The Foundation will make grants and forge partnerships through two processes: ongoing, opportunistic grantmaking and themed requests for proposals, which will be issued each November during National Diabetes Month. The initial grantees for Together on Diabetes?® are:

The American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation, in partnership with Peers for Progress, National Council of La Raza and the University of North Carolina's Gillings School of Global Public Health, will incorporate patient self-management education, peer support and community outreach for low-income Hispanics and African Americans into the patient-centered medical home model. The American Association of Diabetes Educators will conduct a pilot study of the effectiveness and sustainability of a flexible, multi-level diabetes education and support team that serves minority populations and that utilizes professional and lay health workers. The American Pharmacists Association Foundation, working with government agencies, professional associations, pharmacy chains and others, will adapt and expand the evidence-based Asheville Project model to patients covered by public and private health insurance in 25 communities heavily affected by diabetes. In this model, patients receive diabetes education and then are teamed with community-based pharmacists who make sure they use their medications correctly. The United Hospital Fund, working with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Department for the Aging, will develop and test an integrated, community-based diabetes control strategy for seniors living in "naturally occurring retirement communities" and the surrounding neighborhoods.

Foundation seeks additional proposals

Together on Diabetes?® first request for proposals focuses on African American women. Five grants up to $300,000 each will be awarded. African American women represent one of the highest risk groups for type 2 diabetes based on prevalence and disease burden. About one in 10 African American women age 20 and older has diabetes, a rate that more than doubles to one in four for African American women over 55. African Americans also suffer high rates of diabetes' most serious complications: blindness, amputation and kidney failure. The purpose of the request for proposals is to encourage, identify and promote new evidence-based approaches to empowering African American women to control their diabetes while taking into account the opportunity they have to influence the health of their families and communities as well.

Source: Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation