About the Assessment
The Program Sustainability Assessment Tool (PSAT) is a self-assessment used by both program staff and stakeholders to evaluate the sustainability capacity of a program. When you take the assessment online, you will receive a summary report of your overall sustainability, which can be used to help with sustainability planning. The first Program Sustainability Framework was developed with funding from the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors. Revision and distribution of the tool is funded by the Centers for Disease Control, Office on Smoking and Health.
- The assessment is made up of 40 questions and takes about 10-15 minutes to finish.
- You will rate your program or set of activities across 8 sustainability domains.
- The assessment can be used by programs at community, state, and national levels.
- The assessment is used by various programs; public health, social services, and educational programs have all found the assessment to be very relevant to their work
- The assessment can be taken as an individual or group.
The PSAT is a tool to help articulate your understanding of a program. The numbers are a way for you to conceptualize your program across these domains relative to each other so you can start thinking about where you want to focus your efforts as you work to increase your sustainability capacity. The more honest you can be with your answers, the more helpful the report will be in moving forward with your program’s sustainability planning.
How to access the assessment in other languages
We worked with partners to translate the PSAT so that the tool is valid and reliable in both English and Spanish. You can access the PSAT in English and Spanish by downloading the assessment as a PDF to administer offline. Currently, only the English version of the PSAT is available to complete online. If you are interested in working with us to translate the PSAT into another language, please contact us.
How to administer a group assessment
When doing a group assessment, we recommend multiple staff and stakeholders assess the same program. This makes sure many perspectives are included in the final sustainability report. Each individual can participate anonymously and will receive their own personal results. You can decide if you want to complete an assessment for a program or just invite others to complete the assessment. Only you will have access to the final group sustainability report.
NOTE: You can invite up to 12 people to complete a group assessment for free. If you are interested in inviting more than 12 people to complete an assessment, please contact us.
How we developed the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool
Sustainability is a major challenge for all kinds of programs. With this in mind, the Center for Public Health Systems Science (CPHSS) wanted to create an assessment that staff, managers, funders, and evaluators could use to measure their program’s sustainability. To develop the assessment, we conducted a literature review of sustainability in public health. Next, a Concept Mapping process was used to show the conceptual structure of sustainability. Expert input was used throughout the process. These experts included researchers, funders, and state and local program managers from four primary chronic disease program areas: tobacco control, obesity prevention, heart disease and stroke prevention, and injury prevention.
The resulting Sustainability Framework identified core domains of a conceptual framework for public health program capacity for sustainability. The Program Sustainability Assessment Tool was created to measure these core sustainability domains.
Read more about creating the Program Sustainability Framework.
How we know the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool measures the 8 different sustainability domains
When the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool was developed, we piloted it in trainings and evaluations with over 550 individuals and over 250 unique programs at state and local levels. We ran extensive psychometric analyses on pilot data to improve the framework and assessment. The final Sustainability Framework and Assessment Tool has been reliability tested and can be used by programs in many levels and settings to better understand and plan for sustainability.
Read more about the reliability testing of the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool V1.
How has the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool evolved
In response to feedback from partners, we rolled out a slightly different version of the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool in December 2013. In this updated version (V2), the Political Support domain (internal and external environments that support your program) was renamed Environmental Support (having a supportive internal and external climate for your program). In addition, four of the five domain items were changed to remove references to politics and policy and to focus on champions and leadership instead. These changes were made to broaden the relevance of the assessment to programs in different settings.
We piloted the Environmental Support domain with 56 state-level chronic disease departments and 2 state-level tobacco control programs with a total of 478 participants. Reliability testing showed that the Environmental Support domain had a good Cronbach’s Alpha (0.867). Sustaintool.org now uses the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool V2, which includes the Environmental Support domain.
Assessment Benefits
Over five years ago, our center decided to create a free tool for measuring a program’s capacity for sustainability. Our Program Sustainability Assessment Tool is now available along with the following benefits for no cost:
- Free access to the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool with the ability to rate your program across 8 sustainability domains (a 10-15 minute assessment)
- Individual Sustainability Report (see a sample) that summarizes your responses
- Group Sustainability Report (see a sample) that combines responses from up to 12 individuals assessing the same program. The report can be used to guide sustainability planning
- Free custom profile to create and store your individual and group assessments
Additional Services
In addition to the free services described above, we also offer paid services. These services are designed to help you get the most out of our Program Sustainability Framework and Assessment Tool and to guide you in the sustainability planning process. Services available through paid consultation include:
- Customized Program Sustainability Assessment Tool for your group
- Webinars on the Sustainability Framework and Tool
- Workshops on building program sustainability capacity
Learn more about these services, or visit the CPHSS Services information.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I choose between the PSAT and the CSAT?
Is the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool reliable and valid?
Who has used the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool?
Can I adapt the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool?
At what level can the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool be used?
Who should I invite to take the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool?
What kinds of programs should use the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool?
How long will it take to complete?
How was the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool developed?
Who should use the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool?
How many questions are there?
What is the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool?