Iowa AADE will be taking over the Diabetes Busters program from the ADA. Because the ADA is no longer present in Iowa, they needed another organization to take over the project. Wendy and I had a discussion and felt this was an important undertaking and needed to continue within the state.
What is Diabetes Busters?
Diabetes Busters is an educational program for 4th grade students. This program is 1 hour long and teaches children about diabetes, and food and activity choices to help manage and prevent type 2 diabetes. Students rotate through three different stations led by volunteers. Students will take a simple pre-test at the beginning of the session, then take a brief post-test a few days later to test their knowledge.
What do we need from Iowa AADE members?
I am helping transition the program from ADA to AADE. I have been involved with Diabetes Busters since 2015 and have visited several schools over the last several years. Because we no longer have ADA staff in the state, we need AADE members who are willing to be a leader/coordinator for your area/region of Iowa. In the Des Moines-metro area, we have a student who is coordinating with schools for us. You can use a student, intern, or you can coordinate with local schools yourself. This is a volunteer opportunity, however some employers will allow you to do this as part of your work day.
Should you be interested in participating, you will be responsible for reaching out to your local schools/school districts and organizing a date and time to teach the Diabetes Busters program at the school. I would encourage you to build a group of volunteers who can help you teach the program - generally three volunteers are all that is needed. However, if your volunteers feel more comfortable working in pairs, they may do so. These do not need to be professionals in the field of diabetes - you can work with anyone who has an interest in diabetes treatment/prevention. There are scripts provided for you, for each of the three sessions students rotate to (diabetes 101, nutrition, and physical activity). You can use these scripts, if you prefer, or you can teach using your own knowledge. Each session is 15 minutes long, and the scripts allow those who are not professionals to teach the lesson.
If you decide to be a leader/coordinator, you will also need to keep track of the schools you contact, as well as the schools you visit and the number of 4th grade students served. We compile this data on a yearly basis (using a Sept-May school year calendar) to provide us information on how many people are impacted by the program. You will also need to keep track of the pre- and post-tests and compile the score data (this can be included in your school spreadsheet for simplicity).
Iowa AADE can provide some monetary assistance, as needed, to help get you started with supplies. Each student receives a goodie bag for participating. Your group of volunteers will be responsible for putting together these goodie bags and leaving them with the school staff at the end of your lesson. Iowa AADE will provide you with the list of the contacts needed to re-order goodie bag supplies as needed (many of these supplies are donated from local companies), and we can provide reimbursement for some of these.
If you are interested in acting as a volunteer leader, coordinator or joining your local Diabetes Busters team as an educator, please let me know. We need a team of volunteers within the state to keep this program going, and we are looking towards all of you to help! Please reach out to myself or Wendy with any questions. We will be glad to answer them for you. We sincerely thank all of you for your expertise and your willingness to participate!