REACH Detroit Partnership
Preventing diabetes and diabetes complications in the African American and Hispanic communities in eastside and southwest Detroit.

Project Manager: Elizabeth Lockhart
Principle Investigator: Dr. Michele Heisler, M.D.

The PEERs study was designed to evaluate a training program that was created, using state-of-the-art behavioral change approaches and facilitation skills, for peer leaders as well as a peer-led diabetes self-management support program. It is being conducted in community and clinic-based settings on an ongoing basis and is expected to be completed in December 2012. The study was developed in two phases: in phase one a program to train peer leaders to facilitate longer-term empowerment-based interventions was developed in evaluated, and in phase two the impact of a sustained peer-led, empowerment-based self-management intervention on improving and maintaining diabetes-related health outcomes will be examined. The program is being developed and tested in two distinct communities: in a community-based setting primarily with African Americans in Ypsilanti, Michigan and in a clinic-based setting with Latino adults (Spanish- and English-speaking) in Southwest Detroit.

Timeline for Completion:
Ypsilanti - December 2011
Detroit - December 2012

Funding: Peers for Progress