Where did the concept of Blue Zone projects come from?
The Blue Zones Project is based on research about the regions of the world with the highest concentrations of centenarians (people who live to be 100 years or older). There are five original blue zones regions: Loma Linda, California; Okinawa, Japan; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Sardinia, Italy; and Ikaria, Greece. These areas share nine common traits that contribute to people’s longevity, called the Power 9®, and you can learn more about them in National Geographic Magazine and the New York Times best-selling books, The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest and The Blue Zones Solution.
What are the goals of the Blue Zones project?
The Project seeks to improve the overall well-being of an entire community’s residents. Well-being is a measure of a person’s overall physical, social, and emotional health. Higher well-being leads to lower healthcare costs, higher productivity and increased economic vitality, and offers benefits for everybody.
Outcome goals include:
Improving well-being, as measured by the Community Well-Being Index
Generating significant medical cost savings and productivity improvement
Lowering the obesity rate
Lowering smoking rates
Increasing produce consumption
Improving access to healthy foods
Increasing daily physical activity levels
Drive significant media attention to your community
Hire and train community coalitions to lead and sustain this work
Leverage this inclusive and systematic approach to secure grants, gifts, and funding for communities
How does the Blue Zones Project approach differ from other health initiatives?
Many traditional health initiatives offer mainly diet and exercise programs that are right-minded, but rarely sustainable over time. Additionally, they are often narrowly focused on physical health and are often put into practice without consideration for existing community engagement programs. Blue Zones Project looks to knock down siloed efforts through an inclusive and comprehensive approach to population health. The Project focuses instead on comprehensively changing a community’s environments so that healthy choices are easier for individuals to make. The Blue Zones Project is unique because it takes a systematic environmental approach to improving well-being through policy, programs, building design, social networks, and the built environment.
Is the Blue Zones Project meant to replace existing programs or efforts?
Blue Zones Project's work is focused on collaboration and leveraging what is already working well within a community, and building and igniting momentum and community engagement. The Project looks to broaden and accelerate current efforts. When the Blue Zones Project team begins its collaborative work in a community, the first several months include meetings with stakeholder groups to better understand efforts already underway. It is understandable that when a new approach is introduced it can trigger concerns. Typically, existing programs that do similar work see their efforts visibility enhanced. Leaders and organizations already doing similar work typically sit on Blue Zones Project committees and help lead these efforts, and build their brand recognition.
What does community transformation look like?
Blue Zones Project utilizes many strategies for improving well-being although not all will be necessary or applicable in every community. Strategies will be chosen based on the Blue Zones Project team’s community assessment in collaboration with community leaders and the Blueprint planning done by a core leadership team made up of citizens and leaders from the community.
Employers (public, private, and not-for-profit) are offered no-cost tools and consulting to improve employee productivity and well-being. Individuals will have access to free tools that will help them create healthier surroundings for themselves, their families and the community. These include checklists for setting up a home to improve well-being, an online quiz to project longevity and a coaching tool to improve your well-being, and workshops to deepen a sense of purpose, make new friends, and explore healthier eating. Civic leaders play a key role by adopting and implementing best practices in policies and programs to improve the built environment, food environment, and smoke-free environment. Restaurants, schools, grocery stores, faith-based communities and other organizations can participate by making changes that will create healthier environments for customers, students, members and residents. Local media outlets help spread the word about Blue Zones Project and encourage participation.
Some of the typical implementations a community can expect:
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Walking school buses that provide students with at least a mile of walking each day
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Partnerships with local grocery stores and convenience stores to promote healthy foods
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Planning for walking and biking paths that promote human-powered transportation
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Establishment of walking, healthy eating and purpose groups that encourage social engagement
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Helping local restaurants enhance menus to include more appealing, healthier choices that can also help them grow their customer base and revenue
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Targeted solutions for harder to reach populations
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Creation of healthier worksites making healthier choices easier for colleagues
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Adding healthy foods and increasing physical activity in schools
How does Blue Zones Project work as a community-lead initiative?
