Fostering program sustainability through diverse partnerships

Project Healthy Schools (PHS), a community-University of Michigan collaborative, reduces childhood obesity and long-term cardiovascular health risks through middle-school based educational programming and environmental change using a social ecological framework.  To date, 51 schools and 32,000 students have participated in PHS activities, almost 10,000 of these in research.  Outcome data shows program intervention significantly reduces participants’ cholesterol, blood pressure and resting heart rate, and increases healthy behaviors across diverse populations with sustainability up to 4 years. 

Since 2004, PHS has built diverse partnerships that foster sustainability. Hospital partnerships are mutually beneficial, providing PHS the opportunity to expand without using internal resources and helping hospitals meet national policy guidelines for community outreach and alignment of regional health system resources. Urban programming has been sustained through development of partnerships with community coalitions, service groups and foundations, empowering community ownership of PHS.  School partnerships include collaboration with food services on national and state policy guidelines and teachers/parents/administration on wellness policies.  Building relationships to accomplish a common goal with existing school resources creates solidarity and sustainability for future programming. A statewide partnership with like-minded organizations was formed to address childhood obesity and improve the health of young people through a comprehensive school-wide network.  This unique partnership leverages resources of partner organizations, increasing PHS program capacity and streamlining processes. PHS demonstrates that a multi-level program is effective at generating behavioral change in youth and can be replicated in diverse populations and communities with the support of local resources for expansion and sustainability.