The Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI has received a five-year, $5 million grant from Eli Lilly and Co. to expand the Diabetes Impact Project. Known as DIP-IN, the project aims to improve health equity in three Indianapolis neighborhoods where residents are predominantly people of color.
Launched in 2018 with an initial five-year, $7 million grant from Lilly, DIP-IN is a partnership among the Fairbanks School of Public Health and Indianapolis communities in the northeast, near northwest and near west focused on Type 2 diabetes prevention and control. 
In the three DIP-IN neighborhoods, 83% of the residents are people of color and an estimated 10,000 people live with diabetes, with prevalence rates of 20%. The average rate of diabetes in Indianapolis is 15%, while globally it is 9%.
"In addition to the high prevalence of diabetes and alarming life expectancy gap, COVID-19 has added an unacceptable burden to Black and Brown communities in Indianapolis," said Tiffany Benjamin, senior director of social impact for Lilly and president of the Lilly Foundation. "With the launch of Lilly's Racial Justice Initiative last year, we are even more committed to identifying and eliminating the institutional and societal barriers that keep our neighbors from living long and healthy lives."