Full-time teams, hired locally, are trained/certified as specialists by the Blue Zones Project central team to lead the day-to-day execution of a unique Community Blueprint. A local Steering Committee will guide the formation of Blue Zones Project. In addition, a Community Blueprint Advisory Committee—including community leaders and volunteers across all sectors and supported by Blue Zones Project team members—will work to develop a community’s custom Blueprint for Blue Zones Project. That Blueprint, approved by the Steering Committee, is a strategic and tactical action plan that will guide the community as it works to achieve Blue Zones Community® certification.
To launch the Project, a Foundation Period allows residents to provide input on the direction of the Blue Zones Project Blueprint through focus groups, workshops and priority-setting sessions. Following the Foundation Period, local Blue Zones Implementation Committees will begin to execute the Blueprint across six engagement sectors with the help of community leaders, volunteers and the Blue Zones Project team over three-five years.
How does Blue Zones Project address the needs of diverse populations?
Diversity and inclusion is a key component of Blue Zones Project. Because Blue Zones Project focuses on semi-permanent and permanent change to communities’ infrastructure and policies, it focuses on making healthy choices easier for all. Informed by community input and driven by a local Steering Committee, the community defines the specific focus areas and scope. Priorities brought forth by the community will be driven through policy change that affects diverse populations the most.
The Project efforts are tailored to address the needs of each individual community and reach all segments of the population. Of course, Blue Zones Project, or any one initiative, cannot do that alone. Blue Zones Project works closely with local leaders and other community organizations to ensure they are reaching every segment of the population. The City will select objectives and strategies that will address areas of greatest need and potential impact to improve health and well-being. This could mean built environment strategies that improve neighborhood safety and walkability, or access to parks and green space. It could also mean improving access to affordable fresh fruits and vegetables at local corner stores or through mobile markets.
For example, in Fort Worth, the community has focused on addressing a food desert in the Stop Six neighborhood as part of broad revitalization initiative. Blue Zones Project supported collaboration between Fort Worth Independent School District, the city, the county, a non-profit, neighborhoods, police, and many others. In December 2017, using Blue Zones Project programming and focused volunteer efforts, Ramey Market held a grand re-opening as the first healthy corner store in Fort Worth. Blue Zones Project support included:
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Engaged local high school art students to create new mural for the building’s exterior that included produce
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Eliminated in-store tobacco signage
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Added produce stand and healthy grab-and-go cooler near register
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Added signage throughout store promoting healthy food choices and large produce merchandiser is set close to store entrance
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Added healthy options to the store’s freezer section
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Healthy recipe cards are available for customers
Are community members and organizations forced to participate?
Blue Zones Project is a series of improvement initiatives that communities choose from to help turn the tide of chronic disease and poor health. The work of the Project isn’t a mandate; it’s a resource system that works to create and sustain environments where healthy eating and active living are accessible to everyone. The problem is dire: The National Institutes of Health reports that more than two in three U.S. adults are overweight or obese. (Obesity-related conditions such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers are some of the top causes of preventable death.)
Blue Zones Project partners with communities and individuals to reverse that trend, by making healthy choices easier. And choice is the operative word: every restaurant, grocer, school, employer, and individual choosing to participate in this initiative is given a list of evidence-based practices, gleaned from areas of the world where people live longer lives with less chronic disease. These principles and environmental changes are all optional and are designed to enhance longevity. When enough of these practices are implemented, healthy choices become easier to make in a community. On an individual level, people can join the Blue Zones Project movement by deciding which of the best practices are the best fit for them or for their families and attend a variety of free events hosted across the community.
How is Blue Zones Project funded?
Blue Zones Project is a well-being initiative that is brought to each community through the support of community sponsors. The value is improved well-being through healthier choices offered where people live, work, and play such as worksites, schools, grocery stores and restaurants. Because sponsors fund the project, there is no cost to individual citizens, organizations or the city. Projects are generally three to five years and are funded by multiple sponsors contributing to yearly investments in their community’s health. Blue Zones Project has a unique relationship with each community, and funding models vary from state to state and community to community.