Health and Wellbeing
How heritage contributes to physical and mental health
How can heritage contribute?
Heritage can play an important role in supporting life satisfaction and physical and mental wellbeing. The layout of historic towns that favours pedestrian access, the social and personal impacts gained from participation, and enjoying historic parks and other green spaces, all support wellbeing.
What we already know
Looking across existing research, here are short overviews of the findings on:
Heritage supports a more active lifestyle
Heritage creates inviting places that support healthier, more active lifestyles for everyone.
Historic towns are typically more compact which has been found to encourage residents to walk more.
Historic parks and regenerated historic waterways are helping to tackle obesity and inactivity by providing an attractive environment where people can walk, cycle or enjoy other physical activities safely.
Heritage contributes to mental health
Engaging with historic sites, museums or culture is linked to higher life satisfaction and reduced stress levels, even when participation is irregular. These experiences offer a mental break, helping people feel fascinated and relaxed while connecting to their surroundings.
Volunteering in heritage projects brings feelings of purpose and connection, identity and belonging. Many participants report that working on heritage projects provides a unique sense of fulfilment not found in other types of volunteering.
If you need to use this evidence in a report or funding application, you can find more detail and the sources of the evidence by following the link below:
How can you understand your impact?
1. Select relevant indicators
First, you need to decide which (if any) of the indicators of impact on wellbeing you want to explore with your participants/community.
Asking about physical health helps you understand how your organisation and events contribute to promoting physical activity and wellbeing.
You could ask questions that explore how participation in heritage events or activities impacts people’s physical health. For example:
- Whether the physical activities at your events encouraged people to be more active
- If attending made people feel more energised or inspired them to take better care of their health
- Whether the environment at your event encouraged people to spend more time outdoors
- How the activities and setting affected their physical health and energy levels
- Whether the event inspired them to be more physically active or mindful of their wellbeing
This feedback helps you see how your organisation's work contributes to improving participants' physical health, providing an additional dimension to the value of heritage experiences.
Asking about mental health in your survey helps you understand how your organisation and events contribute to people’s emotional and psychological wellbeing.
You could ask questions that explore how attending your events or exhibitions impacts people's mental health. For example:
- Whether the event improved participants’ mood and made them feel more positive
- If it helped them feel more relaxed, less stressed, or mentally stimulated
- Whether the experience helped them feel more connected to their community, benefiting their mental health
- If the activities and environment left them feeling calmer, more balanced, or inspired
- How your event influenced their overall sense of wellbeing, including reducing anxiety and stress
This feedback helps you understand the role your organisation plays in supporting mental health, showcasing how heritage experiences can provide emotional relief, a sense of connection, and mental rejuvenation.
Important note
Take great care when asking personal questions about wellbeing. There is huge potential to cause distress. We strongly recommend sticking to the questions in our social impact survey question bank.
Of course you must also ensure compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) as you will potentially be collecting very sensitive data and participants must be confident that this will be private.
Wellbeing is 1 of 6 areas of social impact where your work could make a difference. Spend some time exploring all 6 and pick a set of indicators that fit the aims of your project.
2. Plan your data collection process
Explore data collection methods and design a process tailored to your project and resources.
Data collection methods, when and how to use them
3. Get inspiration from case studies
See how other similar organisations have measured the impact of their activities.
Case studies
Using evidence to secure community funding
See how a small heritage organisation can use existing research to demonstrate the potential social impact of their heritage project when applying for funding.
Understanding the impact of heritage events
A fictional case study illustrating how a small heritage organisation can use simple yet powerful methods to measure the social impact of their events.
Also of interest
