Almost 200 Promise Meetings!

JDRF Advocates have met with 191 Members of Congress in their district offices as part of the Promise to Remember Me and New Member Outreach Initiative Campaigns so far this year. These campaigns provide Advocates the opportunity to share their T1D stories and stress the importance of federal funding for diabetes research with their legislators.

Starting in January the New Member Outreach Initiative (NMOI) meetings are arranged for JDRF Advocates to introduce T1D, JDRF’s work, and themselves to their newly elected Member of Congress. Many of these Members are unfamiliar with T1D, so these meetings are an excellent way of educating them about life with T1D and the important research that is taking place and that must continue.

We follow NMOI with the Promise to Remember Me Campaign where we seek meetings with all Members of Congress to discuss T1D and our latest legislative priorities. This time around Advocates are talking to their legislators about renewing the Special Diabetes Program to ensure $150 million in federal funding for T1D research continues. Since the campaign launched on August 1, JDRF Advocacy Team Chairs and team members have been hard at work scheduling meetings with their local Members of Congress. 

JDRF Advocates in Mississippi met with Representative Nunnelee

Here’s a look at the meetings that took place last week:

To see other Promise or NMOI meeting summaries, click here. The campaign runs through the end of the year, so it’s not too late to get involved in the Promise Campaign in your chapter area. Go to http://promise.jdrf.org to sign up. For those of you who have already participated in meetings during the campaign, please share your experience or advice for others in the comments section below.