The WHO Collaborating Centre, under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Orkan Okan, is taking on the scientific development and evaluation of a new project conducted in cooperation with the City of Munich. The Assistant Professorship of Health Literacy is responsible for the conception, supervision, and evaluation of all corresponding measures. The new daycare project “Collective Wellbeing at the Organizational Level: Healthy Coexistence in Municipal Childcare Centers in Munich (KoWOrg-München)", approved by the Munich City Council on December 3, 2025, aims to systematically strengthen the wellbeing of children, educational professionals, and families. The project is funded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung until 2027. The share allocated to TUM amounts to 115,000 euros.
“Considering the wellbeing of both children and educational professionals together is a central pillar for high-quality early childhood education, prevention, and health promotion,” explains Prof. Okan, Head of the Assistant Professorship of Health Literacy. TUM contributes scientific concepts, instruments, and evaluation methods “to make effective measures visible and to develop and evaluate, together with the City of Munich, new approaches for health-promoting daycare structures.”
City emphasizes importance of collaboration with TUM
Daycare centers are increasingly facing complex challenges. These include high demands in daily work, burdens within teams, and rising health and educational needs among families. The Assistant Professorship of Health Literacy therefore works closely with the KITA division of the Department of Education and Sports to develop a site-specific overall concept.
Verena Dietl, Third Mayor of the City of Munich, explicitly highlights the added value of the scientific cooperation: “With the ‘Wellbeing’ project, we place the wellbeing of everyone at the center – the children, the educational professionals, and the families. Especially in times of high strain, it is important to strengthen childcare centers as stable, health-promoting environments. The support from the Robert Bosch Stiftung enables us to take an innovative approach here.”
The project focuses on participation, networking, equity of opportunity, and sustainable structures – key factors that, according to scientific findings, have a lasting impact on wellbeing in everyday educational settings.
City School Councillor Florian Kraus also underscores the importance of the research cooperation: “Wellbeing is a central prerequisite for successful educational processes. Through close collaboration with the Assistant Professorship of Health Literacy and the structural development of our municipal daycare system, we are creating sustainable improvements in the daily life of the centers. I am pleased that we can now jointly launch this important project.”
Model character and transfer potential
Nina-Sofia Schmidt, Senior Project Manager, summarizes the reasons for the support provided by the Robert Bosch Stiftung: “We support the Munich ‘Wellbeing’ project because it demonstrates how daycare teams, families, and academia can jointly create structures that promote the healthy development of children and relieve professionals. The initiative has the potential to serve as a model for many municipalities facing similar challenges.”
TUM also sees strong transfer potential in the project: The scientific insights gained are intended not only to benefit Munich childcare centers but also to provide long-term impulses for other municipalities facing comparable challenges. “At the Assistant Professorship of Health Literacy and the WHO CC for Health Literacy, we are very pleased that we can now look at daycare centers as health-promoting settings for the third time in our research. With ‘wellbeing,’ or rather ‘collective wellbeing,’ we will also, for the first time, develop an organizational-level wellbeing approach and link it to health literacy,” concludes Prof. Okan.
To the homepage of the Assistant Professorship of Health Literacy
To the press release of the City of Munich
Contact
Prof. Dr. Orkan Okan
Assistant Professorship of Health Literacy
Am Olympiacampus 11
80809 Munich
phone: 089 289 24660
e-mail: Orkan.Okan[at]tum.de / info.healthliteracy[at]tum.de
Text: Bastian Daneyko / City of Munich, Department of Education and Sports
Photos: Private