Queensland Stay On Your Feet® Toolkit Phase 1

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Step 1B: Identify existing stakeholders and services

As part of your investigations, you need to work out who can and should be involved with your project/program and find out what is already happening in your community in relation to falls prevention.

Identify stakeholders: Who can be involved?
Given the large number of causes and risk factors for falls, no one agency can reduce falls and promote healthy active ageing all by themselves. Consequently, there is a need for a range of local people, groups and organisations to be involved. It is important to identify all people and organisations that could potentially be involved or who have a role to play in falls prevention and the promotion of healthy active ageing. These people and groups are referred to as key stakeholders. Key stakeholders can be involved in a project/program at a number of levels. It is important to involve all local key stakeholders and representatives from the target group at the beginning of the project/program. Actively maintaining a good working relationship with key stakeholders will help ensure their ongoing support throughout the project/program.

There are two frameworks that can be used to help structure and evaluate stakeholder involvement. These are:

  • Community engagement framework where stakeholders are engaged through information, consultation and active participation [14]
  • Partnership framework where stakeholders are involved at various levels from networking, coordinating, cooperating and collaborating [15].

Key stakeholders can play specific roles, including being a champion and/or advocate. Both of these specialist roles can have a significant positive impact on progressing falls prevention and promoting healthy active ageing.

Tools and templates

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Identify services: What is already happening?A community stocktake is an important part of investigating falls in your area. It involves collecting information from a wide range of community members including individuals, service providers, community organisations, health professionals (including medical and allied health professionals), fitness professionals, community services, carers, clubs and sporting associations, retail businesses, service clubs, government departments and non-government organisations. Conducting a community stocktake helps to:

  • determine the relevant structures, systems, activities and resources already in place in the community to address falls and healthy active ageing [17]
  • identify the providers of activities and programs.

Identifying the current services, programs and facilities that address falls prevention and healthy active ageing in your community allows you to explore the potential to integrate your project/program into what currently exists. This reduces potential duplication, saves time and money, and increases the reach and maintenance of your project/program. A community stocktake also helps to identify your community's knowledge of falls and falls risk factors, what is actually happening, what can be enhanced and any gaps that new services or programs could fill. A community stocktake before your project starts provides baseline information, and can be compared with a post-project community stocktake to provide a useful evaluation. There are a range of ways to collect this information, such as through face to face interviews, focus groups, community forum or a survey/questionnaire (you can conduct a mail survey or use an online survey tool to save time and costs). A variety of methods may be needed to reach a range of people and organisations.

Tools and templatesFind out more about ways to organise a community stocktake:


Falls prevention in actionRead how others conducted a community stocktake.

Ready for the next step?Go to Step 1C: Assess readiness to take action

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Last updated: 14 July 2022