Outreach
My extension and outreach program addresses 
a fundamental issue of the 21st century – the health of our burgeoning geriatric population. The economic and emotional costs of chronic illness, including weight management, osteoporosis, and diabetes, must be addressed by pro-active healthcare approaches focused on prevention.
Initially named Dining with Diabetes, the Outreach program for healthy eating for those with diabetes or at risk of diabetes, we now also have a more targeted program named I on Diabetes, and a new program focusing on the Hispanic Illinois population. In addition to collaborating on these programs, I’ve developed a newsletter Diabetes Lifelines in 2000 that continues to be requested by 60 public health offices and 30 Extension offices where they are printed for redistribution. This is available in English and Spanish on our website urbanext.illinois.edu/diabetes or by contacting me (kmc@illinois.edu). Associated with this website are the recipe websites (Recipes for Diabetes urbanext.uiuc.edu/diabetesrecipes and Fiesta of Flavors available at urbanext.uiuc.edu/diabetesrecipes_sp and the general education website Your Guide to Diet and Diabetes (urbanext.uiuc.edu/diabetes2). Segments of the newsletters are developed into columns for the Illinois AMVETs. If you would like to use parts of the newsletters for your own organization, or have me tailor columns to your needs, feel free to contact me.
My outreach programs in osteoporosis was initiated through collaborative needs assessment with the Illinois Department of Public Health. A program was developed, evaluated, and refined, along with concomitant education materials, evaluative surveys, and website
urbanext.illinois.edu/osteoporosis.