Blue Zones Project: Jacksonville poised to become the ‘City for Well-Being'

Blue Zones Project Partners
·3 min read
An artist's rendition of the landscaping and amenities planned at the Lee Street pond in the middle of the Emerald Trail's first segment.
An artist's rendition of the landscaping and amenities planned at the Lee Street pond in the middle of the Emerald Trail's first segment.

Jacksonville has always been a city brimming with potential. For years there has been chatter about its promise as a destination location. However, there’s one looming challenge — Jacksonville is a city that has struggled to find its identity. Jaxsons have tried in different ways to establish a clear reason for its wished-for status as a “Top 10” place to live.

Now with the support of Blue Zones Project, residents and partner organizations, Jacksonville can brand itself as the City of Well-Being.

Blue Zones Project is a community-led well-being improvement initiative designed to enable people to live better, longer lives with lower rates of chronic diseases and a higher quality of life. Brought to Jacksonville through a coalition of leading community partners, Blue Zones Project launched in June 2022 through an innovative partnership among leading local organizations: Baptist Health, Brooks Rehabilitation, the city of Jacksonville, Community First Credit Union, Florida Blue, Jacksonville Jaguars, Jacksonville University, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, Mayo Clinic, UF Health and United Way of Northeast Florida.

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For the next five years, these organizations will work in partnership with residents to transform health and well-being neighborhood by neighborhood.

Research shows that where people live exerts a bigger influence on their health than their genetics. So Blue Zones focuses on the Life Radius — the area close to home where people spend 90% of their lives. The project works with communities to optimize public policies and social connections, as well as the places and spaces where people spend the most time (streets, parks, schools, workplaces, grocery stores, faith communities, homes) to help make healthy choices easier and more accessible to all.

Accessibility for all is something that residents across the First Coast deserve. Too often a person’s ZIP code determines the outcome of their well-being. A recently announced Gallup poll commissioned by Blue Zones Project Jacksonville and conducted between November and January 2022, found that well-being across the First Coast was statistically lower than the national average.

Despite these challenges, most residents still said they would choose to live in Jacksonville rather than leave. This gives us hope that our city can transform health outcomes, like the 75 other Blue Zones Project communities across the United States.

Communities with higher self-reported well-being indicators have lower health care costs, higher productivity and are recognized among the best places to live, work and play, which results in greater economic and social vitality. Blue Zones Project communities have seen double-digit decreases in obesity and smoking rates, increased economic investment in downtown corridors, increased grant funding awards to support policies and programs to improve health equity, along with measurable savings in health care costs.

The skyline of Downtown Jacksonville. Could a coalition of local organizations transform the city into a community centered on healthy choices?
The skyline of Downtown Jacksonville. Could a coalition of local organizations transform the city into a community centered on healthy choices?

The pilot city, Albert Lea, Minn., raised life expectancy by three years and lowered health care costs for city workers by 40%.

Now, Jacksonville is on the path to being the 76th Blue Zones Project community in the country. In many ways, Jacksonville is uniquely suited to the Blue Zones lifestyle. Consider these city features:

  • The largest urban park system in the United States (more than 80,000 acres);

  • Four major health systems in one place; and

  • The longest river in Florida, winding through historic neighborhoods and Downtown.

This is a project that our city and residents can own. It’s a commitment to a different way of being and a new brand for our city. Well-being can become Jacksonville’s identity — a place where life can be lived better, longer. We hope you’ll join us in this work by attending our virtual Blue Zones Project Town Hall ― a free online event that will feature our Blueprint (strategic plan) for the next five years — on June 21. To learn more, visit BlueZonesProjectjacksonville.com/.

Blue Zones Project Jacksonville and partner organizations

This guest column is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of the Times-Union. We welcome a diversity of opinions.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Accessible healthy choices for all is key to rebranding Jacksonville