Kids In School (KIS) Initiative 

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In June of this year, we established stakeholder group to collaborate and to have a louder voice for advocacy to keep our Type 1 Kids in School safe.    This common  purpose has united Diabetes stakeholder across the country/ province.   Some of the stakeholders include: Diabetes Canada, JDRF, Sick kids, I Challenge Diabetes, Trillium Health, The Best Centre, Canadian Paediatric Society, Canadian Paediatric Endocrine Association, SOS Diabetes, and many more.  

The KIS Awareness Campaign:
​The KIS November Awareness Campaign is one of the key action items our stakeholder group identified in June of 2017.  The purpose of this campaign is to:  a) increase the general awareness of type 1 diabetes in the school community, 
 b) ensure all T1D families and schools are aware of the tools (i.e. diabetesatschool.ca) that exist to help our children.  The campaign includes:
  1. Diabuddies Tour:
    1. Volunteers Presentation:  volunteers going into their own community to increase T1D awareness.  This maybe in the form of a classmate presentation, a school presentation, a presentation at a parent council or at a teacher staff meeting.  
    2. Awareness Elite Athlete School Speaker(s): Selected schools will participant in a motivation talk with elite athletes.  Talk will focus on awareness and empowerment.  Everyone is empowered and has the ability to help their friend with Type 1 or other needs.  Please see the Diabuddies page on this site for more information.
  2. Social Media:  we will be sharing the pictures and testimonials of the places we visit on our diabuddies tour to show how much this support in needed.
  3. Stories:  We will be collecting stories fromTID families regarding their experiences in school both positive stories and stories that provide a clear example of how the province of Ontario needs mandatory policy that clearly articulates consistent care amgonst the 72 school boards in the province .
  4. Ontario Petition:  Diabetes Canada and JDRF have joined forces to launch a joint petition to ensure the province-wide policy on management of prevalent medical conditions (currently in draft form) addresses both the daily management and emergency needs of students with diabetes and clearly outlines the roles and responsibilities of the Ministry of Education, school boards, schools, students and parent/guardians.

​Please help our initiative and share message via social media and join me to raise awareness for Kids In School (KIS) with Diabetes.
 
TOGETHER, WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

 All kids deserve to be safe.
 
Thank you for reading and being aware.
 
Sincerely,
Lisa Geelen