The Stanford Youth Diabetes Coaches Program consists of 8 sessions, each one hour in length.  They are designed to be taught once a week for eight weeks in order to give students the week to meet with their team member (person they are coaching) and work on their health goals - which they will report on in the next class.

For each class, the curriculum includes a power point presentation, an instructor’s guide with a script, a printable in-class quiz, and a printable coaching assignment.  Each of the eight classes include training in becoming a diabetes coach (communication skills, setting achievable goals through action plans, behavior change strategies, and problem solving) and diabetes and health lessons (understanding diabetes, blood sugar management, nutrition, healthy meal planning, physical activity, maintaining a healthy weight, managing stress, and partnering with a health care provider).  Each class is designed to maximize student engagement with resident instructors and includes check-ins, short embedded video clips, role plays, and discussion prompts. 

There are two sample instructor’s guides available for anyone to view on the website.  Once you have completed and signed the online terms of agreement, we will provide you with the login and password necessary to access all the curricular materials.

If you have a relationship with a local, underserved high school, that school is the best place to start.  Contact the school representative you know best and let them know you are interested in bringing doctors into their classrooms to teach healthy high school students how to become diabetes coaches for family members or friends with diabetes.  We recommend that the program be provided for students in the 10^th-12^th grade, although mature 9^th graders could also participate.  A brief meeting with the principal or other administrative proxy is important to make sure the school recognizes the value of the program and safeguards time for students to participate. 

Alternatively, if you have a relationship with a school based health center, that may be a great avenue through which you can implement the program.

If you do not have a relationship with a local underserved school, you can establish a partnership in a variety of ways.  You can identify a local school and verify its status as an underserved school by checking its scores on the website greatschools.org.  You can contact the principal directly and explain that you would like to bring doctors into their classrooms to teach healthy high school students how to become diabetes coaches for family members or friends with diabetes.  You might also try contacting your local school district’s central office for assistance.  If you have any difficulty identifying a school or establishing communication with the school administration, the Teach for America organization has volunteered to assist residency programs in identifying and connecting with local high schools in need.  You may contact Teach for America’s Vice President for STEM and Education Initiatives, Melissa Moritz by email at Melissa.Moritz@teachforamerica.org for further assistance.  Additionally, if you are having difficulty connecting with a school, you may contact Dr. Liana Gefter, the SYDCP’s program manager, for further assistance at stanfordyouthdiabetescoaches@stanford.edu.

It’s important to let principals, administrators, and teachers know how this program will benefit their students.  You may tell them the program 1) is designed to prepare students for standardized tests with each class including a multiple choice quiz and quiz review; 2) has been proven to increase students’ self-worth and feelings of belonging, as well as diabetes and general health knowledge; 3) provides students with tools for effective goal setting and problem solving; 4) increases students’ health literacy; and 5) brings physician mentors into the classroom to serve as role models for students.

While it is important to “sell” the program to the high school, it is also important that the principal, administration, and teachers understand that you are volunteering your time to do a service for their students.  We recommend saying, “The doctors will be leaving their patients and work in the hospital in order to come to your school.  We want to make sure that students be available and ready when the doctors arrive.”

The SYDCP has been successfully implemented in a variety of ways.  Although it is usually most rewarding for instructors when implemented as an elective course (where all students have chosen to participate) during an advisory time during the school day or as an after-school activity, many underserved schools do not have the resources to support implementation of an elective course.  For that reason, some schools have chosen to make the course mandatory during the school day for a select group of students – for example, 10^th graders in a biological science class.  Although some of the students in a mandatory class may not have a family member or close friend with diabetes, the structure of the program allows students to coach anyone who wants to get healthier.  Interestingly, we have found that the program has a bigger impact on students in mandatory settings (likely because their baseline scores are lower). Additionally, the SYDCP has been successfully implemented as part of summer programs and school based health centers.  Flexibility is always a key element when determining the best organization of the program.

Yes.  In order to gain access to the Stanford Youth Coaches Program curricular materials and resources, your institution must complete and sign the online Terms of Use Agreement form as well as complete the letter of agreement and license agreement forms:

Terms of Use Agreement for Stanford Youth Diabetes Coaches Program

No.  There is no monetary cost to use the curricular materials and resources.  Because the program is still being studied, however, the terms of use agreement includes the stipulation that your program will ensure completion of pre and post tests by the high school student participants and surveys by medical residents after teaching the program.

No, it is not necessary for you to obtain IRB consent from your institution UNLESS you plan to do additional scholarly work/research related to administering the SYDC program. Currently, we have a waiver of consent and "EXEMPT" status from the Stanford IRB.

Yes.  We encourage residents to use the SYDCP and the partnership with the underserved school as a foundation for scholarly activity.  We remind you, however, that if your residents design their own research project around the SYDCP, it is a requirement to work collaboratively with the SYDCP academic team.  

There are numerous possibilities for scholarly activity.  Residents may choose to examine a wide variety of structural or individual health issues that are relevant to the target population at the school sites and in the community.   Residents may also choose to develop and examine the impact of additional curricular materials to enhance the program.  

Different residency program have organized residents’ schedules differently.  Many residency programs choose to incorporate the SYDCP into their community health rotations such that residents serve as instructors during the month and pass on their duties to the next rotating residents the following month.  Some residency programs have allowed residents excused absences from clinic or other rotations in order to go to the high school to teach.  We recognize that every residency program is unique and needs to determine their own best method for scheduling residents’ time.

We recommend that residents teach in pairs to increase the interaction with students and ensure that at least one resident is available in the event of a scheduling issue.  We also recommend that residents teach at least two or more of the eight classes because the program works best with continuity.  Resident feedback has confirmed that residents gain more from the experience when given the opportunity to return at least once to teach an additional class.

However, given the scheduling restraints of residents, these suggestions are flexible.  The program has been implemented successfully with only one resident instructor for each class and with different residents teaching each week and communicating with each other regarding student needs.  

Residents report needing 30-45 min to prep for classes, then driving time and one hour for class.

The details of program implementation will need to be arranged with the high school partner.  Depending on the resources of the high school partner, it is reasonable to ask that the high school have the power point loaded on the projector and ready for the residents to give, and the quizzes and coaching assignments printed for the students.  Communication is essential in determining who will do these preparatory steps.