Wednesday 28th November 2024 saw representatives of 130 organisations from across Plymouth converge on the Plymouth Life Centre to celebrate a decade of the Thrive Plymouth programme and network, its progress to date and what is planned for the next ten years.
Thrive Plymouth is the Council’s approach to tackling health inequalities within Plymouth. It is run by the public health team but consists of a network of organisations and individuals from the across the city who are all committed to addressing the unfair differences between our communities and improving the wellbeing of Plymouth residents.
Thrive Plymouth has been running since 2014, with each year having a theme around which the Thrive Plymouth Network comes together to share best practice and learning.
Following an in-depth evaluation of the past 10 years, Thrive Plymouth re-launched in November 2024 with a new underlying construct which aims to take a holistic approach to person’s wellbeing and considers different factors that impact on people’s health. The construct is Healthy Body, Healthy Mind, Healthy Places, Healthy Communities. A full summary of the evaluation and evidence base is in the final report.
Thrive Plymouth: A Decade of Impact, a Future of Possibilities promised a full programme of presentations and networking, launching a report of the same name that showcases a full evaluation and evidence base of work to date. This short video from the Plymouth City Council Public Health team explains more.
The day began with opening remarks from Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Ibbotson as HM Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Devon and from Councillor Pauline Murphy as Deputy Lord Mayor of Plymouth, during which it was encouraging indeed to hear Plymouth’s Sustainable Food Places journey moving from Bronze Award in 2015 to Silver Award status in 2023 referred to as one of numerous achievements in the past decade. This was followed by a virtual appearance from Professor Sir Michael Marmot, who eloquently imparted his great wealth of experience as to why health inequalities matter so much.
Outgoing Director of Public Health Dr Ruth Harrell then shared an inspiring overview of the first decade of the programme, which unexpectedly included navigating the global Covid-19 pandemic. Her presentation was testament to huge amounts of work across the city by network members across each of the annual themes – eight in total as outlined below, including Year 5 Connecting People Through Food, in which Food Plymouth was a key partner.
Credit: Thrive Plymouth
As lunchtime approached, it was time to engage with the marketplace stalls and short case study sessions, including one led by Food Plymouth CIC Director Ian Smith, which showcased learnings and best practice from the past decade of work across a host of partner organisations.
Food Plymouth was delighted to be present alongside over fifty fellow Thrive network members as part of the diverse marketplace of information stalls, alongside Food Plymouth partners including Food is Fun CIC, FoodSEqual and others. As part of activities at the Food Plymouth stall and building upon work earlier this year hosting a Food Conversation funded by the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, we invited participants to share one thing they would change about the food system, with responses ranging from a ban on ultra-processed foods to efforts to prevent food waste. Speaking of which, thanks go to Tess Wilmot in Generous Earth mode, who ensured that a composting bin was on site ready to redirect any teabags, coffee grounds and food waste could be redirected to the nearby Ridan composter situated in Central Park!
The afternoon saw a warm welcome to incoming Director of Public Health Professor Steve Madden, who led an interactive quiz that offered an informative and at times sobering overview of Plymouth health inequalities statistics, paving the way for an outline of work planned for the next ten years of Thrive Plymouth. The new framework and logo for Thrive Plymouth moving forward were unveiled, with its four-strand focus on Healthy Body, Healthy Mind, Healthy Places and Healthy Communities explored further in afternoon bitesize learning and networking sessions.
An uplifting community-led celebration then began to draw the event to a close, thanks to a fantastic set of musical performances from members of the Plymouth Performing Arts Academy. Leader of Plymouth City Council Councillor Tudor Evans then led the closing remarks, which included heartfelt thanks to Dr Ruth Harrell for her incredible work as Director of Public Health over many years which were echoed by all across the room, including Food Plymouth. Thanks and congratulations go to the entire Public Health team for all of their efforts in not only hosting this event but in facilitating such a powerful network for positive change across the city – one which Food Plymouth is grateful and glad to be part of from the past decade into the next.
