- Blue Island is a highly industrialized,
blue-collar suburb on Chicago's southern border.
The city is ethnically diverse,
with about half of its residents identifying as Hispanic
and about one quarter as African-American.
While the industrial history of Blue Island has led
to hundreds of brownfields throughout the city,
there are beautiful homes and neighborhoods
and a strong sense of community pride.
People who live in Blue Island love Blue Island,
and they're working together
to create a health-focused revitalization plan.
When the city began to address brownfields,
they focused on ways to address health effects
of these sites on the community.
They adopted a community health focus
to drive their overall revitalization plan.
Projects included turning brownfields into green fields
by increasing community gardens and access to healthy foods
and increasing opportunities for recreation.
At the same time,
local health providers and the city
began an educational campaign
to protect people from lead exposure
related to brownfields and an aging housing stock.
Now let's meet some of these people
that make Blue Island so special
and hear their stories.
- Good afternoon.
My name is Domingo F. Vargas,
and I'm the mayor of the city of Blue Island.
I welcome you to our community,
community on the hill.
We have a population close to 23,000 here in the city.
It's a very diverse community,
both economically, socially, and politically.
And we welcome you to this beautiful town on the hill.
- Blue Island goes back to the 1830s,
and it was probably a trading post
for settlers coming into the area from the east.
Blue Island--
[clears throat] We're on a glacial ridge.
It's about six miles long,
and this is the end of the ridge.
It was formed when the last ice age ended
around 12,000 years ago.
So, as the settlers would come from, let's say, Ohio,
the eastern states,
they would come around the bottom of Lake Michigan,
and this was a real swampy, low area.
However, the ridge rose out of that,
and it was heavily forested,
and there would probably be a haze around the trees,
hence the "blue island" looming up on the horizon.
- The city of Blue Island
estimates over 400 potential brownfields
in four and a half square miles.
That's the size of a city
with a population of about 20,000 people.
Essentially, brownfields are everywhere
throughout Blue Island,
which is hard to imagine when you see me here at Fay's Point,
which is a lovely retreat in the middle of the city.
In Blue Island,
a diverse group of individuals called the Development Community
are using the Action Model
to integrate community health and redevelopment plans.
There are four steps to the Action Model.
Step one--What are the issues in the community?
Step two-- How can redevelopment,
or brownfields revitalization, address these issues?
Step three--
What is the corresponding community health benefit?
And step four--
What data are needed to measure change?
In other words, what is the indicator
that can be tracked over time
of community health status?
The Development Community in Blue Island is very diverse.
It's comprised of residents,
nonprofits, and different organizations.
It includes
the City of Blue Island Department of Development,
the MetroSouth Medical Center,
the Park District of Blue Island,
the School District, community gardeners,
and a variety of residents and citizens
who really care about Blue Island
and how redevelopment should go forth.
- I'm Gita Rampersad, and I'm the founder
of the Blue Island Community Health Coalition.
In 2011, I worked with the city of Blue Island
and used the ATSDR's Action Model
to leverage federal funds in order to drive change
around community health improvement in the region.
Our first step was to establish a Community Health Coalition.
This is a coalition
that serves as the official public health advisory body
for the city and its partners,
as well as serving
as the ATSDR's Action Model Steward.
- When they formed the coalition,
I believe I was one of the original people
they asked to come to the first meeting
along with other leaders of the community,
people from the hospital, from Pronger Smith,
from the Park District, the city, etcetera.
And it's grown into an organization
that's promoting,
I would like to say, healthy eating practices
and also improving what is sold in the local stores--
not so much fast food, but fresh fruits and vegetables,
and teaching families that this is the way
that they should be eating.
So it's a wonderful program.
- I'm Jodi Prout,
Brownfields Program Director for the city of Blue Island.
We currently have about 12 community gardeners,
which is great, 'cause last year we had only four,
so we've increased many.
We also have about three or four Corps Volunteers.
