Fort Worth Earns Blue Zones Community Certification As Its Well-Being Surges

FORT WORTH, Texas, Oct. 29, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Well-being is at a new high in Fort Worth, as the city reaches a milestone in its efforts to become one of the nation's healthiest communities.

After a five-year push to make healthy choices easier, Fort Worth has earned the title of Blue Zones Community^®. This designation reflects rigorously measured improvements in the health and well-being of its citizens as a result of successful, citywide implementation of Blue Zones Project^®.  Blue Zones Project is a community-led well-being improvement initiative based on creating permanent and semi-permanent changes to man-made surroundings that impact lifestyle and culture. The work of the project is based on an ongoing 15-year longevity study of the world's longest-lived people. Fort Worth joins 19 cities across the country in earning the designation and is now the nation's largest certified Blue Zones Community.

"Healthy cities are vibrant places where people want to live and companies want to relocate, and that describes Fort Worth now more than ever," said Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price. "Through our health and well-being efforts, including the important work that has taken place with Blue Zones Project, we're making healthy choices easier—and that's driving real, positive change. We are already reaping the economic benefits that come with a healthy, thriving population."

The Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index^® shows that Fort Worth's investment in well-being is paying off. The city's overall 2018 Well Being Index score rose to 62.5, a gain of nearly four points since 2014. Science has proven that people with higher well-being cost less and perform better. For a city's population the size of Fort Worth, this degree of well-being improvement leads to millions of dollars in healthcare savings: as little as one point of sustained well-being relates to two percent reduction in hospital utilization and one percent reduction in overall health-related costs.

Meanwhile the U.S. Well-Being Index score—which had outpaced the Fort Worth score by 3 points in 2014—is 61.3, a decline of 0.5 over the same period. Compared to the 190 largest metro areas reported nationally, Fort Worth's equivalent rank for overall well-being rose from 185^th in 2014 to 58^th in 2017. Since 2014, Fort Worth has shown improvement in purpose, social, financial, community, and physical well-being—all five of the core elements of well-being measured by the Gallup-Sharecare survey.

"Fort Worth's latest jump in well-being, as the U.S. continues to decline, securely establishes it as a best practice example of what a community can accomplish when it sustains a focused commitment to well-being," said Dan Witters, principal at Gallup. "The work of Blue Zones Project in Fort Worth is playing an important role in the improving well-being culture and associated outcomes of the community."

Since Mayor Price, Texas Health Resources, and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce invited Blue Zones Project to Fort Worth in 2013, the initiative has partnered with community leaders, neighborhoods, businesses, schools, grocery stores, restaurants, and faith-based organizations to optimize the environment for well-being—representing a unique approach to community health and vitality. Rather than relying solely on individuals to effect change, Blue Zones Project drives improvements to the places where people live, work, and play, making the healthy choice the easy choice.

The initiative reflects lead sponsor Texas Health Resources' commitment to look beyond simply responding to chronic disease and take an innovative, preventative approach to healthcare.

"Texas Health is investing in Blue Zones Project and other community-based initiatives that improve the health and well-being of residents by encouraging healthy habits," said Barclay Berdan, CEO of Texas Health Resources, lead sponsor of Blue Zones Project, Fort Worth. "We think Blue Zones Project is a great example of one way we can go upstream to address social determinants of health. If we can address obstacles to well-being before someone becomes ill or develops a chronic condition, we can make Fort Worth the envy of cities across the country."

Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Bill Thornton agrees. "The positive changes that have taken place through Blue Zones Project have enhanced Fort Worth's quality of life and made our city an even more attractive place for business and industry. A healthy population is a key element of a healthy economy."

In a five-year initiative led by a local steering committee and modeled after best practices in Blue Zones^® regions and Blue Zones Project communities throughout the world, Fort Worth has made it easier for residents to move naturally, eat better, develop healthy social circles, and live with purpose:

