Government of Canada Announces Finalists of the Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Challenge

July 2024

The Public Health Agency of Canada is committed to helping prevent diabetes through several activities, one of which is the Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Challenge.

The Challenge has reached the last stage of the three-stage approach, with the selection of seven finalists by the panel of expert judges. Each finalist will receive a $600,000 prize, for a total of $4.2 million to implement and generate evidence that their developed approach is effective in helping address the risks and barriers that lead to being at an elevated risk for type 2 diabetes.

The finalists are:

Lead organization: Black Creek Community Health Centre

Project name: Digital Health Coaching Delivered by Community to Help Prevent Type 2 Diabetes

Description: The project aims to form a community/corporate partnership to co-design and train community members to deliver health coaching through a digital health platform. The focus is on improving adherence to health behaviours, with an emphasis on social determinants of health and mental health, across the Black community of Northwest Toronto.

Prize: $600,000

Lead organization: Canadian Feed The Children

Project name: Creating a sustainable mechanism for nutritious food to combat T2DM in Indigenous communities

Description: The project aims to work towards reducing the incidence of type 2 diabetes and improving the overall health of Indigenous youth in the community by increasing accessibility to fresh produce via 365-day greenhouses. The project will be implemented in collaboration with six Indigenous communities across Canada.

Prize: $600,000

Lead organization: Centre interdisciplinaire pour la santé des Noir.e.s./Interdisciplinary Centre for Black Health Université d'Ottawa/University of Ottawa

Project name: Former, informer, impliquer et transformer (FIT) pour réduire les risques de diabète de type 2 dans les communautés noires du Canada

Description: Ce projet bilingue vise à former des étudiants de différentes disciplines comme pairs-éducateurs pour informer les leaders religieux et engager les communautés noires dans des activités de prévention du diabète de type 2.

Prize: $600,000

Lead organization: IDEA Diabetes Incorporated

Project name: Type 2 Diabetes Prevention in the First 39 Moon Cycles of Life

Description: The project aims to address the barriers associated with risk reduction and prevention of type 2 diabetes in the first 39 moons of life by upholding cultural safety and honouring Indigenous ways of knowing and being, and through strengths-based partnerships and networking.

Prize: $600,000

Lead organization: Manitoba Food Charter Inc

Project name: Land-Based Healthy Living Youth Club

Description: The project aims to empower healthy and sustained changes in attitudes, practices, and lifestyles among Indigenous youth by establishing youth clubs in two Indigenous communities in Manitoba, which would offer community youth weekly drop-in land-based activities to promote healthy living.

Prize: $600,000

Lead organization: The APPLE Schools Foundation

Project name: Applying a proven approach to reduce barriers to Type 2 Diabetes prevention

Description: The project aims to guide four vulnerable school communities in Grande Prairie to build healthy school environments based on their unique needs, and remove barriers to prevent type 2 diabetes and chronic disease by providing the resources, capacity, partnerships and knowledge to promote healthy living.

Prize: $600,000

Lead organization: University of Saskatchewan

Project name: Engaging youth in type 2 diabetes prevention: a community-led initiative with Cowessess First Nation

Description: The project aims to overcome the barriers to a healthy lifestyle by engaging youth as change agents in decolonized, culturally informed, and co-designed health promotion and type 2 diabetes prevention initiatives that reduce stigma, and increase awareness, and self-efficacy.

Prize: $600,000