In the mid-1990s, Archstone Foundation saw the need to build the field of fall prevention into a critical public health issue. Over the next two decades, we developed a strategic vision to make that happen.
Today, falls are recognized as the leading cause of injury, and death from injury, among adults over 65 in California and across the United States. An older person falls every second of every day. And of the 29 million individuals who, in 2014, reported at least one fall, 27,000 died and seven million were injured.
In 1996, however, when we made our initial grants to six organizations to advance fall prevention efforts, there was little understanding among the health care community or the public that falls were, in fact, preventable. There was limited evidence-based research about falls, fall risk, and fall prevention outside of geriatric medicine. And at a time when only about one in five Americans went online from work, home, or school, there was limited access to education, tools, and strategies regarding fall risk reduction.
We developed a far-reaching vision for how to build the field. Starting with grantmaking and coalition-building at the local level in California communities, the Foundation helped build a vibrant statewide network. While building the statewide model, we also partnered with the National Council on Aging (NCOA) and others to begin addressing falls at the national level. As a result, NCOA developed and implemented a National Action Plan—key provisions of which are now embedded in federal law.
Our Fall Prevention: A Strategic Vision, A Lasting Legacy report documents this work, highlights several of the incredible programs addressing falls, and introduces the 12 Key Strategies for Success that we developed as part of this effort and that continue to guide our grantmaking.
We invite you to learn more about this template for philanthropic field-building and how it can be adopted and adapted to catalyze positive change around other critically important issues.
