Belfast Healthy Cities welcomes new Board members
Belfast Healthy Cities, the World Health Organization initiative in Northern Ireland, has welcomed four new board members as they embark on the roll out of Phase VII (2020-2026) of the WHO Healthy Cities programme.
The new members will help support the organisation as they begin to develop a range of programmes based upon the priorities of Phase VII, which has its roots in the Belfast Charter, agreed at the Healthy Cities International Conference held in Belfast in 2018.
The incoming Chair Michael Boyd is joined on the Board by Dr Lizzy Pinkerton, Linda Armitage and Professor Ian Montgomery.
Michael Boyd said he is delighted to embrace this new opportunity.
“I have long been aware of the work of Belfast Healthy Cities and the role they play in tacking health inequalities and promoting wellbeing across our city and beyond. Belfast Healthy Cities also connects Belfast into the European wide network of healthy cities and I am keen to strengthen those links so that cities can continue to share experience, learn from each other and benefit our citizens. I have quickly learned from the BHC staff team that we do face particular challenges in Belfast around health inequalities and with my colleagues on the Board and the staff team, I am looking forward to embracing the challenge.”
Joan Devlin the Chief Executive at Belfast Healthy Cities said,
“We recently launched a health profile of Belfast which shows the scale of the imbalance of health across the city. We are now at the beginning of Phase VII of the World Health Organization programme which emphasises the seven Ps - peace, prosperity, people, planet, participation and people. Throughout this phase we will work with our statutory, voluntary and community partners to promote wellbeing, reduce health inequalities and encourage all Government departments to consider the health impact of policy decisions.”
About the new board members:
Michael Boyd works at the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission in a Senior Engagement and Communications role. He is also a volunteer Board member of the charity Street Soccer NI and previously worked for the Irish Football Association.
Professor Ian Montgomery is Professor of Design and Director of Brexit & Sustainability at Ulster University. He has recently served as a Board member of the Arts Council for Northern Ireland and also served on the British Council’s Northern Ireland Advisory Committee.
Linda Armitage has 36 years of community development experience and 14 of these years have been dedicated to health improvement, health promotion and early intervention, in local neighbourhoods using a community development approach. Linda is the Health Development Director at East Belfast Community Development Agency.
Dr Lizzy Pinkerton works for the Belfast Hills Partnership and has worked within the Northern Ireland Environmental sector since 2005 and is a Board Member of Northern Ireland Environment Link.