As a part of HEPROGRESS project, health surveys have been conducted both in Norway and Latvia. While Norwegians have been analysing the first results from Østfold County, in Latvia the interviews were still going on. In total there have been 3037 out of 4200 carried out in Vidzeme Region so far.

According to the Lavian Coordinator of HEPROGRESS, Anna Broka, the respondents are generally very open and willing to answer on the questions.

-       It is an opportunity to express their own well-being, work and attitude about the place where they live and work, says Ms. Broka.

At the same time, last preparations for implementing another module of HEPROGRESS – Empowerment Planning Course - have been carried out. The course was held at Amata Municipality in Amata on 28-29 June. Administrators and politicians from 8 municipalities took part in the course (Amata, Cesis, Ligatne, Pargauja, Priekuli, Jaunpiebalga, Vecpiebalga, Rauna). It called for an open debate among politicians, administrators and professionals about how to address the social determinants in health in local and regional policies. During the course, Roar Amdam (Volda University) gave practical examples from HEPRO empowerment planning cycle and Iveta Reinholde (University of Latvia) introduced the leadership as a tool in know-how policy making process.

On 24 July the workshop was organized at Amata municipality for local planners, politicians and administrators with an aim to work on public health planning and public health strategy development for all 8 municipalities. The outline of the strategy will be presented at the second edition of the Empowerment Course on 23 and 24 August.