About 18,000 people live in the southern Minnesota town of Albert Lea. – Photo by Teresa Kauffman

About the Project

The AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project sponsored by United Health Foundation set out to create America's healthiest hometown by adding 10,000 years of healthy life to its residents. A typical American community, Albert Lea, Minnesota, was chosen from several small cities in the mid-West.

In January 2009, Vitality Project experts began working with Albert Lea’s town leaders to transform the way residents eat, work, exercise, and play. Together they started adding community gardens, making over restaurant menus and vending machines, creating “walking school buses,” and building new walking trails.

In May, Albert Lea residents began signing the Vitality Project Pledge and taking the Vitality Compass®—an interactive tool that helps measure an individual’s projected life expectancy based on current behaviors.

On September 8, Albert Lea will join the rest of the country for a six-week online experience that will teach people to live longer and healthier through daily dispatches, videos, photo galleries, and longevity tools. The Vitality Project team will then calculate how many additional years have been added to Albert Lea—and the country.

– Illustration by Steve Sanford

Why this project matters to AARP

AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization with more than 40 million members that helps people 50+ have independence, choice, and control in ways that are beneficial and affordable to them and society as a whole. AARP's highest priorities are health and economic security for all generations. Because of advances in health care, people are living longer lives and redefining what it means to grow older.
AARP knows that people don't want to just live longer, they want to live healthier and more purposeful lives. AARP is interested in developing ways to help people of all ages and all communities do just that.

Why is the United Health Foundation supporting this project?

Guided by a passion to help people live healthier lives, the United Health Foundation provides helpful information to support decisions that lead to better health outcomes and healthier communities. The United Health Foundation is committed to promoting innovation in the health of individuals and communities, and is proud to support the Vitality Project as a model that can be replicated in cities nationwide.