University and Municipality Start Healty Society Center

The municipality of Leiden and the Faculty of Social Sciences (FSW) of the university signed a letter of intent on Tuesday afternoon in which they promise to work more intensively on the health of the residents of the city.

In the presence of more than a hundred partners, the start of the Leiden Healthy Society Center was celebrated with an interactive symposium in the town hall. Mayor Henri Lenferink opened the meeting. By signing, those present announced that they will work together more intensively in the coming period to improve the well-being, health and vitality of Leiden residents. They are also actively working to reduce health inequalities between residents of different neighbourhoods.

“We are already doing a lot. Consider Stevenshof Vitaal, where welfare and health organizations organize various activities together with the residents. Or Het Gebouw where the students get to work for the neighbourhood," says alderman Fleur Spijker.

With the agreement to collaborate more, the signatories want to bring together their knowledge and insights that are available in the field of health. “Think of data sharing. But also connecting residents, knowledge partners, welfare organizations and companies. There is often a combination of causes of health problems that reinforce each other, such as divorce, debt or stress. In order to get a good picture of the nature of the problem, a problem must therefore be viewed broadly, from different angles,” explains FSW dean Paul Wouters.

In principle, the partnership is valid for one year. After that, it is examined whether and what a continuation of the project looks like.