Sustaining a program's activities entails more than finding funding when your current grant ends. It can involve integrating those activities into other ongoing projects or programs; spinning the activity off as a self-sustaining project; or assisting a program partner into taking these activities on as part of their agenda.
For further information on the National Center's view of sustainability, see The Legacy Wheel (http://www.promoteprevent.org/resources/legacy_wheel/).
For additional information on finding funding, see the Resource Page Funding Resources
Web sites
Community Tool Box (http://ctb.ku.edu/en) is a Web site created and maintained by the Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development at the University of Kansas, in collaboration with AHEC/Community Partners in Amherst, Massachusetts. The Sustain the Work or Initiative section of the Web site includes:
- a discussion of marketing as a sustainability tool
- how-to information on sustaining a project
- case studies of projects that have systematically and effectively sustained their resources
- other sustainability resources
The Finance Project (http://www.financeproject.org/) is a specialized non-profit research, consulting, technical assistance, and training firm for public and private sector leaders. It helps leaders make smart investment decisions, develop sound financing strategies, and build solid partnerships that benefit children, families, and communities. Resources available on the Finance Project website include the following:
- A Promising Practices Catalog (http://www.financeproject.org/irc/promising.asp) that helps users learn about programs, practices, and initiatives across the country that aim to improve the futures of children, families and communities. The catalog can be searched by state, funding source, policy and program area, and sustainability strategy.
- Publications (http://www.financeproject.org/pubs/index.asp), many of which are available online at no cost. Publications on funding include Blending and Braiding Funds to Support Early Care and Education Initiatives, Thinking Broadly: Financing Strategies for Comprehensive Child and Family Initiatives, and Using Tobacco Settlement Revenues for Children.
Publications Available Online
Coalition Sustainability: Long-Term Successes and Lessons Learned. (http://www.joe.org/joe/2002february/a2.html) by K. Lodl and G. Stevens.
Journal of Extension, 40(1). 2002.
This article examined the sustainability and impact of a youth-at-risk coalition building project 10 years after the project began and 5 years after their original funding stopped. The authors drew lessons from the longevity of this project and its coalitions that can provide guidance for other programs and coalitions.
Continuity, Success, and Survival of Community-Based Projects: The National Youth at Risk Program Sustainability Study (http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs
/family/350-801/350-801.html) L. Marek, J. Mancinia, and D. Brock. Blacksburg, VA: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1999.
The National Youth at Risk Program Sustainability Study analyzed 94 community-based projects funded by the Children, Youth and Families At Risk (CYFAR) Initiative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This initiative provides services to at risk youth and their families. The study sought to understand what factors allowed the community-based projects to continue after they stopped receiving funds from the USDA.
Evaluation's Role in Supporting Initiative Sustainability (http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/content/pubs/onlinepubs/sustainability/
sustainability.pdf) by H. Weiss, J. Coffman, and M. Bohan-Baker. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Family Resource Project, 2002.
This paper offers ideas for the roles that evaluation can play in helping foundations ensure a discussion about sustainability is started early enough and maintained throughout an initiative. It proposes that evaluation can support initiative sustainability by supporting sustainability through strategy while planning and managing an initiative’ s implementation and supporting sustainability with evaluation.
Getting to Outcomes 2004: Promoting Accountability Through Methods and Tools for Planning, Implementation and Evaluation
(http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR101/) by M Chinman, P Imm, and A Wanderman. Santa Monica: Rand Health, 2004.
This manual presents a ten-step process that enhances practitioners’ prevention skills while empowering them to plan, implement, and evaluate their own programs. It was specifically designed to help agencies, schools, and community coalitions improve programs aimed at preventing or reducing drug and tobacco use among youth. The manual includes text and worksheets and can be applied to any type of prevention programming. It includes chapters on needs and resources assessment; goals and objectives; choosing best practice programs; ensuring program “fit;” capacity,
planning, process, and outcome evaluation; continuous quality improvement, and sustainability.
Keeping It Together: Ideas for Sustaining Your Initiative(http://www.mentalhealth.org/publications/allpubs/
SVP-0063/action_pamphlet_5/default.asp) by Marjorie Rosensweig, Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2002
This guidebook was designed to help schools and communities sustain initiatives after the original grant period. It is based on the idea that sustainability depends on making systemic changes and, in particular, changes that lead to the integration of program activities and strategies into existing programs and services. This publication was developed with the advice of people involved in Safe Schools/Healthy Students programs.
Sustaining Community-based Initiatives
(http://www.wkkf.org/pubs/Health/Pub656.pdf) The W.K. Kellogg Foundation and The Healthcare Forum partnered on the development of these modules designed to support Kellogg grantees sustain their community-based initiatives. Module 1, Developing Community Capacity, is designed to help a community develop the capacity for citizen participation, action and leadership. Module 2, Communicating with Policy Makers, is designed to help community-based organizations develop the skills to create and influence public policy. Module 3, A Community and Economic Development, is designed to enhance the achievements of community-based organizations by introducing the use of key economic principles.
Sustaining School-Community Partnerships to Enhance Outcomes for Children and Youth: A Guidebook and Tool Kit (http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/sustaining.pdf) by H. Adelman and L. Taylor. Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools, 2003.
This resource is intended as an aid for those in schools and communities who are concerned about sustaining valuable initiatives and innovations past the original grant that funded these initiatives. This guidebook is predicated on the idea that sustainability is based on making systemic changes and, in particular, changes that lead to the integration of new developments for enhancing outcomes for children, youth, and communities into the fabric of existing support programs and services. One aspect of this involves “braiding” resources derived from various sources (e.g., projects, ongoing funding streams). Another aspect involves framing the intervention vision in terms of developing, over time, a comprehensive, multifaceted, and integrated approach. Much of the material in this resource was developed with the advice of people involved in Safe Schools/Healthy Students programs.
Northeast CAPT FAQs on Sustainability
(http://captus.samhsa.gov/northeast/resources/faqs/sustainability.cfm)
This series of FAQs was developed by Northeast CAPT, a project funded by CSAP to support the application of science-based substance abuse prevention programs and strategies at the regional, state and local levels, and enhance collaboration between and within each level. The FAQs include:
- Funding Sources: Cost benefits of substance abuse prevention (http://captus.samhsa.gov/northeast/resources/faqs/faq77.cfm), which describes how to make a case for the cost-benefit of substance abuse prevention.
- Funding Sources: Distance Learning Courses (http://captus.samhsa.gov/northeast/resources/faqs/faq54.cfm), which describes how to find funding for distance learning courses.
- Funding Sources: Foundations (http://captus.samhsa.gov/northeast/resources/faqs/faq7.cfm), which describes the foundations that can provide financial support for substance abuse prevention programs and where information on these funding opportunities can be found.
- Funding Sources: Government Agencies (http://captus.samhsa.gov/northeast/resources/faqs/faq5.cfm), which describes the Federal and state government agencies that provide financial support for substance abuse prevention programs and information on these funding opportunities can be found.
- Maximizing school and Community Support (http://www.northeastcapt.org/PRODUCTS/faq/faq36.html), which describes how to maximize school and community support to help sustain prevention program activities.
