How is Jacksonville Thriving?
Blue Zones Project Jacksonville releases data on well-being
Blue Zones Project (BZP), a research initiative devoted to studying and improving well-being in cities across North America, has launched the Blue Zones Project Jacksonville and released Gallup data on how Jacksonville residents are thriving.
This project, led by BZP in conjunction with a coalition of community leaders including Baptist Health, Brooks Rehabilitation, the City of Jacksonville, Community First Credit Union, Florida Blue, Jacksonville Jaguars, Jessie Ball duPont Fund, Mayo Clinic, UF Health, and United Way of Northeast Florida, is a six-year project “to measurably improve community well-being, resilience, and economic vitality in Jacksonville.”
Kristin Murray, Blue Zones Project engagement and marketing lead – Jacksonville explained the Jacksonville project will focus on “typically and historically underserved” Jacksonville neighborhoods in Westside, Northside and East Jacksonville as well as Jacksonville as a whole.
These focus areas fall in the zip codes 32206, 32208, 32209, 32210 and 32244.
“By focusing on historically vulnerable and underserved communities in our city, we can take an equitable approach to foster well-being and ensure that every citizen and every zip code has the same access to opportunities, resources and support,” said City of Jacksonville Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Dr. Charles Moreland during an April 24 media presentation.
At the presentation, held at Baptist Health, BZP Jacksonville released Gallup data collected via mail survey between Nov. 30, 2022 and Jan. 17, 2023 revealing areas of concern for Jacksonville residents and opportunities to improve their well-being through the Blue Zones Project Jacksonville.
Collected in various categories, the data created a baseline for the focus neighborhoods as well as Jacksonville as a whole. According to the data, Jacksonville as a city scored statistically lower than the U.S. in the five elemental scores of career, social, financial, physical and community. The data also reflects, however, the “desire to live and age in community slightly outweighs desire to leave.”
“The overall data shows that we have an opportunity in these specific areas, but what I like to see is there’s hope, there’s people that care about the community and there’s a oneness in these zip codes about family and that’s where it really starts,” said Baptist Health President and CEO Dr. Michael Mayo following the presentation. “So I’m excited. The numbers were small, but they were telling in what we can target our work at.”
United Way of Northeast Florida CEO Melanie Patz said the data reflects areas of improvement that were previously unrecognized in the community.
“The data from Gallup is very, very helpful because it’s asking questions we haven’t asked before in our community so we just didn’t know the answers, and categorizing it in ways that help us to actually do things to make improvements,” she said.
With its community blueprint completed, BZP Jacksonville is finalizing and reviewing its strategic plan with the community organization partners. All this information will then be shared at a community kick-off party at the Jacksonville Fairgrounds on Saturday, June 3 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
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