Healthy Urbanism – online short course
A free online training course on Healthy Urbanism co-developed by UCL researchers for built environment and public health professionals.
The online course incorporates concise explanations of theory and principles on healthy urbanism and is structured around the THRIVES Framework (Towards Healthy uRbanism: InclusiVe, Equitable, Sustainable). Case studies illustrate all the concepts with examples from around the world.
The course was developed UCL researchers Dr Helen Pineo and Dr Gemma Moore with an advisory group of Public Health and Planning experts.
What will I learn?
The course will enable professionals to gain knowledge and transferable lessons from international case studies, tools and resources. You will gain new knowledge and skills to promote health and wellbeing through design and planning at multiple urban scales.
Course structure
The course is free and available online on the UCLeXtend platform.
The total time to complete the course is 3.5 hours. However, participants can complete content at their own pace, focusing on the materials that suit their interests and experience.
Who is the course for?
This course is aimed at built environment and public health professionals and postgraduate students, including those working in planning, engineering, architecture and other fields.
Participant testimonials
I found this training to be very informative, interactive and I enjoyed the examples given for the topics. This made it very interesting, paired with the activities it kept me interested throughout the training." - Maeve Brennan, Health Promotion Coordinator, USA.
The training gives tools to build the case for healthy urban developments and interventions, it presents the information in a very clear way, and it is easy to understand." - Jorge E. Patiño, PhD, GIS & Remote Sensing researcher, Colombia.
As an acute NHS provider, my organisation is currently looking at ways to transform our hospitals (both of which were built circa 1960/1970) to ensure they are fit for purpose for the next generation. In addition to the transformation of our buildings and estate we are also focusing on communities/neighbourhoods and place-based planning to ensure that we configure our buildings and services in the future in the right way that will benefit the local communities. This will undoubtedly include aligning and linking delivery with other aspects of health in and around our hospitals so the case studies throughout the module have been particularly informative and inspiring. The THRIVES principles provides a focus and a route to further consider the scale of the local health impact and how we map our approach to population health management." - Hilton Heslop, Health service provider, England.
Through the case studies provided by each module section, I have a better understanding of how the core principles of THRIVES can be met in practice and ways in which challenges and barriers can be identified and overcome to ensure better implementation in future." - Morganna Davies MSc, Research associate, Wales.