Blue Zones Project- Durant

Blue Zones Project- is a community-wide, evidence-based approach to improve health and well-being in making healthier choices easier for everyone. Blue Zones Project and its initiatives focus on bettering the health environment for community members. This means looking at barriers and challenges for people of different socioeconomic statuses across the community. The project in itself will work with people, places, and policies to create sustainable change for all citizens of the community. Though focused on Durant whose population is 18,175, many of the people that frequent Durant do not live inside the city limits. Thus the project will have a direct impact on Bryan county and the surrounding areas. Blue Zones Project does not rely on individual behavior changes. Instead, we aim to improve community health by making permanent and semi-permanent changes on multiple levels. We improve or optimize city streets (smoking policies, bike lanes, sidewalks), public spaces (parks, lakes, walking paths), schools (cafeterias, safe walking paths to school), restaurants, grocery stores, employers, faith-based organizations, and community involvement. We are designed to change the way people experience the world around them. Because healthier environments naturally nudge people toward healthier choices, Blue Zones Project focuses on influencing the Life Radius — the area close to home in which people spend 90 percent of their lives. Blue Zones Project best practices use people, places, and policy as levers to transform those surroundings. Our communities have populations with greater well-being, improved health outcomes, reduced costs, and increased civic pride, all of which support healthy economic development.