Name of Organization/ Individual: Type Diabeat It
Tell us about what your business does.
We are a Canadian not for profit focused on assisting the underserved and underfunded BPOC Community living with Diabetes. Our role is to ensure Black Canadians are not only given access but also equipped with adequate resources to better manage and prevent diabetes.
What is your mission statement?
To ensure every man, woman, and child within the BPOC community understands what living with diabetes is, through education, and support coupled with the importance of healthy eating. Life is worth living when we no longer allow diabetes to be a burden but a way of living.
What do you love most about what you do?
I love that I am able to really be a part of the change and the solution to people struggling with diabetes.
Being able to give simple solutions makes my job amazing.
How does the work that you do change the world or give back to our community in a positive way?
I live and breathe empowerment as I bring diversity. I represent what matters as I offer culturally competent diabetes care. We also strive to help minority and underdeveloped regions by reducing costs, increasing health resources, and implementing diabetic education.
I am a nursing student graduate, and as soon as I have my license, I become an even greater asset to my community. I can give certified and clinical solutions to my clients. Being a source of constant and proper information while knowing that it is impacting change within this industry that no one is currently providing is one of the best parts of what we do.
What do you love most about working at Innovation Works?
I love the flexibility. I love the welcomeness, supportive, and open energy throughout the space. It’s great that I can bring my kids, and dogs. I love being a part of a space that makes my work life easy, presentable, and a huge bonus is the nice meeting spaces. It’s accessible and affordable, and that’s what makes Innovation Works really unique to me.
What is the best thing that has happened for you or your business as a result of working at Innovation Works?
Being able to network with key players in the community. I’ve had great conversations with Mojdeh and Loredana, who are always willing to connect you with someone in the community or space. The improvement for me is people power and I have certainly increased my resources since becoming a co-tenant at Innovation Works. To me the biggest change is people. Connecting, networking, and growing.
How have you had to adapt your business as a result of COVID-19?
Like many other businesses, we have had to do everything virtually. That has been a change for us because I believe that health is a more of community approach. Reaching out to my clients virtually at first was hard but we have to pivot and it went well and we’ve had great reviews.
Have you been able to contribute to any community initiatives to help those impacted by COVID-19?
Yes, we’ve been able to implement ethno- cultural food boxes and training for those our community free of cost. We were able to secure a grant from Novo Nordisk.
We started the first BPOC Community Garden in collaboration with the London Foodbank. This initiative will help minority groups have access to food and vegetables.
With a focus on monthly control training, our ethnocultural food boxes provide recipe guides with no carbs/no meat. Our goal is to change the health narrative within people of colour, in order to prevent and manage diabetes. We are trying to encourage a low carb and meatless day within the whole family and adjust their consumption with healthy food.
What do you hope will be different about the world or our community after COVID-19?
I hope that there will be more awareness within all sectors about what marginalized people currently face and go through.
Take part in the 5K Run to Beat Diabetes on September 25th! Details below.
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