Active Living

The UBC Commission on Sport Annual Meeting entitled "Active Living", held on May 5, 2006 in Gdynia (Poland) gathered representatives of 17 cities from 11 countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden and Belarus.

The meeting consisted of two thematic blocks: the first one was devoted to multifunctional sports arenas. There were presentations of sports arenas in the cities of Gdynia, Rostock, Karlskrona, Gladsaxe near Copenhagen. The presentations consisted in demonstrating a management system of sports facilities as well as ways of promoting sport among inhabitants of all age groups from the a/m cities.

The second block dealt with best practices connected with active living programmes - "Cities on the Move". This part of the Annual Meeting was prepared in cooperation with the Baltic Region Healthy Cities Association. The first presentation entitled "One step - better than nothing" showed how Turku promotes healthy lifestyle as well as encourages its inhabitants to be active. Moreover, the representatives of BRHCA presented the programme "Schools on the move" whose objective is to make schooldays (especially school breaks) more active physically. Next, a representative of Polva (Estonia) presented the town's experience in developing healthy and active strategies. The following presentation was focused on "Exercise and Diet on Prescription" - the initiative implemented in Copenhagen.

Moreover, a representative of the Commission presented 2006 grant awarding procedure entitled "Cities on the Move". By allocating the grants the Commission wished to award those projects which allowed people (especially sedentary ones) to keep fit all the year round as well as to encourage people of all age groups to be active and to develop their active living habits.

The next year's annual meeting will be held in Karlskrona (Sweden). The Commission on Sport wishes to devote this meeting to the issues of fair play and an antidoping policy in sport.

The new leaflet was distributed which presents activities of the Commission as well as projects realised with the Commission's financial support.