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Kilkenny County Council
Kilkenny County Council is the local Authority for County Kilkenny, and covers four municipal districts: Kilkenny City, Castlecomer, Piltown and Callan-Thomastown. The Council is one of 31 City & County Councils in Ireland which promote the interests of local communities across the full spectrum from: social, economic, environmental, recreational, cultural, and community development.
Margaret Whelan (Kilkenny County Council), Annette Fitzpatrick (Kilkenny County Council), Teresa Hennessy (Health Promotion, HSE), Janette Boran (Kilkenny County Council), and Katherine Peacock (Kilkenny County Council)
Could you give us a brief introduction about yourself?
Kilkenny County Council is one of 31 City & County Councils in Ireland which promote the interests of local communities across the full spectrum from: social, economic, environmental, recreational, cultural, and community development. Kilkenny County Council serves a population of 99,232 citizens (CSO 2016) and plays a key role in creating healthy inclusive communities through the implementation of the Healthy Ireland and Age Friendly programmes in Kilkenny. Both programmes aim to improve the Health and wellbeing of all citizens and create a society where people can live full, active valued and healthy lives.
Why did you join UcanACT?
Cancer prevention is high on our priority list as 4/10 deaths are preventable through healthy behaviours such as; not smoking, eating healthily, watching our weight alcohol intake and physical activity. Cancer is the biggest killer in Ireland – 1 in 4 deaths - 30% of deaths each year. The UcanACt project and the expected medium long-term outcomes aligns to cancer prevention and promoting physical activity as a healthy behaviour for our senior citizens, people living with cancer and those in recovery or remission.
What do you expect from the project?
• The Citizen Engagement Strategy (proposing methodology and tools for involvement of target groups in the project’s activities) will inform Kilkenny County Council about the needs and barriers of older citizens exercising in Public Urban Green Spaces and methods of engagement to empower our senior citizens to participate in exercise.
• Moreover, we expect to see an increase of senior citizens exercising in Public Urban Green Spaces and using the App that provides safe exercise prescriptions that are specific to cancer and cancer prevention.
• We also expect the UcanACT project to promote awareness of the health and wellbeing benefits of exercise, in particular to view exercise as a cancer prevention tool.
If you want to learn more about them, visit their website and follow them on their social media:
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