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Outreach /Family Connections

The Colorado Springs Branch of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is excited to let you know that we are busy forming our Family Connections Outreach Program. The purpose of Family Connections is to provide one on one support to the families of the newly diagnosed, support the JDRF Online Diabetes Support Team (ODST), publicize ongoing support group activities, conduct Family Connection events and bring community awareness to the JDRF mission. In many ways, the Family Connections program is essentially what we’ve been doing since JDRF was founded. Our volunteers and staff have reached out to families touched with diabetes in our community with understanding and compassion, as we know all too well what they are going through.

JDRF’s mission is to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through support of research. While we’re waiting for a cure, we want to provide support, hope and assist in improving the quality of life for families experiencing diabetes. Family Connections is our opportunity to do that in our own community.

Family Connections has several components and we need volunteers to turn our vision into reality. Our plans include expanding our current Bag of Hope/Teen Pack program, more visibility to the local support groups, a series of networking events, and local social events. There are many volunteer opportunities that are available and we need you to be part of our outreach program.

Please let us know how you would like to help with Family Connections.

Go to the Events Page to see a full list of the wonderful activities that we have planned so far this year.

If you have questions about Family Connections or volunteer opportunities, please contact the JDRF office at
719-633-8110.

JDRF is the leading charitable funder and advocate of type 1 (juvenile) diabetes research worldwide. The mission of JDRF is to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research. Type 1 diabetes is a disease which strikes children suddenly and requires multiple injections of insulin daily or a continuous infusion of insulin through a pump. Insulin, however, is not a cure for diabetes, nor does it prevent its eventual and devastating complications which may include kidney failure, blindness, heart disease, stroke, and amputation.

Diabetes and its complications affect more than 18 million people in the U.S., and 194 million around the world. As many as 3 million Americans may have type 1 diabetes – the most severe form of the disease.

Since its founding in 1970 by parents of children with type 1 diabetes, JDRF has awarded more than $900 million to diabetes research, including more than $98 million in FY2005. More than 80 percent of JDRF’s expenditures directly support research and research-related education. In FY2005, the Foundation funded 500 centers, grants and fellowships in 19 countries.

More than $6.5 million has been provided to Colorado research facilities via JDRF fundraising activities since 2002.