INTERNATIONAL – Sharing Our Methodology – RECETAS at ICUH 2024

At the International Conference for Urban Health (ICUH) hosted in Morocco by the International Society for Urban Health (ISUH), RECETAS Project Assistant Laura Hidalgo López presented our Protocol for co-creating nature-based social prescription (NBSP) menus in urban contexts.

At ICUH 2024, RECETAS presented a tested, collaborative methodology developed across all pilot cities.

Representing the work of RECETAS researchers across all pilot cities, the presentation showcased the collaborative, tested methodology designed to guide the development of locally tailored NBSP activities. The protocol guides practitioners and care organisations in co-creating nature-based social prescription (NBSP) activities—forming the foundation of the Friends in Nature intervention and supporting adaptation to local urban contexts.

What it is about

The protocol describes a set of guidelines for engaging stakeholders to generate a collective mapping of nature-based (NB) community resources for use in the Friends in Nature, an NBSP intervention, in order to establish and share a protocol for practitioners and care organisations who want to co-create a NBSP menu, facilitating its adaptation and replication in specific local contexts.

The methodological process

The process uses the Participatory Action Research (PAR) framework. We propose a series of workshops where various tools are used to facilitate collaborative reflection, diagnosis, and understanding of the community and the associative network in the neighbourhood. This process facilitates mapping and engagement of NB social entities in neighbourhoods which can be used for multiple purposes, and includes ethical considerations.

Display of the protocol

This protocol has been adopted in the six RECETAS pilot cities and refined through learnings from field experience. Once generated, the NBSP menu benefits the community, the ecosystem of social prescribers, public institutions, and community entities. NBSP in urban settings offers a valuable opportunity to help people connect with others and their local environment, generating health, social and economic benefits.