CDC's Sustainability Guide: Advancing Effective Strategies that Improve Public Health Impact

Sustainability is a rising concern for community-based programs because preventive factors, such as loss of internal support and increased competition to funding, are more prevalent. CDC's Healthy Communities Program (HCP) partnered with the Society of Public Health Education to develop a tool that facilitates public health professionals to create, implement, and evaluate a successful sustainability plan. The CDC sustainability guide is a practical step-by-step process for clarifying goals, selecting strategies for sustaining resources, and creating a formal action plan. Additionally, a web-based tool, which includes a collection of lessons learned and best practices, will supplement the guide to provide strategic guidance and a successful approach to implementation. These tools will empower communities to articulate challenges and strategies to overcome potential barriers. The HCP communities developed and implemented financial and non-financial innovative strategies in multiple community sectors (e.g., school, work site and health care, community-based institutions) to sustain program components. These community-based successes are validated by evidence-based strategies, which are utilized to sustain several program components: partnerships, community interventions, and policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes. Partnerships were critical to our community's success, because they assisted with building capacity and sustaining interventions and PSE changes by engaging collaborative efforts across multiple sectors to institutionalize their efforts. The strategies used to sustain community-based interventions were critical for continuing health education and health promotion practices. Sustainable PSE changes impact the social norms and infrastructures that create continuing effects, by increasing opportunities to reduce chronic disease, health equity, and to change the built environment.