We have one Healthy Communities Corps member
who was in AmeriCorps that's focusing on food access.
Now we have a community garden
with food bank plots in an official USDA Food Desert.
This garden has been leased
by two local restaurants,
and they're growing tomatoes and tomatillos,
and they'll be making a salsa this summer that is--
with stuff from our garden
and actually promoting it that way.
That garden over there with the large tomatoes
is a Future Foundation.
They're doing service learning for youth.
We have food bank plots that are the 4x10s over there.
We're donating produce
to the St. Benedict's Food Pantry,
and it's distributed to about 150 families
that are in Blue Island and Robbins.
- One of the projects that grew out of the Action Model
and is being spearheaded
by the Community Health Coalition
is the expansion
of Blue Island's Senior Services Program.
The Salvation Army was one of the founding members
of the Development Community
and continues to champion the Action Model process
through the Community Health Coalition.
I'm at their newer facility here in Blue Island,
which includes a complete recreational facility
with a climbing wall,
exercise equipment,
and a basketball court.
They have a team room,
specifically for Blue Island's youth,
and a very active Senior Activities Program,
which includes the Senior Lunch Program.
Here, seniors can come for a $2 healthy, nutritious,
balanced lunch.
In addition, the Salvation Army
has engaged seniors by starting a rooftop garden
here at the building
which helps feed the Senior Lunch Program.
The Salvation Army partnered with the local transit system
in Blue Island to improve transportation
for seniors throughout the city.
- The Salvation Army serves
between 60 and 70 seniors a day for lunches.
Some of them, it's their only meal a day--
that they have for the day.
The cost is $2.
It's $6 if they take a carryout.
The reason it's cheaper if they eat in
is because they want the seniors to have the social aspect
of socializing with other people
so that they don't become shut-ins.
The seniors can use the gymnasium to walk around in,
to shoot some hoops,
and we do have an exercise program here
that is free to the seniors.
And they have a bingo program that's twice a week
that the seniors do come and play bingo,
and they get a free coupon for a free lunch,
is what the prize is.
I want to introduce you to Joseph Martin.
He's one of our most prominent seniors.
He lives down at Senior Suites,
and he's done a lot here at the Salvation Army.
He's set up our aeroponics, I believe he calls it,
plants you can see in the back here,
and he's gonna show you more about them
and tell you about them upstairs.
- This is an aeroponic tower garden,
and sometimes people confuse them with hydroponics,
which is using garden water, but this is aeroponics.
They use air and water.
What you have here is we have called net pots here.
We have a 20-gallon container at the bottom...
[clears throat] which you put in the fresh--
you put in the water, let it set for 48 hours.
Then you put in the nutrients.
There's a pump in the bottom that sprays it up to the top,
which creates, like, a mist, and the mist comes right down,
and the roots are hanging within the chamber.
You spray 15 minutes of mist, misting the roots,
then you have 15 minutes of air, which draws it in,
which normally plants grow--
You water a garden, and it's soaked up in the morning.
This, you get nutrients every 15 minutes
and 15 minutes of air,
which means the nutrients go directly into the plant,
not into the soil and so on.
That's why it grows so much faster.
And when it's properly done,
you can harvest a plant about every six to seven days.
That can be anywhere from a leaf plant,
to cucumbers, to zucchinis, and so on.
On the average, seven days from one time it gets harvested,
the memory in the plants
will let you harvest again and again and again.
So it's future-growing,
and it was designed by Tim Blank,
who did it for NASA,
and I was taught directly through Tim Blank
how to do this system.
- Hi. My name is Jane Healy,
and I'm here with the Blue Island Bike Club.
I'm a community representative,
and our community has done all sorts of exciting things
over the last few years.
We've been able to do things like encourage the Bike Club.
We've created a Safe Routes to School Program
that allows kids to bike and walk to school
in a safer, more equitable fashion
so they can get there, where they need to go.