• A tipping point of citizen involvement reached. Nearly 90,000 individuals have taken the Blue Zones Personal Pledge or participated in a key Blue Zones Project activity, such as a walking group, plant-based cooking demonstration, or Purpose Workshop.
• Advancing health equity by addressing disparities. The biggest gains in well-being came among those who needed it the most. Neighborhoods and sectors of the city whose citizens showed the highest well-being disparities in 2014 now show the greatest gains in well-being. Higher risk populations have lower health outcomes and higher-than-average rates of healthcare costs; this significant achievement comes at a time when most cities see widening gaps in health disparities. Notable community improvements include better access to fresh produce in food deserts, with Blue Zones Project working alongside city leaders to clear the way for urban agriculture, mobile fresh markets, and healthy corner stores.
• Supporting non-smoking policy. Blue Zones Project supported the citywide non-smoking ordinance that bans smoking (including e-cigarettes) in bars, bingo parlors, and in public spaces. Since 2014, the smoking rate has decreased by 31 percent. Gallup estimates that Fort Worth has saved $268 million in healthcare costs and lost productivity due to the reduced smoking rate of its adult residents in 2018 compared to 2014.
• Better well-being on the job. Some 130 employers, representing 78,000 employees, have implemented policies that improve well-being, such as overhauling cafeteria menus to include healthy meals, changing vending machine offerings, creating well-being reimbursement programs, supporting walking or standing meetings, designating a quiet place for workers to downshift, adding lactation policies, and encouraging frequent micro-breaks for employees to stretch and move.
• Better well-being at school. Forty-five campuses, representing 30,000 students, completed the Blue Zones Project School Pledge. Well-being improvements include water bottle filling stations, removing soda and junk food from vending machines, campus gardens, mindfulness exercises, additional after-school programs and clubs, and adding salad bars to cafeterias. Fort Worth ISD, in partnership with Blue Zones Project and the City of Fort Worth, also earned a multi-million dollar grant for infrastructure improvements that will make it easier and safer for children to walk or bike to school.
• Healthier choices at restaurants. Sixty-six local eateries achieved the Blue Zones Project Approved designation by serving more nutritious options, offering smaller portions, and reducing the use of unhealthy ingredients.
• Healthier options at the grocery stores. Healthy choices are easier for shoppers at 20 Fort Worth grocery stores, which have highlighted Blue Zones inspired foods, distributed healthy recipes, and created Blue Zones checkout lanes featuring fruit, nuts, and water instead of soda and candy.
• Well-being where people worship. Some 4,200 people from the community's faith-based organizations have embraced principles for longer, better lives. Activities at local churches include "workout worship," a few minutes of aerobics set to worship music, and family nights focusing on health and fitness.

Blue Zones Project has been a community-led collaboration from the start. A 12-member Steering Committee, comprised of top-level community and business leaders, guided the initiative and was instrumental in setting goals for the city. The Fort Worth Blueprint Advisory Committee, made up of more than 100 community leaders and volunteers representing a cross-section of the city, worked to develop a strategic action plan. That Blueprint, approved by the Steering Committee in late 2014, guided the city as it worked to achieve Blue Zones Community certification. In early 2015, Blue Zones Project Implementation Committees began to execute the plan.

Ben Leedle, CEO of Blue Zones and co-founder of Blue Zones Project, commends city leadership: "When we first engaged Fort Worth leadership six years ago, we together laid out the ambitious plan for the city to become the world's largest Blue Zones Project. On behalf of my colleagues at Blue Zones Project, I applaud the leaders in Fort Worth for having the foresight and courage to take on the challenge and create this change. Today, Fort Worth stands as a new benchmark for the rest of America and for the world on what bold leaders can achieve when they invest in the health and well-being of their community."

About Blue Zones Project
Blue Zones Project^® is a community-led well-being improvement initiative designed to make healthy choices easier through permanent changes to a city's environment, policy, and social networks. Established in 2010, Blue Zones Project is inspired by Dan Buettner, a National Geographic Fellow and New York Times best-selling author who identified five cultures of the world—or Blue Zones^® —with the highest concentration of people living to 100 years or older. Blue Zones Project incorporates Buettner's findings and works with cities to implement policies and programs that will move a community toward optimal health and well-being. Currently, 47 communities in 10 states have joined Blue Zones Project, impacting more than 3.4 million Americans nationwide. The movement includes two Health Districts in California; 15 cities in Iowa; Albert Lea, Minnesota; the city of Fort Worth; and communities in Southwest Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Wisconsin. Blue Zones Project is a partnership of Blue Zones, LLC, and Sharecare, Inc. For more information, visit bluezonesproject.com.

CONTACT:
Naomi Imatome-Yun
612-596-3600

SOURCE Blue Zones Project

Related Links

http://bluezonesproject.com