With a new masterplan to develop Silkeborg as the Outdoor Capital of Denmark, the city council in Silkeborg Municipality is mainstreaming the outdoors, placing outdoor recreation at the core of the municipality development strategies
The Masterplan is build on three key areas
- Welfare
- Knowledge and growth
- Leisure and nature
Recreational infrastructure, new nature and outdoor sport facilities are at the heart of both urban and rural planning. For instance, will all new urban areas have a maximum of 500 meters to nature – existing or newly planted.
With the Masterplan, Silkeborg wants nature and outdoor to be the main driver to develop the welfare services from children in day care and kindergarten to treatment and recovery of people facing mental or physical health issues.
One of example of the implementation of this masterplan is the project Rehabilitation in nature an initiative operated by the city of Silkeborg in collaboration with the Danish Nature Agency and the Danish Cancer Society. The aim of the initiative is to offer an alternative to regular cancer rehabilitation. Rehabilitation in nature is a program that helps people, most often men, with cancer, maintain and restore their physical and emotional well-being by green exercise.. The traditional cancer rehabilitation that was offered did not attract a significant part of the local population. “Only very few men were participating while despite the fact that men and women are almost equally often affected by cancer” says Jeppe Thøgersen, Head of Culture, leisure and sport at the municipality of Silkeborg. He follows: “We saw an opportunity to bridge the participation gender gap with the rehabilitation in nature programme. The project provides many benefits for the participants (endurance, strength, and mobility), self-esteem increase as well as social relationships with people facing similar issues and challenges.”
Get inspired and check out the city of Silkeborgs masterplan for the outdoors: