Announcement of the 31st ETC-PHHP Summercourse 2023

“Strengthening Community Health and Wellbeing: putting the Art back into Public Health”

Public Health can be defined as ‘The Art and Science of Promoting Health and Preventing Disease”. During the recent global pandemic it was perhaps necessary for Public Health and Health Promotion efforts to focus heavily on the science of preventing disease. Communities are the foundation of society and many have started the process of re-building and strengthening, with an opportunity to regain a greater sense of control over their health. Communities are considering what their community should look like to help re-build a better society, to promote their best health and reduce the stark inequalities in health so plainly illuminated. Starting from the lives, words and stories of those directly involved in these communities is paramount in this process.

Art, in its broadest sense can be used to explore and discover the powerful stories of revitalization and new hope now occurring across our communities. The power of the Arts in building and strengthening community health and wellbeing is often underestimated. In this course we explore how communities may be strengthened through the involvement of the Arts and in particular how the Arts – particularly community drama, storytelling, singing etc., – make a valuable contribution to strengthen health and wellbeing locally.

Learning style

The ETC approach has developed over 30 years of successful delivery into an effective problem-based interdisciplinary model for capacity building training in public health and health promotion. Participants have access to Distance Learning, undertaken as self-study (4-weeks) in advance of attending the 10-day residential course. The course consists of a mix of theoretical sessions delivered by leading international experts, interactive sessions involving participants and an opportunity to learn from other social and cultural contexts. Participants will also work on a collaborative project, with participants and experts from other countries, strengthening working relationships. The residential course will include: input from local community associations (Arts groups and Community Arts; discussion panels; workshops; group work; facilitated international projects and problem-based learning; field visits; breakout sessions; social agenda (optional) with activities: exercise, music, dance, open space and cultural excursions (additional fee).

For more information, the programme and registration, go to the ETC website.