March 9 we celebrated our Healthy Start | Ambition day. Together with scientists from the social, technical and medical sciences, youth workers, policy officers and social partners, we joined forces to celebrate our ambitions and collaborations for a better future for young people. What a great day!

Healthy Start was founded in 2021 by Academic Leads Eveline Crone (EUR), Vincent Jaddoe (Erasmus MC) and Maaike Kleinsmann (TU Delft), convinced of the importance of crossing boundaries of disciplines for a better future for young people. This led to a new vision in 2022, presented by Jennifer Kockx (program manager) at the Ambition Day, followed by pitches about our 6 ambitions by young scientists from the core teams and the launch of the Healthy Start-ers Fund for short term and concrete activities that will foster collaboration with societal partners and Healthy Start education.

But that is not everything! There were inspiring work sessions and workshops around the 1st 1000 days, hospital of the future, digital empowerment of children’s physical activity, youth crime & addiction, mental well-being and youth participation, led by researchers from our ambition core teams. The afternoon program was filled with inspiring talks by Prof. Tessa Roseboom (AUMC), Jan Carel Diehl (TUD) and Wessel Veenkamp (TUD), Prof. Andrew Fuligni (UCLA) and Pauline Calmez from Netwerk Nieuw Rotterdam. In between the conversations there were festivities and beautiful performances by the dancers of Blackbirds (choreography by Dalton Jansen) and an aerial acrobatics dance act by Kelly de Vos.

Poster awards were won by Emily Tang and Kim Boltjes for their innovative work, presented by Healthy Start | Young Board chair Michelle Achterberg. Congratulations to both! The day ended with the opening and closing words of Victor Bekkers, Dean of Erasmus School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (ESSB) and Caspar Chorus, Dean of Industrial Design Engineering (TU Delft), who expressed their enthusiasm and support.

Check our LinkedIn page or the Recap Page for a video and photos to experience the Healthy Start | Ambition Day again!