About Us
Our Mission
The DiabetesSangha is a community-driven initiative to make contemplative practices (like modern “mindfulness,” other meditation practices, and wisdom teachings) accessible and relevant to people affected by Type One Diabetes (T1D). Our work is first and foremost to provide the resources for each person to develop a better capacity to deal with the slings and arrows of life with T1D, and to allow the experience of T1D, through a contemplative lens, to mold us into kinder, stronger, and more balanced people. As part of this effort, we aim to bring meditation practices and perspectives to the forefront of the conversation around living a healthy, happy life with T1D, as they are in other chronic conditions.
So what exactly do we do?
The DiabetesSangha has been a community space for Diabetes and meditation since 2020 , but formally became a nonprofit in 2022, with the help of Ignition Community Glass in order to better serve the needs of our growing community. We have three areas of focus—Meditation, Education and Community Support. We welcome your input and ideas into ways we can better support the community in this effort. Please email peter@diabetesssangha.com.
Meditation
Meditation is at the core of the DiabetesSangha. Multiple times per week, we come together to engage in a variety of contemplative practices and discuss how these new perspectives show up in our lives. In creating a space for daily practice with others on Zoom and live events, the DiabetesSangha creates a uniquely shared space, helping each of us in the community to bring the ease and wisdom meditation practice has to offer to the rest of our lives. The many benefits of meditation are well documented—reducing stress, anxiety, and depression, improving attention and memory, greater ease even amidst discomfort, and more openings to have life changing experiences. With over 300 live ‘practices’ being offered each year (each led by a facilitator living with T1D) —the DiabetesSangha is the source for meditation for those living with diabetes, caregivers and their supporters.
Education
As our focus is on improving the lives of those living with Diabetes, much of our work involves education to raise awareness about the potential for meditation to help people navigate the challenges that so many face living with Diabetes. The DiabetesSangha creates educational content in the form of live online (and on-demand) courses. We also speak at conferences and ‘summits’ both virtually and in person, as well as working with Diabetes Care Centers, Diabetes Care and Education specialists (DCES) and other providers. Future projects include training facilitators in the DiabetesSangha, support for families and loved ones of those living with diabetes, and creating accredited coursework for ACDES.
Community Support
This is where we bring everything together—meditation, education and connecting with each other to build an engaged community designed at the heart to support each other and ourselves. Beginning and continuing a consistent mediation practice can feel overwhelming—but doing so with the support of our community (our sangha) has shown to have a positive effect on many. The DS is all about connecting with the Diabetes Online Community (DOC) as well as those not online—providing multiple touch points for an ever growing community to feel supported as they deepen their own practice. The ‘home base’ for all we do is our website—www.diabetesssangha.com, which acts as a central hub for engagement, resources and information. Future projects include live mediation and movement retreats and workshops.
Who We Are
Our team consists of a volunteer leadership and facilitator group, as well as community members who support all of the work that we do. Check us out here:
Community Support
The DiabetesSangha is fully supported by our community members and facilitators, and we want to give special acknowledgement to Sean Wilkinson and Doug Fabrizio for all your contributions in our website, YouTube and video support.
Donations
Your Donation to support our work is greatly appreciated , and is fully tax-deductible. Please consider any contributions in order for us to continue to grow and thrive and reach as many as possible to support those living with diabetes .