Dear Fellow Community Member,
It has been a few weeks since our Community Engagement Event and Stakeholders’ Roundtable. For those of you who attended, we hope you found the event worthwhile and informative. For those of you who watched through the live stream, we offer our sincere apologies for the various challenges experienced.
Our biggest takeaway is that there is definitive interest in bringing the Blue Zone Project (BZP) to our area. In addition, the feedback was consistent that this should include greater Sussex County. Below is a summary of the key points:
- The Blue Zones Project is proven to be an effective framework with measurable positive outcomes in health and wellbeing, demonstrated Return on Investment (ROI) for communities and worksites, decreased healthcare costs for employers, and interventions that make a difference in our quality of life.
- BZP has been implemented in over 70+ communities around the United States. This would be the first project in the State of Delaware.
- This is a fully scalable, choice driven project engaged by interested communities, worksites, businesses, schools, and more. Participation is 100% voluntary. People, organizations, and businesses join the movement when they choose.
- While the BZP is a financial investment, the funds are being invested back into OUR communities. We are integral in developing our blueprint and deploying the work, based on the different needs identified in each area and are supported by best practices. We will have the guidance, experience, and knowledge of the National Blue Zones team, but ultimately our communities decide what will be implemented.
- This initiative is not funded by local hospitals, individuals, towns, or increased taxes, but most often by larger corporations and foundations wanting to bring the BZP to their employees, families and the community at large. Local businesses and healthcare organizations may support the mission by being a partner and sharing in the investment, but they are not typically the majority funders.
- There is great potential to braid the amazing work of our area community-based organizations with this initiative, given the mutual goal and focus of improved community health and wellbeing. The idea is not duplicity or replacement but synergy and strategic alignment.
So what’s next?
We continue to inform, educate and determine which towns/cities/municipalities want this for their community as well as the organizations that will serve as partners in designing and implementing the blueprint. Conversations are ongoing with various organizations, city/town officials, and potential funders to identify early adopters who are ready to take the next step. Our goal is to have the defined population for Phase I during the first quarter of 2024 which determines the scope and cost of the Community Needs Assessment.
What can you do to help?
If you want this in your community, as a way of life that supports health and wellbeing for all, please tell your friends, neighbors, co-workers and local representatives about the Blue Zones Project. We welcome invitations for discussion groups and presentations so people can learn more.
With gratitude for your interest and engagement in our community,
The Blue Project DE Team,
Kim Blanch
Rita Williams
Krista Griffin
The Blue Zones Project is a community-wide well-being initiative designed to make healthier choices easier. It encourages sustainable changes to built environments and social networks, suggesting systems-level changes to key settings such as worksites, schools, restaurants, grocery stores, faith-based communities, and neighborhoods. By helping people live longer and thrive through behavior change, communities can lower healthcare costs, improve productivity, and enjoy a higher quality of life where we live, learn, work, grow and worship. The Blue Zones Project is based on principles identified during a ten-year worldwide longevity study commissioned by National Geographic and detailed by Dan Buettner in his New York Times best-seller, The Blue Zones Solution.
With various organizations striving toward the same goal of improving the health and wellbeing of our communities, this is an opportune time for Sussex communities to consider a new, bold approach that addresses the health of its populations. A community-based health improvement model such as the Blue Zones Project would be a driving force that unites and accelerates current organizational strategies while at the same time implements additional initiatives thus propelling Sussex, and possibly all of Delaware, toward optimal health and wellbeing.
To learn more about the Blue Zones and the Blue Zone Project, check out the links below.