Guidelines and key actions for the promotion for Green Care
Produced by the Green4C partnership, the Green Care Manifesto was presented for the first time at the international conference “Taking Green Care to the next steps”. The aim of the document is to facilitate the promotion of Green Care initiatives and the removal of barriers for their diffusion through specific key actions. At the same time, the Manifesto provides a good overview of the potential of nature-based solutions for health and wellbeing in addressing different contemporary challenges. Today, extensive research recognises Green Care as an efficient solution to many environmental, economic, social, and health issues. For this reason, the purpose of these recommendations contained in the Manifesto is to centre multi-sectoral attention on the health, wellbeing, and social inclusion benefits of nature, with a focus on green spaces in both urban and nonurban areas. The Green Care Manifesto is the results of Green4C’s work on promoting and innovating Green Care. In this regard, the document integrates the lessons learned during the project to deliver an instrument able to answer specific needs and challenges in the Green Care sector.
After developing the Manifesto, Green4C shared it among experts, practitioners, professionals and initiatives involved in Green Care. The Manifesto was very positively welcomed and today it has been signed by 47 individuals and 11 organisations.
The adhesion form is open until the 30th of October 2023; if you wish to support the Manifesto you can fill out the form here.
Green4C and the promotion of Green Care
Over the last 3 years, Green4C managed to create a strong network of Green Care enthusiasts, building connections all over the world. Today, the Green4C Alliance has more than 170 members in all 5 continents. The Alliance produced a rich knowledge exchange, which allowed us to discover many Green Care initiatives and explore innovation in this sector.
At the same time, the project produced numerous studies and reports with the aim to strengthen knowledge and improve understanding of the challenges and opportunities offered by the Green Care sector. First, the “Training needs assessment and Stakeholder Analysis” assessed the training needs of the Green Care sector and represented an extremely useful base for the development of our learning opportunities. Indeed, this analysis allowed us to develop specific tools to promote Green Care and encouraged entrepreneurship in this sector. Second, the EU Blueprint on Green Care, based on the analysis of 20 case studies from across Europe, provided interesting insights on the use of green spaces for health, wellbeing and social inclusion. Third, the 4 Market Outlooks on Green Care highlighted the effectiveness of Green Care solutions in addressing future challenges, also from an economic and market point of view. Each Market Outlook focused on one thematic sectors: Forest-based care, Urban green care, Social agriculture, and Green care tourism.
Moreover, to promote the creation of new Green Care initiatives and enhance new entrepreneurship opportunities, Green4C developed different learning opportunities. In October 2021, we created the online course “Green Care: form academic theory to entrepreneurial practice”, designed in collaboration with the University of Padova and Elevate Health. In the spring of 2022, we launched the Business Innovation Challenge, a competition aimed at stimulating innovative business ideas promoting nature-based solutions for health and wellbeing. A few months later, the Green4C Summer School took place at the University of Padova, Italy. During the Summer School, young Green Care enthusiasts had the opportunity to gain specific knowledge and skills to develop successful Green Care initiatives.
Finally, in the last few months, we launched the Green4C hackathons, a series of 6 competitions addressing specific Green Care challenges across Europe. The hackathons took place in Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, and Romania.