ICD’s Peer2Peer Connections and One-on-One Mentorship should be a universal experience.
Our mission has always been to connect, empower and support people living with diabetes through mentorship and challenging programs. Together, we apply strategies to overcome obstacles and grow to take ownership for our health.
Together, we can be strong.
Current research shows that youth with T1D have a higher incidence of mental health issues including anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. 25% – 65% of teens have no medical follow-up in the transition from paediatric to adult care.* In recent months, major breakthroughs have been achieved by individuals in our leadership development pipeline. These youth were on track for major health complications and by volunteering with our programs, they have experienced life-changing growth. *Type 1 Diabetes in Children and Adolescents; Diabetes Canada 2018 Clinical Practice Guidelines, Section: Transition to Adult Care, page 7
We often partner with clinics for these events, extending many benefits to the participants and extending the program’s impact. We aspire to meet the varying needs of those at any ICD program; multi-day retreats gives more time to connect and go deep. Most participants continue with ongoing friendships and realize diabetes has helped make them stronger.
Making Meaningful Connections
Our founder recognized that the ability to work through his challenges of diabetes often felt like he was on his own. Even on his Olympic rowing team, there were those with good intentions but little knowledge to add. Each day of practice he could increase his skills in rowing, his physical and mental strength but any slip in his diabetes control would impact all he had worked for.
The result is the development of our supportive team environment to ease the transfer of knowledge. Experiential education is a luxury of many top secondary education programs that teaches students how to apply learning while gaining confidence, leadership and communication skills. When peers with type 1 diabetes connect, there is an exchange of knowledge that is missing in their regular classroom or peer circles.
Is our Mentorship Program Right for You?
Building social and emotional competencies through one-on-one and group mentoring builds confident individuals, able and motivated to give back.
Two recent case studies of youth identified as at-risk and referred to ICD by their diabetes teams, showed a dramatic, documented improvement in health and ability and desire to engage with the community; both went on to lead or assist in leading peers in subsequent programs.
Results are demonstrated through surveys designed to track progress.
- 76% of youth participants surveyed reported they were “More Confident” in taking on leadership roles after our program.
- 89% of youth participating in our program returned to volunteer within 6 months.
- 100% of youth reported they would recommend our program to peers.
Our mentorship program is intensive with world-class mentors assisting individuals to learn critical skills in self-management.
Reaching Out
Our team has long been involved in supporting youth and adults through focused retreats where they can identify the challenges they face with their peers, validate them, and beging developing their toolkit to overcome them. As mentors who have gone through this ourselves, we are able to build trust quickly and establish open communication to tackle personal and group issues.
We recognize there are often not enough programs to cover the need for connection, and that’s why we started ICD. We encourage you to reach out and let us know what you need and maybe together we can make something great happen. We take every request seriously and will do our best to ensure we are offering the most support we can.
Not sure if you are ready, or are you experiencing barriers to attending one of our in-person programs? We offer connection and mentoring via video or phone call. It’s a great way to meet our team and find out how we can problem solve and face challenge, together.
