The Best Bones Forever! Transition: A Case Study in Sustainability and Planning for the End

Background:  Adolescence represents the key bone-building years—nearly 90 percent of bone mass is built by age 18. Unfortunately, many adolescent girls get too little calcium, vitamin D, and weight-bearing physical activity to build strong bones. Public health campaigns are frequently developed to address challenges like the one above. However, few plan for the termination of operations. This abstract details a case study in sustainability.

Program background:  To address adolescent bone health, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health (OWH) launched Best Bones Forever!, a campaign designed to use friendship and fun to encourage girls and their “BFFs” to improve bone health. The program successfully implemented a broad range of strategies to engage girls. One of the most successful was partnership development: nearly 100 partners came together to reach girls where they live, learn, and play and provided them with the opportunities, motivation, and skills needed to build healthier bones. The campaign resulted in measurable behavior change at the community level and won several national awards. In 2013, as OWH leadership and strategic priorities shifted, the Office decided to bring Best Bones Forever! to an end. However, recognizing the campaign’s success—it was meeting its objectives, had brand equity with the audience, had developed a strong network of partners, and had attained national prominence—OWH understood the importance of continuing the momentum. At that point OWH put the campaign into maintenance mode and turned its attention to finding Best Bones Forever!a new home.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  The first step in transitioning the campaign to a new leader was to draft a Federal Register notice and hold webinars with Best Bones Forever’s!most active partners.

American Bone Health (ABH), a nonprofit organization, volunteered to take ownership and day-to-day management responsibility. OWH and ABH planned for the transition by:

• Holding a day-long, in-person meeting
• Developing a detailed transition plan, including all the items that would be transitioned
• Working with federal lawyers to ensure compliance
• Implementing the plan
• Announcing the transition to key stakeholders

The result: OWH successfully found a new home for its behavior change initiative and is working to ensure a smooth transition.

Conclusions:  OWH recognized the success of Best Bones Forever!, its momentum, its assets, and the importance of avoiding a total shutdown of the campaign, and thereore the importance of preserving it and making it sustainable. Under ABH leadership, the campaign will continue to educate girls about and engage them in bone healthy behaviors. In fact, ABH may be able to take the campaign even further since it is not burdened by some of the rules that often impede government-run initiatives, like the ability to accept support of corporate partners.

Implications for research and/or practice:  A literature review found few examples of successful transitions from federal agencies to nonprofit partners. Campaigns are often defunded and forced to end, even when they demonstrate great success. We believe this is the first transition of its kind and can serve as a model for others.