Editor’s note: On the second Friday of each month, the Tribune will present a column from people carrying on the work of the AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project, now called the Albert Lea Vitality Project. It is called “Vitality Viewpoints.”

Three new programs are working side-by-side to continue the work of 2009’s AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project to help area residents become — and stay — healthier.

Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP)

The Minnesota Department of Health has awarded a Statewide Health Improvement Program, also known as SHIP, grant to a seven-county area that includes Freeborn County.

SHIP is aiming to help Minnesotans live longer, healthier lives by preventing risk factors that lead to chronic disease. Each county has developed plans, initiatives and interventions to tackle the top three causes of preventable illness and death in the United States: tobacco use, physical inactivity and poor nutrition.

To accomplish that goal, efforts focus on broad, sustainable, evidence-based changes to the policies, systems and environments that exist in our schools, communities, worksites and health care systems.

In Freeborn County, SHIP efforts are being led by the Freeborn County Department of Health and SHIP coordinator Ellen Kehr. SHIP interventions are projected to save an estimated $1.9 billion in health care costs throughout Minnesota by 2015.

Pioneering Healthier Communities (PHC)

Pioneering Healthier Communities, also known as PHC, is an initiative of Y-USA’s Activate America program that focuses on policy and environmental change in communities to promote healthy lifestyles. Locally, the PHC team’s mission is to create permanent systematic environmental and policy changes that lead to a healthier community while creating opportunities for physical activity and healthy eating by positively encompassing an individual’s community, social network, habitat and purpose.

A group of local community leaders led by Dennis Dieser and Ann Austin attended a Pioneering Healthier Communities training conference in December and has developed a community plan for mobilization and wellness focused on education, transportation and neighborhoods.

Vitality Project

The former AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project has moved into phase two and has been reconstituted into the Albert Lea Vitality Project. The Vitality Leadership Team is partnering with SHIP and PHC on community projects, with a mission of establishing and encouraging an ongoing community focus and commitment to individual wellness and personal well being leading to positive, permanent lifestyle changes among community members.

Community volunteers are reorganizing to sustain local activities like the walking moais, walking school bus, biking, community gardens and purpose workshops, along with specific healthy business and restaurant initiatives. The Vitality Team also continues their efforts to develop a national vitality center.

Jennifer Levisen is a community relations specialist for Albert Lea Medical Center.