Promoting Sustainability of Community Health Initiatives: An Empirical Case Study

Community health initiatives are a prominent strategy for health promotion and disease prevention. This article describes an empirical study of strategies used to promote sustainability of six community health initiatives that began in 1993 and received funding for 4 years. The study, conducted 1 year after funding ceased, examined how each initiative approached sustainability. First, the context for the work is described. Second, we describe the methodology used to gather information about sustainability. Third, we describe the current status of sustainability for each initiative. Fourth, we discuss the strategies for sustainability we observed, the context for sustaining the efforts, and the factors that may have affected sustainability. We end with recommendations for practice.