Apr 23, 2022 3 min read

A number of stakeholders gathered last week to learn what the next steps to help making Fayette County a “Blue Zone Community,” an initiative intended to help residents live longer, healthier lives.

In 2021, Fayette ranked 66th out of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties in overall health and length of life, and 65th for quality of life, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

“This is one of the most important meetings you’ll ever go to,” Fayette Living Well Coalition Chairman Mike Quinn told those in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting.

Last October, the coalition hosted representatives from the Blue Zone Project for public sessions and to begin a county assessment. The project was inspired by National Geographic Fellow and New York Times best-selling author Dan Buettner, who identified five regions worldwide with higher-than-average concentrations of people living to the age of 100 or older.

Buettner’s research found nine parameters that help a population live longer and be healthier, including diet, exercise and a sense of community. Those parameters have been put in place in different communities across the country to improve health and happiness outlooks.

And now, Fayette is in the beginning stages of that process, Quinn said.

“We now have a strategy,” Quinn said. “We have a quantifiable strategy.”

One of the next steps is to hire a staff for the Blue Zone Project consisting of a local executive director, and others to handle marketing, event planning, outreach and policies.

The municipalities of Uniontown, Connellsville and Brownsville will have the greatest engagement with the project, and work sites and schools certified as Blue Zone Project sites will have the greatest impact across the county to promote and practice a healthier lifestyle, officials said.

Michael Acker, Blue Zone Project general manager, said there’s a cost to communities that do nothing to reduce adverse health factors like stress, smoking, drinking and blood pressure.

In Fayette County, he said, that could mean a roughly 5.6% compounded growth rate in terms of the cost of care, and avoidable loss of workforce productivity.

“We think there’s a significant opportunity to bend the curve, and bending the curve unlocks significant economic value for all stakeholders in the community,” he said, adding that small changes can make a big impact across communities.

Acker said the potential 10-year savings in areas of medical costs, productivity and regional economic impact is about $424 million.

“I think there’s a tremendous opportunity here,” Acker said.

Margaret Brown, director of Blue Zone Projects Community Partnerships, said after the October assessment, the county was ranked on a scale of 1 to 5 on different areas of readiness. The county received a 4 for cross-section leadership, 4.5 for governing body support, 5 for alignment of community initiatives, 4.5 for need, feasibility and impact and a 3 for funding strategies.

Brown noted that during the assessment more than 100 community leaders attended, as did elected county, state and federal officials. She said representatives from more than 30 organizations like school districts, businesses, economic development agencies, nonprofits and faith-based organizations also attended.

“I would say we didn’t have a mighty presence, meaning we didn’t have hundreds of people coming out, but we had all the right people,” Brown said.

With a strategy laid out, Quinn said the next step is to have a plan to implement the strategy.

“Do we have the wherewithal, the leadership and resources to put together a plan to implement the strategy?” Quinn said. “I think we do, and you think we do or else you wouldn’t be sitting here.”