title: What makes for sustainable Healthy Cities initiatives?--A review of the evidence from Noarlunga, Australia after 18 years.
abstract: This paper examines the factors that have enabled the Healthy Cities Noarlunga (HCN) initiative to be sustainable over 18 years (1987-2005). Sustainability related to the ability of the initiative to continue to operate continuously in a manner that indicated its existence was accorded value by the community and local service providers. The analysis is based on a narrative review of 29 documents related to HCN, including a number of evaluations. Nine factors emerged as important to ensuring sustainability: strong social health vision; inspirational leadership; a model that can adapt to local conditions; ability to juggle competing demands; strongly supported community involvement that represents genuine engagement; recognition by a broad range of players that Healthy Cities is a relatively neutral space in which to achieve goals; effective and sustainable links with a local university; an outward focus open to international links and outside perspectives; and, most crucial, the initiative makes the transition from a project to an approach and a way of working. These sustainability factors are likely to be relevant to a range of complex, community-based initiatives.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. fran.baum@flinders.edu.au
authors.forename: Fran
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Baum
authors.forename: Gwyneth
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jolley
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hicks
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Saint
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Parker
mesh_terms: D018672:Community Health Planning / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019058:Community Networks; D003256:Community Participation; D006284:Health Plan Implementation; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D038622:Internationality; D007857:Leadership; D017146:Models, Organizational; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011057:Politics; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013021:South Australia; D014495:Universities; D014504:Urban Health