A key aim of GroundsWell is to encourage, enable, and collaborate on community-engagement and community led research. To facilitate this, GroundsWell launched a Community Innovation Fund programme, where community organisations could be supported in implementing programmes and evaluating impact.

Belfast Hills Partnership are one of 14 organisations we are working with across GroundsWell to support delivery of community led research. Belfast Hills Partnership delivered the Growing Up Healthy project, which engaged over 350 primary school students in exploring nature in the Belfast Hills over a 6-week programme. The programme involved connecting with nature, establishing healthy habits, and improving health and wellbeing with schools within the most deprived communities in Belfast. 

Research indicates that “active kids tend to become healthy active adults”. Therefore this project aimed to start good habits at a young age, helping young people from deprived areas in Belfast to gain the tools and knowledge to maintain a healthy outdoor lifestyle and so help prevent chronic diseases in the future. The need for primary school-aged young people to get the opportunity to connect to nature and so improve their mental and physical health was identified by staff from the West Belfast Federation of GPs, who approached the Belfast Hills Partnership to see if a pilot project for local young people could be established. When the opportunity arose to work with the Groundswell team, benefiting from their expertise to measure impact as well as obtain financial support, we were delighted – hence ‘Growing Up Healthy’ was created. 

Lizzy Pinkerton, Belfast Hills Partnership

The impact report highlights the health, wellbeing, and social benefits of the programme on the young people, their friends, family, and community, and their schools. You can read the report now.

You can also learn more about the programme and hear from the young people themselves in the Growing Up Healthy video.

See photos from the programme, and some of the artwork made by the young people in our project page.