HOUSTON–LEICESTER EXCHANGE

Houston–Leicester visit in Houston, US

At first glance, Houston and Leicester are two very different cities, but in both multicultural cities faith plays an important role in daily life, and this has proved to be an effective way to engage with at-risk communities.

“I think there can be real knowledge sharing across cities because different people have different perspectives, they're working with different populations and they have different resources that they're drawing upon,” says Stuart Nelson, who is involved in the Faith and Diabetes Initiative in Houston. “Even though our cities are different on the surface, we found some commonalities and some similarities between our cities in the way we were thinking about tackling diabetes that were very exciting.” In 2018, the team from Leicester visited Houston to learn more about how the Faith and Diabetes Initiative empowers lay leaders in diverse communities of faith to deliver diabetes prevention and management education to their congregations. This model has proved to be a practical and sustainable way to reach vulnerable communities. The teams from Houston and Leicester have continued to work together closely. The team in Leicester is currently exploring how the theme of 'spirituality and health' can be incorporated into its diabetes self-management programmes, which include a new programme called Safer Ramadan.