We have just wrapped up a co-design session on creating spaces that support healthy behaviours. Together with children from Warsaw’s Praga district, we built two models — one shows the ideal place for outdoor play, the other shows how children imagine putting change around healthy eating into practice.
Before we tell you about the workshop, we need to go back to 15 April, when the two groups working in the project — adults and children — came together. During that meeting, each group presented the factors they had previously selected as ones that could encourage young residents of Praga to spend time actively outdoors and to eat healthily.
Participants were asked to point out the factors they considered most important. Better communication received the most votes — children should be able to easily find out where they can spend their time in interesting ways. Accessible sports facilities close to home also proved important, including the possibility of using school sports fields after lessons. Participants also highlighted the importance of safety — no intoxicated people or traces of alcohol consumption in play areas — as well as the need to give children access to drinking water in recreational spaces. At the next meeting, the children added one more factor that they believe supports healthy eating: they need to know how to eat healthily!
This became the basis for our joint work with the children on our designs. On the model devoted to outdoor activity, the children designed a fenced school sports field with a gate marked “open” (meaning accessible after lessons). It is equipped with a playground, a CCTV camera, and an information board where you can read about upcoming events. The fence keeps unwanted visitors out. A drinking fountain wasn’t forgotten either.
The group building the model devoted to healthy eating created a workshop room where healthy eating classes take place. They made not only a table, but also a cooker and a fridge. There was even a chef and healthy ingredients for cooking.
We hope that at least some of these ideas will become reality.
