As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt daily life, healthcare
providers are seeing rising rates in diabetes across urban settings.
Primarily impacting communities of color, more than half of Latinos
are expected to develop type 2 diabetes within their lifetimes.
Resulting from a complex combination of family history, cultural
barriers and access to care – what can we do to combat this rise? The
answer may lie in a community-based approach.
Our Patient Perspectives Podcast Host, Desirea Richardson,
sat down with Dr. Nilsa Graciani, Chief STEM Officer and Director
of STEM at Esperanza College of Eastern University.
Leading the work of “Champions of Hope: Latinos Preventing
Diabetes”, one of Cities Changing
Diabetes Philadelphia’s Innovation Challenge winning projects for
2021, Nilsa shares with us the importance of engaging youth
leaders as catalysts for health education, introducing prevention
programming in underserved communities, and how community-based
programs can help.