PLAN ADs is a collaboration with
Preventive Lifestyle Assistance Network (PLAN) and
THE EIGHT, Inc. 501 (c)(3) Nonprofit Organization.
We Invite You To Help Us Save Limbs & Save Lives
1 million Americans
November is National Diabetes Month. Harlem-based Preventive Lifestyle Assistance Network (PLAN) is collaborating with California-based nonprofit The Eight and a host of government agencies and influencers of multiple industries in the launch of the “Check Your Risk” Diabetes Awareness Challenge.
Our goal is to get 1,000,000 Americans to check their status and to take action when the one-minute survey determines that they are at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Will you use your platform to help us spread the word to members of underserved communities and to reach this 1,000,000 goal?
Do Not Delay. Check Your Risk Today!
Why is this Awareness Challenge Crucial?
No one has to die of complications related to type 2 diabetes. No one has to lose their legs or their sight. Borderline diabetes and full-blown diabetes can often be reversed with lifestyle changes to diet, exercise, and stress reduction that are maintained. Few people seem to know this, and fewer people know their status-especially among African-Americans and Hispanics.
Approximately 88 million American adults—more than 1 in 3—have prediabetes, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Of those with prediabetes, more than 84% don't know they have it.
Prediabetes puts Americans at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, according to the CDC. Without lifestyle changes, 15-30% of people with prediabetes will develop type 2 diabetes within 3-5 years.
“Our mission is to make sure people, in underserved communities especially, recognize the risk and know that there are programs and professionals helping people reverse these conditions,” says Marci Kenon, PLAN founder and certified National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP) Lifestyle Coach.
We want to prevent people from falling through the cracks like Anthony (Malik) Wright, a double amputee who spoke from his wheelchair near the City Hall steps in Manhattan. “Why don’t we have prevention?” Wright asked in the 2018 New York Daily News article “Educate, don't amputate' - Diabetes in NYC takes a turn for the worse.” “All those years my diabetes was getting worse, no doctors sent me to an education program, yet they know the horrors that are possible — the amputations, the blindness."
Respondents whose tests reveal a high risk of developing type 2 diabetes will be directed to make an appointment with their primary care physicians for routine blood tests. They will also be invited to a free webinar to learn about diabetes and evidenced-based prevention programs that are hosted online and in their communities. PLAN, which conducts the CDC’s year-long, online NDPP
the program will sponsor up to 100 respondents who are motivated to reverse course.
Calling All Celebrities & Influencers
“Check Your Risk” will be promoted primarily via social media with participating celebrities and influencers inviting their followers to take the risk test and to share the link with their family and friends. Celebrity ambassadors are also welcome to share their personal stories of how type 2 diabetes has impacted their lives personally or through the struggles of family and friends. PLAN will also promote “Check Your Risk” through a series of Facebook and Instagram ads to boost awareness and videos of influencers.
We are sending out a press release nationally on October 19th. Please confirm your participation in “Check Your Risk” with us no later than October 12th so that we can include you in the release and coordinate ensuing media opportunities with you and/or your representatives. We will send you a customized link to the risk test that identifies the respondents who are generated from your efforts. With their permission, we will also provide you with their names and email addresses
for your outreach to them.
Next Steps
Please reach out to schedule a Zoom meeting to discuss details of the challenge and to coordinate efforts to make this limb and life-saving challenge a mega success.
CONTACT:
Marci Kenon/PLAN