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Question: Please define sustainability?
Answer: Dear Jean, Thanks very much for your question to the Community Tool Box on defining sustainability earlier this month. While I'm not sure there's one official answer, here's one way of looking at it: What makes for sustainability? You are right that funding is important. But beyond that, what seems essential is having some kind of organizational structure that will serve as a framework for keeping the intervention going. That structure could be some kind of formal, or possibly informal, organization. It would probably have defined operating procedures. It might well have some mechanism for dividing up its work, publicizing its work, and recruiting new members to keep the energy alive. For example, I would guess that the asthma work you do in Idaho would be less sustainable without the organizational structure of the Idaho Division of Health. The sustaining structure for other interventions need not be as formal, and certainly need not be a government agency, but some kind of strcture that is best suited to the particular intervention will generally be an asset. As for resources addressing the issue, at the risk of promoting our own work, I'll mention a recent book written by my colleague Tom Wolff and me, The Spirit of the Coalition, published by the American Public Health Association (Washington DC) in 2000. This contains a chapter toward the end on sustainability issues. Hope this may help a bit. Thank you again for being in touch with us, and all best wishes for continued success in your own work. Sincerely, Bill Berkowitz, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology University of Massachusetts Lowell Lowell, MA 01854 For the Community Tool Box Team
Question Date: Tue, 09/02/2003