Article submitted by Jamie Fleury, The Pilot News Staff Writer
The Culver Town Council approved a commitment of $75,000 over a period of three years to support Marshall County Blue Zones.
The project is being headed by the Crossroads Health and Wellness Committee. The project is an inclusive, systems based approach to improve population health with sustainable measures. The goal is to create opportunities to transform and improve economic, health and social change for every county resident now and for decades to come.
Director of Marshall County Community Foundation and United Way Linda Yoder illustrated to the council that the goal for Marshall County is full transformation which will take place over a period of three years and eight months. She noted that the Blue Zones Project is a premier project of the Crossroads team.
A kick-off session held on February 14, 2020 with approximately 130 people present ignited interest in the initiative and continued to gain momentum. Even prior to that event, the Marshall County Crossroads team was aware of a need to provide opportunities to residents to make healthier choices.
The team was looking for a comprehensive plan as opposed to pockets of opportunities. According to Yoder, Marshall County’s health statistics as reported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation are going in the wrong direction. Marshall County has high obesity rates, smoking rates, and high diabetes rates. Those health risks heightened the threat of COVID-19.
Indiana ranks 40 out of 50 states in multiple health rankings. Marshall County in Indiana ranked 61 out of 92 until last year when we dropped to 64. “For all the good things that we’ve been doing we are still going in the wrong direction.” Life expectancy is decreasing as opposed to increasing. That not only impacts individual health and well-being, but also the overall economic and social well-being of the whole county.
Advocates of Marshall County from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) recommended Blue Zones when the committee was searching for a comprehensive plan to address the needs. “What we really like about it is the systems approach. It is results driven. They have taken this model in to 61 communities so far and they are showing results with the measurements they are using. They are showing results in a lot of the same areas we are struggling with. So that was really attractive to us.”
The team spoke to several of the communities; strategically chosen because they were at different stages of the program. “They were overwhelmingly enthusiastic.”
“It’s been a long process to evaluate this and we know it is a big commitment. But we also heard from every one of those communities is that the one thing they wished they had done differently was start sooner and they wished they would have put more resources in it up front than they did originally.”
National experts will work alongside people hired locally to review three key areas: policy, people and places. Increasing a sense of connection within the community is a strong focus. Faith based organizations will be relied upon as strong partners within the program.
The overall cost of the project is $6.1 M. Funding pursuits include READI Grant funds and a hoped for 25% contribution of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding from each municipality. Capital funds will be sought from hospitals, businesses, industries, philanthropic organizations, and individuals.
