Institute for Leadership, Inc.

The Institute for Leadership (IFL) worked with NYHealth for three years to carry out the NYHealth Diabetes Campaign goal of spreading diabetes self-management and prevention programs in faith-based settings throughout the State.

IFL submitted a $3 million proposal to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for a Community Transformation Grant to continue to target regions that are hardest hit by the diabetes epidemic in New York State. IFL spread the CDC-led National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), a 16-week prevention program designed to help people diagnosed with prediabetes lose 5–7% of their body weight. With support from NYHealth, IFL met one of the main requirements for DPP replication: use certified master trainers to develop and train staff at local organizations to become lifestyle coaches.

At the start of this grant, only nine master trainers were nationally certified by the CDC. To become a master trainer, an individual must receive training and be mentored by a CDC-recognized expert in the curriculum. It is important for New York State to have a robust set of master trainers to facilitate diffusion of the DPP. For IFL to secure the grant from the CDC, it was required to have on-site master trainers to begin developing lifestyle coaches to implement the DPP in faith-based settings. NYHealth supported the development of five master trainers in New York State, all of whom are available to train lifestyle coaches at faith-based organizations and housing and work sites to deliver the DPP. The five candidates received training and mentoring over two days from the staff at Emory University’s Diabetes Training and Technical Assistance Center.