This is from an email I received recently:
In the past year JDRF has recognized that we have been inconsistent in our communications and relevancy to adults with type 1 diabetes. As some of you may recall we are in the process of creating resources and changing our communications to help us address this inconsistency and to help advance our connection. Many of you in chapters may have already begun to see the benefits of making connections with this group a priority. In the past few months, we have already seen more adults with type 1 becoming involved in our Outreach programs signing on as chapter mentors, National ODST members, and through involvement in Juvenation (the average participant are adults with type 1).
This summer/fall we will be launching a new JDRF toolkit for the Adult with type 1, much like the School Advisory Toolkit and Bag of Hope, we expect this resource to foster initial connections resulting in an even greater influx of adults with type 1 coming to our organization. This is great news and we want to be fully prepared to have programs in place that will not only continue to cultivate these connections but foster strong relationships with JDRF and inspire a passion for our mission in these individuals.
We need you, as Volunteers of JDRF, to provide your input, ideas, and/or best practices to answer these questions. Your input is important to us!
• How do we foster strong relationships and a passion for our mission with the adult type 1 population coming to JDRF through our Outreach efforts?
• How do we create turn key fundraising and non fundraising programs for adult type 1 involvement and cultivation?
• Do we have programs already that we can make turn-key? If so, how? What might those programs look like, keeping in mind efficiency and effectiveness of the program?
Keep in mind the mission of Outreach and its goals - to provide meaningful support to create a connection and foster a relationship that results in a passion for our mission ultimately yielding more people, more involved. Additionally, JDRF is the in the process of an internal marketing assessment and your input as it relates to adults with type 1 will be considered in the assessment.
Please email your responses to ahulke@jdrf.org with the subject line, “ADULT TYPE 1 INPUT.” We look forward to everyone’s feedback.
Andrea Hulke
Moira McCarthy
National Outreach Department National Outreach