A-POD continued to host weekly or twice monthly 90-minute “Meet-ups” to provide the type of support lacking in many clinic/hospital-based programs. Meet-ups focused on sharing personal experiences and tracking progress toward health goals. Other activities included:
- Hosted a monthly Diabetes Breakfast in conjunction with Waite House, Native American Community Clinic, Allina Health, International Diabetes Center and Novo Nordisk.
- Assisted regular A-POD participants in achieving D-5 goals for patients with diabetes.
- Initiated a twice monthly Latino A-POD group on Wednesday evenings with Amy Shellabarger and Lesley Mondragon, co-facilitators and CHAT members.
- Continued weekly East African A-POD group with Ifrah Alim, Sara Ali, Sahra Ali as co-facilitators and CHAT members. Gennet Beyan is an assistant facilitator.
- Mentored numerous Phillips Neighborhood Clinic (PNC)/University of MN Health Science students affiliated with the PNC CHAT group who attended Meet-ups and monthly breakfastsÂ
- Participated by providing diabetes screening with Out In The Backyard CHAT at weekly Zumba events
- Conducted a Latino-specific diabetes screening event with UMN Public Health students and Waite House staff
- Provided community-based health presentations at Backyard High Rises featuring Siad Ali, Dr. Harrare, and the MNSure Somali group.
- Participated in developing an Allina/A-POD-based “Diabetes Self-Management Pre-pilot Program” for the East Lake Allina Clinic through special Blue Cross/Blue Shield funding.
- Received HIPPA training through Allina Health as a requirement for an upcoming research study.
- Began preparations for writing two books in 2014: Casting Seeds Upon the Earth – How to start and operate A-POD Groups for Optimizing Diabetes Self Management; The Empowered Diabetic is a personal process training manual for increasing skills of diabetes self-management and systematically tracking and reporting that progress.
