We caught up with Deb Logan, executive director of Blue Zones Project – Southwest Florida, to find out more about the initiative’s work to maintain resilience amid the COVID-19 pandemic and tips for other communities looking to do the same.
What can communities do to improve resiliency without an initiative like Blue Zones Project?
Seek out and organize interested leaders across sectors in your community. Make sure to include key partners in the non-profit space like United Way, mental health agencies, and leaders in healthcare, education, and business. Invite funding partners such as foundations to the table, and don’t forget media partners.
From there, identify your most vulnerable populations and areas of greatest need. For us in Southwest Florida they have been food and financial insecurity, mental health issues, loneliness and isolation, and people delaying healthcare. Commit to work together in a collaborative manner and consider meeting every two to three weeks. Determine who has resources and tools to help build resiliency.
Leverage your media partners and create a campaign to help connect people in need to the appropriate tools and resources.
Southwest Florida is home to some very wealthy areas. How do you think these ideas relate to underserved communities?
It’s true that coastal Southwest Florida is wealthy, but we have always had pockets of high need within our community. From areas within Bonita Springs to Everglades City, we have several distinct areas of poverty, home to many migrants and rural farmworkers. Many people living in these communities speak either Spanish or Creole as their first, and many times only, language. Many work two or more jobs to get by. These individuals and families are vulnerable and at risk.
We know the well-being of our community is only as healthy as our most vulnerable individuals, so when we talk about building resilience, these communities in need are top of mind for us.
Do you think that Blue Zones Project better prepared the community for COVID-19 from a health perspective?
Absolutely. Blue Zones Project helps to bring leadership and organizations together, and by the time COVID hit, we had a solid foundation of partners working together on well-being. In addition, because Blue Zones Project – Southwest Florida has over 720 organizations participating, we had communications channels in place to rally across all sectors.
Having a team of nine full-time colleagues focused on well-being also helped us pivot quickly to meet emerging needs in our at-risk populations.
With many programs and services (healthcare, school, etc) delivered virtually over the past year, how do you reach community members or households that don’t have broadband access?
Our school district worked diligently last Spring to assess where there was a need for WiFi. District leaders were able to help fill gaps by setting up hot spots for access. They were successful in reaching the households in our most disparate communities.
Who are your key partners as you promote well-being and build resiliency?
In the healthcare space, we partner with our local hospital system, public health agencies, mental health agencies, and federally qualified healthcare centers. Within our business community, we partner with our Chambers of Commerce and large and, or influential employers. We have many wonderful non-profit partners, including the United Way, local government, and many other foundations. In the education space, we’ve partnered with preschools through universities. Our media partners cover a broad base of our diverse community, and we work with outlets serving English, Spanish, and Creole speaking audiences.
Do you have any pandemic data that indicates you are making an impact?
In addition, we have deployed the
RealAge Test locally. This is a personal well-being assessment that individuals take on their phones or online. It provides feedback about functional age based on lifestyle, along with helpful information to help improve their well-being. Not only does it help individuals personally, but we are also able to collect the aggregate data to look at the well-being of our entire community. We will be able to look at trend data for well-being in Southwest Florida over the duration of the pandemic.
To learn more about Blue Zones Project – Southwest Florida’s impact, check out the community’s
2020 year in review.