help in alleviating these problems, older people may require help with computer and internet use. PLACE-EE is a transnational partnership of public health agencies, local authorities, academics and ICT experts dedicated to improving the quality of life for older people. The key objectives of the PLACE-EE project are as follows:
- Develop a participatory model of engagement with older people in remote and rural areas, using creative arts to assess health and social needs and use of public services.
- Exchange between older and younger citizens.
- Build flourishing social and cultural capital among older people through active involvement in creative and cultural activities. These activities and products will be documented and archived.
- Establish a transnational forum for cultural exchange for older citizens (and young counterparts) across the NPA.
- Document and evaluate a model of transferable, sustainable best practice and learning for connected ageing across all regions in the NPA.
- Disseminate the PLACE-EE Model across NPA regions, health and social care organisations and demonstrate opportunities for ICT services and app development.

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)