20 years of Wellness Valley

The first Wellness Valley Workshop post pandemic was held today. Over 250 stakeholders attended the presentation of the Wellness Valley Report: The Wellness Valley remains a benchmark in relation to adopting healthy lifestyles and improving life quality at a time when health is increasingly a major issue.
Speakers at the workshop included Wellness Foundation President Nerio Alessandri, Minister for Sport and Youth Andrea Abodi, President of the Emilia-Romagna Region Stefano Bonaccini and University of Bologna Rector Giovanni Molari.
Wellness Foundation director Federica Alberti presented the results of the Wellness Valley Report highlighting the project’s impact in terms of Health, Economic Development, Tourism and Skills.

20 years after the creation of this forward-looking project, the numbers speak for themselves: Romagna is way ahead of the national average on important health indicators, including the percentage of the active population (55 % vs. 46%), sedentary population (16.1% vs. 30.6%) and innovative projects such as Exercise is Medicine.
These results validate the positive outcomes of work and investment on prevention in order to ensure a future for the next generation.

During the workshop, Emilia-Romagna President Stefano Bonaccini highlighted the importance of the Wellness Valley project in boosting the value of sport also as an element of tourism promotion: “We can win in the marketplace by investing in wellness and make a difference by systemizing all the elements of our region’s culture: the hospitality, the quality of services, good food, sports and exercise that are not only good for your health, but they also lead to a rise in spin-offs with an increase in sports tourism.”

The institutional contribution of Chancellor Giovanni Molari who emphasized the university’s commitment to keep contributing to education in the wellness field did not disappoint: “we are developing many projects dedicated to sport such as the student athlete pathway, which offers the opportunity to combine a sport career with a college education, and we are investing in the renovation of sports facilities that are available to students, professors but also the community.”

At the end, Minister Andrea Abodi spoke, wishing to make this project a national heritage. He also answered questions from some of the students who attended the workshop, emphasizing the importance of sport at an educational level: “I believe that sport is at the core of the social economy and quality of life, also remembering its importance in educational and social terms in promoting healthy lifestyles. The culture of sport should focus not only on winning, but on creating a culture of movement understood as physical and mental well-being, inclusive and health-oriented to enhance human capital in all its forms.”

The workshop was an opportunity to get together and share the many achievements of the past 20 years, certainly not an arrival point, but a starting point. As Nerio Alessandri said, “We aim to double our achievements in the coming years by launching a new challenge: we need to learn from what we have achieved and build the future.”