Wellbeing
We help cities place wellbeing at the heart of their policy and planning by creating spaces to celebrate and share knowledge.
Prioritizing wellbeing means prioritizing people. As municipal governments are increasingly embracing projects that reflect the needs and priorities of communities, cities are progressively being remade into places that are responsive to local needs, increasing all-around quality of life. Because the drivers of wellbeing are often place-based and context-specific, the core of our work centers on advancing the conversation around how we define urban wellbeing, how we measure it, and how we can continue to cultivate it.
NewCities’ flagship initiative Wellbeing Cities aims to identify, study, and promote exceptional examples of urban projects approaching challenges through a wellbeing lens. Since 2018, our Wellbeing Cities Award has recognized more than 40 cities worldwide and gathered over 1,500 global leaders and urban experts from all sectors online and in our host city Montréal to move the discussion on wellbeing forward.
Our newest initiative Connected Communities will keep the same focus while zooming in on local and community solutions responding to challenges faced within the Greater Montréal region.
See featured events, projects, and editorial related to wellbeing.
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Connected Communities: For a Healthy and Inclusive Montréal
The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the challenges and vulnerabilities of our communities, testing the quality of life in urban settings. The health crisis has exacerbated inequities, accentuated social disconnection, and further proves that the way we plan, design, and improve our cities, public spaces, and infrastructure, needs to place wellbeing at the center. Connected Communities aims to identify, explore, and promote local and community-led solutions focused on housing, mobility, and food security in Montréal.
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Biophilia and Urban Wellness
Biophilia is the innate human connection to nature, and cities around the world are discovering that it is more than just a feel-good notion. Creating experiences of nature in the urban environment has measurable physiological, psychological, and economic benefits. Streetscapes, parks, rooftops, and stormwater systems all offer opportunities for meaningful connections to nature. By Andrew Snowhite and William Browning.
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Wellbeing Cities 2021 | Program
DISCOVER OUR PROGRAM: Experts and city leaders share common goals and challenges in podcasts, webinars and keynotes. The Wellbeing Cities initiative celebrates cities around the world transforming urban life by placing wellbeing at the heart of their policy and planning. Since 2018, the Wellbeing Cities Award has recognized more than 40 cities on all five continents and gathered more than…
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Bogotá, Colombia | Wellbeing Cities Winner 2021
Bogotá, Colombia Wellbeing Cities Winner ABOUT “Our mandate is to make Bogotá a caring, inclusive, sustainable city, where quality and relevant education is the main driver for social and economic transformation.” During 2020 Bogotá has focused its efforts on dealing with the pandemic to ensure the well-being of its citizens and also to promote a green…
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Wellbeing Cities Award 2021
Wellbeing Cities 2021 ADVANCING AND CELEBRATING URBAN WELLBEING 3rd Edition | 2nd Edition | 1st Edition The Wellbeing Cities initiative celebrates cities around the world transforming urban life by placing wellbeing at the heart of their policy and planning. Since 2018, the Wellbeing Cities Award has recognized more than 40 cities on all five continents and gathered more than 1,500 global…
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Wellbeing and The Built Environment
We have long known that our physical and social environment impacts our overall health—from pollution, air and water quality, to our working conditions and access to housing. COVID-19 has brought to light the importance of optimizing cities for urban wellbeing, calling into question spatial planning and density, public space, and health systems. To what extent…
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The Big Rethink – Wellbeing & Health
The Wellbeing ImperativeApril 28, 2020 | 9am PDT | 12pm EDT As the world’s urban population continues to grow, global health is becoming increasingly synonymous with urban health. The spread of COVID-19 has revealed the extent to which cities impact what we understand about disease: population density and a world of places connected by business…
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Santa Monica: Wellbeing In Action
Santa Monica’s Wellbeing Index was premised on a bold idea: what if we went beyond traditional performance measures and used data to genuinely understand the people we serve in order to more effectively respond to community needs? We have always believed that government exists to safeguard and improve people’s lives. But we, like many other…