Collaborate With Us
Together, We Build What’s Next.
KFD welcomes partnerships that cross boundaries: academic and grassroots, clinical and creative, local and global. We believe equity in Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) care and innovation demands shared action—between scientists and students, nonprofits and families, inventors and youth advocates.
Whether you’re developing breakthrough technology, piloting a school-based program, launching a youth-driven advocacy campaign, or researching disparities in care—we’re here to co-create, amplify, and accelerate.
🔗 Who We Work With
We proudly collaborate with:
- Academic institutions (public health, medicine, biomedical engineering, social science)
- Pediatric endocrinology clinics and diabetes educators
Early-stage health tech startups and diagnostics ventures - Youth-led nonprofit, journalism, and advocacy organizations
- Philanthropic foundations and public-private partnerships
- Global health networks and school districts in underserved areas
🤝 How We Partner
- Pilot Programs: Co-design and implement youth-centered pilots. Past examples include school-based detection models, youth-led screening campaigns, and multilingual tech onboarding.
- Research & Trials: Engage our Youth Fellows and Ambassador Council in community-partnered studies, protocol co-design, recruitment strategies, and qualitative data collection.
- Innovation Advisory: Receive real-time feedback on emerging tools and platforms via virtual roundtables, focus groups, and lived-experience simulations.
Dissemination & - Storytelling: Expand the impact of your work through our blogs, media partnerships, ambassador stories, and youth-led webinars.
- Capacity Building: Collaborate on train-the-trainer programs for youth researchers, clinical preceptors, and school-based diabetes educators.
🧠 What We Bring
- Lived expertise and cultural fluency across youth, caregiver, and underserved community groups
- A national (and growing global) network of T1D advocates, clinicians, researchers, and educators
- Institutional knowledge of best practices in youth co-design, participatory research, and implementation science
- Deep trust within schools, community organizations, and health systems that have historically been underrepresented
- Strategic alignment with major diabetes innovation trends, equity-focused funding, and policy windows
📈 Sample Collaborations
- Co-authoring a health equity white paper with a university-based implementation science lab
- Supporting a startup in refining its CGM device through youth design sprints and feedback labs
- Hosting a summer innovation bootcamp with joint mentorship from engineers, T1D advocates, and behavioral scientists
- Partnering on a data-driven policy brief to expand school-based diabetes accommodations nationally
💌 Start a Conversation
We accept rolling proposals and partnership inquiries.
Email [email protected] with a short note about your project, institution, or idea. Please include your timeline, goals, and how you envision youth involvement.
We review all inquiries with care and prioritize projects that align with our mission, equity values, and youth leadership ethos.
Let’s transform good intentions into real outcomes—together.
