Title: Sustaining Community Programs--Highlights Of Special GHS Symposium
Author:
Section/SPIG: Aging & Public Health
Issue Date:
Sustaining innovative community programs is a major challenge, especially in tight fiscal times. Last year Connie Evashwick and Marcia Ory interviewed the winners of the Archstone Award for Excellence in Program Innovation and published their results in Family and Community Health (See "Organizational Characteristics of Successful Innovative Health Care Programs Sustained Over Time," FCH, Vol 26 (3):177-193). Expanding this activity, GHS members have planned a special symposium on "Enhancing Sustainabilty and Dissemination of Innovative Community Programs for Older Adults: Research, Programmatic, and Policy Perspectives." Results and implications from the Archstone study will be presented (Evashwick) within a broad research and practice context, including theoretical issues in the dissemination and maintenance of innovations in program services to seniors (Tom Prohaska); strategies for building sustainability into community-based programs for older adults, with Active for Life as a case example (Marcia Ory); and lessons learned in translating evidence based research into sustainable health programs (Nancy Whitelaw). The overall goal of this symposium is to add to the emergent literature on sustainability by presenting three case studies that will stimulate thinking about different criteria and strategies for enhancing sustainabilty of community based programs.
The report summarizing the results of the telephone survey, "Innovative Senior Services: Lessons Learned," was published by the Archstone Foundation, and copies will be available at the session.