We've been able to have KaBOOM! come out here
and help us build two playgrounds
where we had well over 280--
I think we had close to 300 volunteers both times.
We've had Healthy Hot Spots
that have opened up in our community,
where some of our local little corner stores
now carry fruits and vegetables that they never did beforehand.
It was just junk food and candy,
and that has been a real nice expansion
of what we've been able to do in the community.
The Community Health Coalition
is a way that the community is able to share information,
and we're able to strategize on ways we want to move forward
and other ways that we can improve
what's going on in Blue Island.
- Hi. I'm Jason Berry.
I'm a planner for the city of Blue Island,
historic preservationist,
and, most importantly, I live here in town.
Being a historic community, many of the homes in Blue Island
are built before 1970
and most of them before 1940.
So, as a community, we have concerns about lead-based paint
and the effect that has on our residents.
Also, with our industrial past,
we have a number of metal recyclers in town
and will continue to be worried about brownfield concerns.
Because of these concerns with historic buildings,
the city of Blue Island wanted to reach out
to our contractor community.
We hosted renovation, repair,
and paint certification training,
so we were assured that our building contractors
were doing this in a safe manner.
- Hello. Hola.
My name's Octavio.
I'm the Director of Operations
here at the Blue Island Park District,
with the executive director, Bob Manthei.
- Hello. I'm Bob Manthei.
Early on, the Park District
was involved in developing the Action Model
for the city of Blue Island.
Part of that was the development
of over 100 programs and activities,
when originally we had only 12.
- Some of our evolving programs include
swimming, life guarding, and water fitness.
It's pretty exciting to see that the kids
enjoying our pool
can build skills that will help them stay fit
for the rest of their lives.
- We have 13 locations in town,
various parks throughout the city,
Memorial Park being our main park,
where our pool is located,
our hall for our indoor programs,
such as Yoga, art classes,
things like that.
We've got a great stadium over in Hart Park,
and all the other parks have very good playgrounds as well.
Two years ago we were fortunate to win two KaBOOM! grants
to rebuild two of our playgrounds.
It was a great activity to be involved in
because many of the residents
came out to volunteer to actually help build the park.
One of the parks, we had over 250 volunteers.
The second park, we had over 300 volunteers come out
and help rebuild the parks.
So I'm very proud not only to work here,
but to live here in this community.
- Hi. I'm Sandra Wilks.
I'm a registered nurse,
and I am the Executive Director
of Community Relations and Marketing
at MetroSouth Medical Center.
I'm also the administrator for grant-funded programs.
MetroSouth was part of the Action Model.
Actually, we were part
of the founding members of the Action Model,
and we are still active members
in the Community Health Coalition.
One of our innovative programs
is to provide education and training
for our medical assistants
so that they can provide health education and screenings
in our community.
I'd like to take this opportunity
to introduce my partner, José Garibay,
who is one of our medical assistants.
- Hola. I'm José.
I'm one of the medical assistants
who works directly with the community.
We provide free screenings for lead, diabetes,
blood pressure, and other health endpoints.
- MetroSouth is very excited about remaining an active member
in the Community Health Coalition
as we move forward in bringing our community to health.
- As a businessman--
I've been a business owner here for a dozen years,
and I ran another business for 14 before that--
I think that our strength
is the smaller, family-owned businesses
that are unique.
Not big-box, not cookie-cutter chains or franchises,
but really our strength
is the small, family-owned businesses,
and I would like to see more of that.
In other words, unique destinations.
- Hola.
I am Leticia Vierya, Alderman of Blue Island
and an employee of MetroSouth Medical Center.
We hope our Community Health Coalition
gives other communities ideas
to improve their community health.
For more information,
please check out our Web page or our Blue Island newsletters.
all: We love you, Blue Island.
Somos, Blue Island.
- [playing guitar]
[singing] You're the girl who everybody watches
You're the girl who everybody wants
Your smile and your eyes take control over me
Just like the wind and the sea
You're the girl who everybody watches, watches, watches