Dr. Shawnda Morrison gave a presentation on OPC’s global 2025 Position Statement on Active Outdoor Play to the World Health Organization Health-Enhancing Physical Activity (HEPA) Europe – Environment working group, which focuses on Environmental Approaches to HEPA in the European region. Dr. Morrison’s presentation was titled “The 2025 Position Statement on Active Outdoor Play: A project led by Outdoor Play Canada”.

The HEPA Environment working group works to raise the profile of the relationship between the environment and the promotion of health-enhancing physical activity (HEPA). The group takes a broad, inter-sectoral approach to explore the intersections of physical activity and the physical environment (e.g. active transport, urban design, architecture, nature-based solutions, etc.), using a OneHealth and Planetary Health perspective.

The group discussed how WHO-HEPA Europe could better highlight the importance of active outdoor play in their upcoming endeavours, including a possible dedicated session at the next HEPA conference, scheduled to take place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2026. The theme of that conference will be “Green Pathways to Health”.

Learn more about WHO-HEPA Here: https://hepa2026.si/

Browse the HEPA Climate Action Pledge here.

Check out Dr. Morrison’s presentation slides here.