ESF Plus Project
Children’s Centre for Health Literacy: Children’s Museum
Pauls Stradiņš Museum of the History of Medicine is mounting a project Children’s Centre for Health Literacy: Children’s Museum, co-funded by the European Union. As part of the project, a new Children’s Museum is being launched to serve as a health promotion platform for primary-school-age children. The Children’s Museum is scheduled for unveiling in 2027.
To this end, premises that will house the Children’s Museum are being reconstructed and upgraded, a classroom for learning activities set up, a permanent exhibition aimed at children created and new museum education programmes developed as part of the project.
Objective: a Healthier Society
The objective of the project is improving a universally equal and timely access to quality sustainable and affordable healthcare, health promotion and ill-health prevention services by increasing the efficiency and resilience of the healthcare system and implementing nationwide health promotion and ill-health prevention measures.
Why Health Literacy Matters
As children’s health literacy is increased, children will be better equipped to make healthier choices and adopt healthy habits; through children, this knowledge and skills will become relevant among the rest of the family members. Overall, the Children’s Centre for Health Literacy will improve the health and quality of life for the general population of Latvia. Through alleviating the burden on the healthcare system, in the long term, it will help improve the resilience of the healthcare system. It will be not just children but the whole Latvian population that will stand to gain.
Museum for Primary-School-Age Children
The target group for the upcoming museum is 6- to 12-year-olds in Latvia. The Children’s Museum will operate as an interdisciplinary component of the school-age children’s education and health promotion system, lending itself to acquiring health literacy through methods offered by museology and museum education. The Children’s Museum will aim at instilling deeper understanding of the human life processes, health and their own bodies in children, shaping social skills rooted in empathy and mutual care, and cementing healthy habits. This contribution to children’s health literacy will also be an investment in ensuring sustainable public health in Latvia.
Public Involvement and Brand Awareness
The interested parties among the public are expected to get involved in launching the Children’s Museum, including collaboration with healthcare and inclusivity experts, patient organizations, education and museum professionals. The plans also include activities aimed at target audience research and identifying the needs of school pedagogues, collaboration between the museum staff and invited experts on the conceptual and actual development of the content of the permanent exhibition, as well as setting up the classroom, and development and roll-out of a programme of museum education activities to be hosted there.
To ensure a demand for the services of the Children’s Museum and foster awareness of its contribution to public health, steps will be taken to promote the recognisability of the project (development of the Children’s Museum brand, an integrated communication campaign and other activities).
Project Funding
The Children’s Centre for Health Literacy: Children’s Museum project is co-funded by the European Union (ESF Plus Project No. 4.1.2.1/1/24/I/002). The project’s total available funding amounts to EUR 1 250 000, including EUR 1 062 500 funded by ESF Plus and a EUR 187 500 co-funding from the state budget.
