HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and Marshall University have selected five Appalachian diabetes coalitions to receive funding and enhanced support services through the Appalachian Diabetes Control and Translation Project (ADCTP).

Each coalition will receive an initial $40,000 grant for local efforts to prevent and control diabetes, along with training and technical assistance. The grants are renewable for up to four years, for a total of up to $160,000 for each recipient.

The selected coalitions include: 

• Northwest Georgia Healthcare Partnership (Murray County, Ga.)
• Montgomery County Diabetes Coalition (Winona, Miss.) 
• Meigs County Creating Healthy Communities Coalition (Pomeroy, Ohio) 
• Grundy County Health Council (Altamont, Tenn.) 
• McMinn Living Well (Athens, Tenn.)

Representatives from the five selected coalitions will attend a training conference this month, then design and complete new initiatives to expand the impact of their coalition partnerships. Through this project, these groups will develop new ways to help people prevent and control diabetes , while building their communities’ capacity to sustain these efforts.

In addition to the five groups that will receive the $40,000 grants and enhanced support, nine additional communities will receive technical assistance and $2,000 mini-grants to establish new diabetes coalitions in Appalachian counties. The communities are: 

• Adair County, Ky.
• Clay County, Miss.
• Mitchell/Yancey counties, N.C.
• Rutherford County, N.C.
• Carter County, Tenn.
• Greene County, Tenn.
• Fayette County, W.Va.
• Logan County, W.Va.
• Nicholas County, W.Va. 

The Appalachian region faces a number of serious health problems, including high rates of type 2 diabetes and other chronic diseases. Since 2000, the ARC and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have partnered with Marshall University’s Robert C. Byrd Center for Rural Health to support a network of local diabetes coalitions in the region's economically distressed communities. These coalitions organize community-based efforts to provide diabetes education and prevention services for thousands in the Appalachian region each year.

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation's Together on Diabetes ™ initiative joined the ADCTP effort in 2011, committing $2.6 million in new resources to the program. Together on Diabetes is a five-year, $100 million initiative launched in November 2010 to improve health outcomes of Americans living with type 2 diabetes by strengthening patient self-management education, community-based supportive services, and broad-based community mobilization. In line with the foundation's mission to promote health equity and improve health outcomes, the initiative targets adult populations disproportionately affected by type 2 diabetes. 

Thirty-six diabetes coalitions from across Appalachia submitted applications for the ADCTP funding. All groups that applied for funding and support will be included in the ADCTP network of more than 80 Appalachian coalitions, and will continue to benefit from training and technical assistance services provided by Marshall’s ADCTP team. 

For more information on diabetes prevention and control, visit the CDC’s website at www.cdc.gov/diabetes.

Date Posted: Tuesday, January 22, 2013