Merry Christmas from SHE. Read about 2019
The SHE secretariat would like give our best wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your loved ones.
2019 has been a good year for SHE. As Martin Weber, programme manager in the WHO Europe, highlighted when closing the 5th European Conference on School Health Promotion in Moscow in November 2019, SHE has a good position in the health promoting community and is growing from strength to strength.
SHE provides high-quality material, advice and research that is directly applicable in practice, and we contribute to school health promotion with knowledge and insight. SHE wants to make every school a health promotion school and we contribute extensively to this objective.
In 2019, several working groups have written publications that undoubtably will make an immense difference in the years to come. Some of the publications are already available on SHE’s website (www.schoolsforhealth.org) and other publications will be available at the end of December. You can look forward to studying SHE Standards and Indicators, Materials for Teachers - Key concepts and activities: Learning about health and health promotion in schools, Fact sheet no. 5 on Health promoting schools in Europe - State of the art, SHE school manual – New Revised Edition, and Schools for Health in Europe Mapping. In addition, the Moscow Statement and the article “Addressing health literacy in schools in the WHO European Region”, are two additional scientific SHE collaborative publications. Thank you to all who participated in these working groups for your professional, engaged and colossal contributions. Without your support and hard work, SHE would not be able to provide such quality results.
SHE has expanded throughout 2019. We have now 38 member countries with more countries expected to join us at the beginning of 2020. The research group has grown from 69 to 87 members and we expect this growth to continue as membership is now open for junior members (e.g. Ph.D. students). The volume of SHE membership is not a goal in itself, but including a larger group of countries, regions and researchers – and through this schools, teachers and children, SHE has better opportunities to implement the whole school approach and make more schools health promotion schools.
Many new contacts have been made throughout 2019. In June, Iceland hosted the SHE Assembly Meeting and the Research Group Meeting and we heard many interesting presentations from national/regional coordinators and researchers. It gave much discussion and reflection in a beautiful country where the sun hardly descends in the month of June. The SHE Academy in St. Étienne in November was well attended and many participants met SHE for the first time. Many Academy participants, SHE coordinators and researchers attended The 5th European Conference on Health Promoting Schools in November in Moscow. SHE members contributed widely and the conference was considered a success on all fronts.
We have also met each other in country visits – some of them in Central Asia together with WHO and the SHE branch office in Moscow – and on conferences throughout Europe. Others we see in SHE meetings such as SHE board meetings, meetings in the steering group of the SHE research group, and UNESCO Chair meetings and many more.
The SHE manager, Anette Schulz, is still on extended sick leave but we expect to have her back in 2020 as an essential part of the SHE’s DNA. She sends her greetings to all of you as does the rest of the SHE secretariat. Thank you for your cooperation in 2019 - we look forward to a good and rewarding 2020.
On the behalf of the SHE secretariat, with warm greetings, Ulla Pedersen
