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Improving the quality of life for people with diabetes is at the heart of Diabetes Canada’s commitment to all Canadians diagnosed with this chronic health condition. That means connecting children and youth with type 1 diabetes through Diabetes Canada’s D-Camps; providing healthcare professionals and people with diabetes with expert information that improves their care and self-management; assisting researchers working on leading-edge treatments; and advocating on behalf of those with diabetes for equity, improved access to supplies and more.

Vision

A world free of the effects of diabetes

Mission

To lead the fight against diabetes by:

Preventing the onset and consequences of diabetes
Helping those affected by diabetes to live healthy lives
Working to find a cure

Core values

Excellence
Collaboration
Integrity
Agility
Initiative

3-year strategic plan 2022-2024

For the period of 2022-2024, Diabetes Canada aspires to achieve its vision to create a world free of the effects of diabetes by focusing on improving the quality of life of those diagnosed with diabetes. This video will walk you through Diabetes Canada's 3-year strategic plan 2022-2024 presented by Laura Syron, President and CEO.

00:05

good afternoon everyone my name is laura

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siren president and ceo of diabetes

00:09

canada and it's my real pleasure to take

00:11

you through our new three-year strategic

00:13

plan for diabetes canada that starts in

00:16

2022

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as you'll see from the slide

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our vision remains the same

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to create a world free of the effects of

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diabetes

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that's a very important vision for us

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but our work was what are we going to do

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over the next three years to really help

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make that happen in a more focused way

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and where we've landed is we're gonna

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work to bring our unique assets to

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improving the quality of life of those

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diagnosed with diabetes you may not know

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this but there are 3.9 million people in

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canada diagnosed with diabetes and

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improving the quality of life of them

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living so they are free more of the

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effects

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is is just crucial and so there are

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three big bets three things that we want

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to do to make that happen the first as

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you can see there is we know that one

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way to improve the quality of life is

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get people to learn more about their

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disease and be more connected to others

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with it so we want to become that go-to

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place where if you're newly diagnosed or

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a family member is struggling you can

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come and learn about the disease how to

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manage it better how to live your best

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life with diabetes and how to connect

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with others who are doing the same

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the second game changer is around really

01:24

changing the conversation around

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diabetes a lot of people living with

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diabetes and that includes myself

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feel that there's stigma around the

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disease that we don't disclose often and

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therefore we don't seek the help or the

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learning or the support of others um

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to better manage our disease so how do

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we change that conversation how do we

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unpack what are those stigmas what are

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those uh misunderstandings and attitudes

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that hold people with diabetes back and

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hold the system that takes care of them

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back

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the third is as an organization we

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really want to drive to become a much

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more high performance organization so

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that's really critical there are three

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other strategies that you see here

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called systems change and those are

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things we've done for years and we do

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very well and we'll keep doing

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i'll let you read more about it but

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really their continue our advocacy

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efforts the middle one is around making

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sure we continue to educate engage

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healthcare professionals around better

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management of diabetes especially our

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clinical practice guidelines and lastly

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continue to fund that essential research

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that will help us prevent

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care and ultimately cure diabetes

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finally you'll see that there's four

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enablers there these are important

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things that we need to do using data

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better

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measuring our vision impact better

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really introducing equity diversity

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inclusion into all aspects of our work

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and finally really building up our

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agility

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so i

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am excited about the promise of this

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three-year strat plan i hope you join me

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in that excitement because only together

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will we create a world

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free of the effects of diabetes thank

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you if you have any more questions

03:02

about the strategy

03:04

there's lots more on our website to look

03:06

at thank you have a great day

Our history

In 1920, Dr. Frederick Banting was working as a doctor in London, Ont., when he first thought of taking insulin from a pancreas to treat diabetes.

After experimenting for a few months with the help of his assistant, Charles Best and biochemist James Collip and support from Professor John J.R. Macleod of the University of Toronto, they were able to create pure insulin that could be used on humans.

The first successful test on a human patient with diabetes happened on January 23, 1922—it was a life-changing discovery.

The Canadian Diabetes Association

In the late 1940s, Charles Best formed the Diabetic Association of Ontario to help advocate for and serve the needs of the growing numbers of Canadians with diabetes.

After this, other provinces and territories formed their own diabetic associations. In 1953, they decided to amalgamate and become the Canadian Diabetes Association, which provided advocacy, education, research funding, and programs and services for those living with the disease.

Diabetes Canada: a new name and mandate

On February 13, 2017, The Canadian Diabetes Association changed its name to Diabetes Canada. This name change represents our renewed commitment to changing the conversation around diabetes, making the invisible disease more visible, and raising awareness about the diabetes epidemic.

Diabetes Canada is committed to partnering with Canadians to End Diabetes through:

Resources for health-care professionals on best practices to care for people with diabetes
Advocacy to governments, schools and workplaces
Funding world-leading Canadian research to improve treatments and find a cure

“Before the CDA’s [now Diabetes Canada] support, I struggled at convincing granting agencies that my ideas were worth pursuing. [Diabetes Canada] really saved my career as an independent investigator.”

Dr. Pere Santamaria, Researcher

What we fund

How we help

Diabetes Canada is the nation's most trusted provider of diabetes education, research, resources, and services. We've helped millions of Canadians affected by diabetes understand it, manage it, and combat complications since 1953.

$5.1M used to fund research

1900+ children sent to camp

24K support service calls answered

We need your help

Frequency

Amount

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Every dollar received helps Canadians with diabetes live healthier lives, and supports researchers to find a cure.

Leadership at Diabetes Canada

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