Dance to Health, Aesop’s falls prevention programme for older people, has received good news from two funding bodies.
Arts Council England and Garfield Weston Foundation have together committed £100,000 funding to the programme to support current groups to become self-sustaining, primarily run by volunteers and embedded within communities.
This year has seen the completion of 39 of the 40 intensive ‘Improvement Programmes’, with 22 groups continuing with the maintenance programme – giving older people the opportunity to maintain the health benefits of the improvement programme. We extend our thanks to Arts Council England and Garfield Weston Foundation for their support at this crucial stage.
And there’s more good news:
Dance to Health is being evaluated by Sheffield Hallam University Sports Science Research Centre. Results from 2018 show that:
“Dance to Health offers the health system an effective and cost-effective means to address the issue of older people’s falls. Additionally, findings from the research show that Dance to Health is helping older people in danger of falling overcome lost confidence, reduced independence and increased isolation.”
Dance to Health has also caught the attention of the media and has been featured on BBC Inside Out and ITV Tonight. You can watch a clip from BBC Inside Out visiting our group in Congleton on our Facebook page.
We are gearing up for the next steps towards making Dance to Health more widely available across the UK, so it is accessible for more older people to benefit from in the future.
If you are interested in volunteering with Dance to Health in your community or want to find out about establishing a group in your area email us at hello@dancetohealth.org.
