It is easy to become an advocate to fight for affordable access to life saving medicine and funding for research! Click the link and sign up to receive emailed Action Alerts where you can easily notify your congressional representatives about important legislation relating to diabetes, such as the Special Diabetes Program.
The YAAC is a program for young adults ages 18-28 who are passionate about T1D advocacy! We host monthly meetings to stay up-to-date on important legislation and research occurring in the space. Each year, we create an annual project, such as our Transition Guide created to help individuals transitioning into college or the workforce.
I joined the YAAC as an original member of the Leadership Team back in 2022 and currently serve as a Co-Chair.
Every other year, representatives from each state, aged 4-17 years old, go to Washington D.C. to meet with their congressional representatives. In these meetings, the advocate for a renewal of the Special Diabetes Program, which grants funding for research to advance diabetes technology and study potential cures.
After applying in 2015 and 2017, I was selected to attend in 2019. I highly recommend getting involved in advocacy on the local level, and then applying! Not only are you making a difference, you also get to connect with an amazing community of young T1Ds!
These meetings are virtual or in-person meetings with your local congressional representatives. The campaigns run every other year, and the goals of the meetings are to advocate for insulin affordability, funding for research, and to ask for their support on any legislation that would help the T1D community. They are a chance to share your story and highlight why it is so important to have Government support as we work towards the cures.
I was part of both the YAL program and Youth Ambassador Program. Reach out to your local Breakthrough T1D chapter to learn more. In these programs, I attended in-person meet-ups, wrote thank you letters to supports, and went in-person to companies like Marshalls and Wawa that hosted fundraisers for National Diabetes Awareness Month.
The Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition also has an advocate program when you can receive emails about action alerts where you can write to your member of congress about important legislation.