Growing Up Healthy Project

Growing Up Healthy

Growing Up Healthy

Growing Up Healthy provides free nature sessions for primary school aged children across West and North Belfast. Each session is an opportunity for children to connect with local green spaces and the Belfast Hills with the aim of improving their physical and mental health.

Getting young people outdoors is increasingly important in the digital age, with countless research proving that time spent outdoors has a calming effect on children and counters the negative outcomes of prolonged screen time. Nature nurtures creativity, boosts self-confidence, and reduces stress and fatigue. Through the Growing Up Healthy project we aim to bring as many of these, and other, benefits to school children around Belfast.

The project started in May 2024 and is expected to run until December 2024. Belfast Hills Partnership have worked with a number of local Primary Schools since the inception of the project. This includes St Oliver Plunkett’s PS, Good Shepherd Primary School, Currie Primary School and St Kieran’s Primary School. We continue to work with a number of other schools in North and West Belfast.

Thank you to GroundsWell and the Innovation Fund for making the Growing Up Healthy project possible. The Innovation Fund is led by GroundsWell; an interdisciplinary consortium involving researchers, policy, implementers and communities, funded by the UK Prevention Research Partnership. To find out more visit: www.groundswelluk.org