Heart Partners: a strategy for promoting effective diffusion of school health promotion programs

Heart Partners uses a straightforward, interpersonal approach to increase acceptance and use of innovations in school health promotion. In accord with the linkage model of innovation diffusion, developers of a new program or technology (i.e., resource system) simply designate and train selected members to be recruiters and allies of individual advocates at the campus-level (i.e., user system). Linkage is supported by supplying advocates and allies with guidelines and materials that encourage ongoing, interactive, interpersonal partnerships to promote effective implementation of the new technology at the school. Empirical assessment of this simple strategy implemented by the Texas Affiliate of the American Heart Association showed a twofold to fourfold increase in actual use and reach of school health promotion packages, with an average reported volunteer time of less than three hours per month.