Healthy city of Witten: Students actively shape their well-being!

Healthy city of Witten: Students actively shape their well-being!

In North Rhine-Westphalia, the Health Prize NRW 2024 honored the Holzkamp and Otto Schott comprehensive schools in Witten on August 26, 2025 for their innovative projects in the field of health promotion. The award highlights the importance of a participatory approach that not only aims at disease prevention, but also actively promotes students' health awareness. The exemplary character of this initiative was honored in a supporting program that strengthens young people's life skills, self-efficacy and quality of life by enabling them to define and pursue their own health goals.

The projects are in the context of the Dutch concept “Positive Health”, which is supported by the University of Witten/Herdecke (UW/H). This collaboration is part of the municipal model project “Healthy City of Witten (GeWIT)”, which is supported by the Techniker Krankenkasse. In the projects, students learn to actively shape their health by encouraging them to ask important questions: "How are you? What goals do you have? What do you need?"

Health promotion through creative approaches

The Holzkamp comprehensive school follows a peer approach, in which older students support younger ones as “buddYs”. This concept aims to promote personal responsibility, social skills and mutual support. The Otto Schott Comprehensive School's creative lunchtime offerings include discussion groups led by a children's and youth coach. The aim of these sessions is to strengthen the students' emotional expression and conflict resolution skills.

Both schools use the “spider web model” to assess their own well-being. This method gives students the opportunity to talk about various topics such as sleep problems, loneliness, bullying and family stress. Project leader Heike Bergemann emphasizes that conversations about one's own well-being can lead to positive experiences and strengthen the students' sense of self-efficacy.

Scientific support and long-term goals

The project is scientifically supported by the Institute for General Medicine and Outpatient Health Care (iamag) at the UW/H. This examines what effects the discussions have on the students’ self-efficacy, resilience and health literacy. The results of these analyzes will be part of a doctoral thesis and are intended to provide important insights into the promotion of self-efficacy and life skills.

The importance of self-efficacy for a healthy lifestyle has already been recognized in numerous studies. Self-efficacy refers to the belief that one is able to carry out desired actions using one's own resources. Important foundations of life skills, such as self-awareness and problem-solving skills, are formed in early childhood and can be further developed later. Raising the awareness of parents and caregivers as well as a stimulating environment play a crucial role in early childhood support.

Both schools plan to continue the projects in the long term. The Holzkamp Comprehensive School is planning an open meeting for buddY tandems, while the Otto Schott Comprehensive School is aiming for the targeted inclusion of quiet and introverted students. The overarching goal is to expand the concept of “Positive Health” to other schools and open child and youth work. The focus continues to be on self-efficacy and improving the quality of life of children and young people.