“There can be no greater gift than that of giving one’s time and energy to help others without expecting anything in return.”– Nelson Mandela

While the Diabetes Coalition engages in various assessments, prevention, and community educational outreach events throughout the year, the majority of these activities occur during our Know Your Numbers Diabetes Prevention Screening Campaign. This campaign “kicks-off” in the fall, celebrates November – National Diabetes Month, and continues through January culminating with Diabetes Awareness Day – the Coalition’s signature, community-wide annual screening event.

We bring our screening and educational initiatives to our communities. These events are held in churches, schools, businesses, health care centers, food pantries, shopping malls, and many other locations. Wherever the Coalition is needed, we go!

Multi-ethnic and non-English speaking populations are also targeted, by having our bilingual volunteers assigned to help with screenings, who include physicians, nurses, pharmacists, licensed dietitians, community health workers, university, and vo-tech students, and seniors. In addition to English, we also offer risk assessment tools and resource materials in Spanish and Creole.

If found to be at risk for diabetes, or in need of other services, individuals are linked to a health care provider for further assessment and/or connected to other professionals.

• For events offering diabetes risk assessment with health biomarker tests, which include rapid result AIc tests and other screening evaluations, the Diabetes Coalition requires medical professionals (physicians, nurses, pharmacists, etc.) to provide only those services that are defined by Florida Statute as “within the scope” of their professional license).
• Under the direction of an instructor and/or designated Diabetes Coalition team member, college, university, and vocational technical school students enrolled in health-related fields may also participate in the screening events.
• Non-medical volunteers are also needed and are vital members of our screening teams, working to support in the pre-preparation, coordination, successful implementation, and completion of our screening and educational events.
• All volunteers completing diabetes risk assessments and health biomarker tests must complete training, prior to participating in a screening event.

Volunteers are needed to help with pre-campaign and event preparation activities, Diabetes Awareness Day, and post Know Your Numbers Diabetes Prevention Screening Campaign, data assessments and analyses.