The project aims to investigate the potential of participatory approaches in neighbourhood-based design measures for urban green spaces for community health and the design of sustainable and health-promoting living environments in different socio-spatial contexts. The effectiveness of participatory measures will be analysed with regard to primary, health-related outcomes (quality of life) and secondary outcomes (ecological sustainability, social justice). The experience of collective self-efficacy, strengthened social identity, sensitisation to the creation and preservation of living conditions and empowerment with regard to the ability to actively shape the living environment will be addressed and strengthened through intervention as central psychological mechanisms of action.

At the level of sustainability and social justice, the long-term use of green spaces in the neighbourhood, their use by socio-economically diverse groups and their integration into the school setting will be examined. In addition to the prevention-promoting and sustainable goals, this should also contribute to the generation of evidence regarding measures to humanise living conditions by creating possible moments of resonance in urban spaces that are repeatedly described as alienating and often experienced as anonymous.

The combination of application-related research expertise of the university partners with regulatory expertise and urban planning implementation potential of the practice partners as well as the city and district administrations in Greifswald and Berlin leads to the creation of consistent intervention structures. These are designed for sustainability and application by the population. Evidence-based concepts to be developed will be published and thus made available for utilisation by other municipalities. At a procedural level, social relationships and participatory processes are created in the population and continued by municipal actors.

Duration: 01.06.2023 bis 30.11.2023