Funding Available for Falls Prevention

Complete our Partnership Agreement to sign up for the cohort and receive a $1K Lowe's gift card. The initial deadline was June 30 but we have extended the deadline to July 29! Watch the webinar recording or read the notes on the slides for more details. 

Overview: Members who pledge to ask 7 common questions about falls to 15+ homeowners before they start the repairs get $1,000 in the form of a Lowe's gift card. Projects must be completed by the end of the year. Those who can work on more homes may get even more funding! There's an option to do a grab bar blitz instead of complete repairs / modifications. Participants will ask the same 7 questions again 6- and 12-months after the work is completed. Researchers from East Tennessee State University's College of Public Health and the HomesRenewed Coalition will analyze our data and write reports that will hopefully help Coalition members get funding from healthcare systems and health insurers to do more repairs and modifications. 

Project History: In November 2021, our Healthy Homes Affinity Group decided to start a group project related to falls prevention - quickly, and at a small scale. We were inspired by Chesapeake Housing Mission's Healthy Homes report. Over the winter, a team of five people finalized our survey questions and tool. A few organizations have already been using it. Coalition staff sought funding for the project and had success in May when Lowe’s gave us $35K in gift cards to support the project. We didn’t want to limit participation to the affinity group, so we’re now opening it up to all members - and forming a separate cohort. There will be optional short monthly cohort meetings. 

Project Timeline: 

• 15+ homes with a resident aged 62+ or living with disabilities
• Email your spreadsheet to us as soon as you have data for 15 homes completed on tab 1 (this is the pre-work data). If you indicate that you'll be able to complete more than 15 homes for this project by 12/31/22, we'll issue a second $1,000 gift card (while supplies last) after you submit the initial data for the first 15 homes. 
• Homes repaired/modified by December 31, 2022 (pre-work survey & project data due to the Coalition by January 31, 2023)
• 6-month post-survey by June 30, 2023 (data to the Coalition by July 31, 2023)
• 12-month post-survey by December 31, 2023 (data to the Coalition by January 31, 2024)

Survey Questions: 

• How many times has a resident fallen inside of the home in the last 6 months?
• How many times has a resident fallen while entering or exiting the home in the last 6 months?
• How many times has a resident received emergency services in their home in the past 6 months?
• How many times has a resident sought care at a hospital emergency room in the last 6 months?
• How many times has a resident been admitted to the hospital in the past 6 months?
• How many times in the last 6 months has a resident made an unplanned visit to a medical facility (other than a hospital) such as an urgent care, clinic, or doctor office?
• Has any resident received the services of an occupational or physical therapist in the last 6 months?
  
  

Links: 

• Partnership Agreement - complete this by June 29 to sign up for the cohort and receive $1,000
• Data template - get started with the project now using this tool
• Webinar recording
  
• Webinar slides with notes - review this before signing the agreement if you missed the webinar
• Optional cohort meetings: July 14, Aug 25, and Sept 22 at 1pm EDT 
  
  

Important notes: 

• Use this HUD AMI chart when completing question A10 on tab 1. Area Median Income is calculated according to both the county and family size. 
• You must ask the questions on the bottom of tab 1 before starting any repairs or modifications. Do not go back to projects that have already been started to ask these questions; they cannot be included in this project. That would negatively impact the integrity of the data.
• You can ask the falls questions to all of your clients if you'd like, but we are only collecting the data for homes that have at least one homeowner aged 62+ or someone living with a disability.