This post is part of a series of blogs on program sustainability and sustainability planning. Read the first blog in the series, Sustainability Planning Part one: What is sustainability?
As I often do when learning about something- in this case- sustainability- I turned first to HC Link’s resources. In this case, I turned waaaaaay back
beyond the 2009 inciption of HC Link, to a resource written by one of HC Link’s founding partners, the Heart Health Resource Centre. Written in 1999, the resource Health Heart Sustainability (available only as a scanned copy), was designed to support community partnerships participating in the Ontario Heart Health Program develop sustainability plans. While created specifically for the Ontario Heart Health Program, the ultimate goal of which was the reduction of behaviours that lead to cardiovascular disease (physical inactivity, unhealthy eating, smoking and stress), I think that this model is applicable to many other programs that focus on behaviour change, and in particular, involve multi-dimensional community partnerships.This table suggests results for each component of sustainability, and gives a sense of various options within each category:
What I really like about this model is that it goes beyond thinking how to replace expired program funding: it encourages us to think about what it is we are trying to change (the issue) the change we actually want to see (the behaviours), and the partnerships we’ve established to do the work. Consider how to address sustainability of each of these components not only in your sustainability planning, but as you are designing your program.
Read the third post in this blog series, Developing a Sustainbility Plan.
