The regular conference of the WHO European Healthy Cities Network, uniting more than 30 national networks with more than 1,400 Healthy Cities and Municipalities, will take place under the auspices of the European Office of World Health Organisation (WHO) in Izmir, Turkey, on June 20-22. The meeting, attended by the representatives of cities and professional organisations, will focus on the current discussions on the subject of Healthy City Project in its V. phase. The common uniting topic will be "Innovation and Shared Governance for Health and Well-Being". The programme of the event also includes the preparation of VI. phase of the Healthy City Project.

The Healthy Cities and Regions collaborate in the long run with their young inhabitants, specifically in concrete campaigns or events, but also in the planning of what should be improved in a given municipality. So called Young Forums, attended by pupils and students of basic and high schools, have become a standard complement of similarly focused events for "adults" in the Healthy Cities. Similar events take place in other cities too, the young participate at "adult" public proceedings, having their own discussion table. Where the cities want to concentrate on specific solutions, the cities organise thematically focused round tables, for instance on the subject of Safe Route to School and others.

The Spring School of Healthy Cities took place in Trebon on March 20–22, 2013. It was attended by 80 participants – representatives of municipalities and regions, local action groups and professional organisations. This popular event with more than a 10-year tradition is in particular intended for politicians and coordinators of international Healthy City and Local Agenda 21 programmes and was opened by introductory seminar.

Local Action Groups (LAG) unite the representatives of citizens, non-profit organisations, private business sphere and public administration, collaborating in the development of the country. First local action groups joined the Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic in the course of the first quarter of 2013: LAG Blansky les – Netolicko, LAG Opavsko, LAG Rozkvet zahrady jiznich Cech and LAG Vodnanska ryba. The Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic also collaborate with National Network of Local Action Groups. The entry of particular LAG into HCCZ brings further possibilities of collaboration and sharing of best practice among municipalities and whole regions.

The Spring meeting of HCCZ General Meeting took place in Jihlava on April 24, 2013. Representatives of member municipalities and regions have been informed at the meeting about the progress of WHO Healthy City and Local Agenda 21 international programmes, about collaboration on the national and international level and about the services offered by the association to its members. The presentations by Petr Svec, HCCZ director, evaluated the affairs of 2012, consequently, the members approved the Association's Annual Report for 2012. The report describes the realised events, activities and projects, services for members or collaboration with partners. The General Meeting was also significant due to selection of association's leadership and its bodies - the Council and Revision Committee.

Volunteering has been developing in the recent years not only in the non-profit or corporate sphere, but also in the municipalities and regions, where it presents a major opportunity for development of a number of activities. In a way similar to public (community) services that currently, unfortunately, undergo significant changes and bring a number of complications both to the very applicants for employment, who are interested in public community services, as well as to municipalities and regions that organize this activity. Despite these difficulties, both public service and volunteering present a great challenge to deal with a number of issues in the municipalities. For this reason, the Healthy Cities together with the partners HESTIA o.s. - national volunteering centre and foreign partners C.A.R.D.O. from Slovakia and association of Healthy Cities of the Baltic Region have prepared the project of "Volunteering and Community Service (performed by unemployed) in Municipalities". In the following two years, the project will gather best practice examples dedicated to the issue of volunteering from the Czech Republic and abroad.

On Thursday of March 7, 2013, Ujezd nad Lesy in Prague 21 hosted the Meeting of Prague's City Districts, organised by the CD of Prague 21 in collaboration with Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic and Palacky University in Olomouc. The meeting was dedicated to realisation Local Agenda 21 on the level of city districts, strategic development or support of physical activities. The representative of the recreology department at Palacky University in Olomouc, Mr Zdenek Hamrik, had an appearance on the support of physical activities. The experience and best practice examples dedicated to the issue of planning with the public and preparation of the strategic plan have been for instance introduced by the representatives of city districts of Prague 12 or Prague 10. The programme also included other topics, such as preparation of nature trails or community field work for prevention of sociopathic phenomena.

The awards of successful municipalities form a traditional part of the programme of National Conference on Quality in Public Administration. Within the awarding of Ministry of Interior Prizes for Quality and Innovation, the implementation of Local Agenda 21 (LA21) method, i.e. practical application of sustainable development principles was acknowledged again. HCCZ members had strong representation among the awarded for 2012, as they dominated the category of innovations with four out of six awarded prizes this year.

On Tuesday of February 12, 2013, the regular Meeting of Healthy Regions took place at the Regional Office of Pilsen Region. The aim of this event was to share the approved procedures and inspiration in the development of international programmes of Healthy Region and local Agenda 21 right on the regional level. The topics of this year's meeting among others included the support of volunteering and transfer of experience from the practice. Approved procedures were presented by the representatives of Pilsen Region, South-Moravian Region, Liberec Region and the Region of Vysočina.

We thank you for your continued support and cooperation and wish you a lot of success in your personal and professional life and especially a great deal of enthusianism on the way to healthy and sustainable world.

PF 2013

HCCZ currently associate 107 members of various sizes - from small municipalities and their associations to statutory cities and regions. In the course of 2012, the association with 19 years of tradition in the CZ extended its ranks with 6 new members: towns of Brandys nad Labem-Stara Boleslav, Krnov, municipalities Bory, Jesenice, Křídla and City District of Praha 21.

A number of thematic meetings and events not only for HCCZ members took place in 2012. The members and other interested parties met for three times at Healthy City Schools and were presented many interesting projects and collaboration offers on various subjects from the part of professional partners. Two other events were dedicated to the last-mentioned topic - the March training for politicians and representatives of Healthy City authorities, where they could test the current condition of strategic management in their cities and consequently also an independent HCCZ Thematic Section that took place in May in Prague and introduced the current affairs on the national level and examples from practice. In 2012, HCCZ also participated in organisation of an interesting international seminar "The City We Create". At the end of the year, the Kaiserštejn Palace in Prague hosted the prestigious Exhibition of Best Local Agendas 21 as a part of HCCZ 2012 Conference. The 2012 events have been attended by almost 500 interested parties from the ranks of municipalities and regions, schools, non-profit organisations and other professional organisations, institutions or companies.