Europe
Liverpool, UK
Global Active City - Healthy Living for All
Photography by Vanessa Winship
The Active Well-being Initiative (AWI) is a non-governmental organisation that helps cities and organisations to improve the lives of their citizens through the promotion of physical activity, sport and well-being for all. In a world that is facing increasing health problems, theAWI model advocates more sustainable urban living and calls for new forms of governance. It provides a suite of standards, tools and services, road-tested with a group of pilot cities, and empowers city leaders, their communities and citizens to drive change. Cities are invited to join the movement and see their efforts certified by the Global Active City label. http://activewellbeing.org/
The Liverpool Active City programme was launched in 2005 to boost low levels of activity and to mobilise partners from diverse professional and economic sectors and civil society to set out towards a different future together. Liverpool is one of the poorest cities in England, yet has world-class programmes for getting inactive people to make long-term changes to their behaviour. For more than 10 years now, Liverpool has pioneered a progressive physical activity and sports strategy, which has relied heavily on evidence-based academic research to target reluctant, hard-to-reach, inactive groups. It has also pursued innovative, outside-the-box ideas, like putting public gyms in fire stations and a football stadium.
By 2021, local leaders aim to have increased activity levels by 30 per cent since 2014. The most recent figures confirm that the number of inactive people is falling. Liverpool is one of the world’s first cities to be awarded Global Active City status.
To follow the progress of the Global Active City programme, sign up for the AWI newsletter.
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER
Vanessa Winship (b. 1960, England) is a British photographer who works on long-term projects of portrait, landscape, reportage and documentary photography. She currently has a major retrospective at the Barbican Centre, London, entitled, Vanessa Winship: And Time Folds. In 2011, she was the first woman to be awarded the prestigious Henri Cartier-Bresson Award, which funds an artist to pursue a new photographic project, enabling her to travel across the United States in pursuit of the fabled ‘American dream’ and resulting in the book, she dances on Jackson.
She has exhibited twice in the National Portrait Gallery in London and prominently at Les Rencontres d’Arles and has three highly regarded books. She has also won multiple World Press Photo Awards, and 'Photographer of the Year' at the Sony World Photography Awards. Solo exhibitions include Vanessa Winship at Fundación MAPFRE, Spain (2014), touring to additional venues in Spain, France and Italy – Sala de Exposiciones de San Benito, Valladolid, Spain (2014), Fondazione Stelline, Milan, Italy (2014/15), El Centro Andaluz de La Fotografia, Almeria, Spain (2015), Espacio de las Artes Tenerife Spain (2015), Le Galerie château d’eau, Toulouse, France (2015), and Centro de Arte La Regenta, Gran Canaria, Spain (2016); Georgia: Seeds Carried by the Wind, Third Floor Gallery Cardiff, UK (2013); s_he dances on Jackson_, Foundation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris, France (2013); _Sweet Nothings _and _Black Sea: Between Chronicle and Fiction_, Side Gallery, Newcastle (2008/09).
http://www.vanessawinship.com/projects.php