Skip links
Are you at risk for type 2 diabetes

Black Women's Health Imperative offers Change Your Lifestyle. Change Your Life (CYL2)TM, a support system culturally tailored for Black women to prevent or manage type 2 diabetes.

If you are at risk of type 2 diabetes, our Diabetes Prevention Program can help you prevent or delay diabetes and learn to:

Reduce Chronic Stress

Manage mid-life weight

Respond to food triggers

Get support for lifestyle shift

Understand role of weights meds

See if it's right for you!

If you already have type 2 diabetes, our Diabetes Self-Management Support Program (DSMSP)  can help you with:

Monitoring blood glucose

Building a team of support

Managing medications

Preventing complications

Making lifestyle shift

Sign up at:

Did you know?

One of the most important risk factors for diabetes and diabetes complications is obesity. If you are taking weight loss medication, have had bariatric surgery, or are planning to, our programs will support you in making lifestyle shifts necessary to maintain the weight loss.

BWHI created the first CDC-approved culturally tailored lifestyle change curriculum for Black women ,helping them lose weight to prevent type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. And you can take the class virtually. Just download our App. 

Topics include:

  • Chronic Stress, Intersectionality, and Lived Experience
  • Practice Self-Care for Life!
  • Aging Like a Fine Wine: Achieving Weight Goals During Mid-Life
  • More About Aging Life a Fine Wine: Hormones and Menopause
  • What’s Money Got to Do With It?

Download on the App Store
Download on Google Play

Change Your Lifestyle. Change Your Life. (CYL2) is a 12-month program that equips participants with the tools needed to prevent type 2 diabetes. The program also reduces participant risk for other chronic conditions such as heart diseasehigh blood pressure, and high cholesterol as participants transform their health. People with prediabetes (a.k.a. borderline diabetes) can prevent disease progression by losing at least 5% to 7% of their starting weight.

Ready to Reduce Your Risk?

HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT:

Ready to Reduce Your Risk?

  • Access to a Lifestyle Coach to support your journey
  • Community: Become a part of our wellness community and make positive health changes while preventing chronic illness.
  • Support from other participants as you transform your relationship with food 
  • Personalized education: learn what triggers your eating, how your thoughts affect your behavior, and how to replace negative habits with positive ones.
  • Personal health expertise: understand how chronic stress increases the risk of weight gain and keeps us from losing weight.
  • Access tips to improve your self-care and stress management practices.

Is CYL2 the Right Fit For You?

Are you ready to experience your best life, facing challenges with borderline diabetes or your weight? Has a medical provider told you that you need to take action to improve your health and prevent a chronic illness? If so, CYL2 may be perfect for you. To enroll in CYL2, you must be 18 and older and have a BMI of 25 or more.

Our program may be the right fit if you have:

Already been told you have prediabetes. If that’s true:

Click Here

Our program may be the right fit if you have or had gestational diabetes when you were pregnant.  If that’s true:

Click Here
BWHI: Is CYL2 the Right Fit For You?
CHANGE YOUR LIFESTYLE. CHANGE YOUR LIFE. (CYL²) Video Background

DIABETES

Prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes does NOT have to be your destiny!

For 35 years, The Black Women's Health Imperative has been a powerful force in a leading effort to address the most pressing health issues that affect Black women and girls like you.

PREVENTION

Take Our Online Risk Test Today!

Take Our Risk Test
Descargue la Prueba de Riesgo de la Prediabetes

CYL2 App

Have you downloaded the BWHI App? The Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI) is working to make optimal health and well-being a reality for all black women and girls. CYL² is a lifestyle change program that utilizes our culturally tailored adaptation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) approved curriculum to help prevent type 2 diabetes (and other preventable chronic conditions). The program includes a lifestyle coach who can provide the education and support needed to replace unhealthy habits with healthy ones that lead to a path of long-term success. Explore the app’s features and learn problem-solving skills and coping strategies for overcoming barriers to lifestyle changes.

Download on the App Store
Download on Google Play
BWHI: Live Health Programs

High-Touch Coaching

We understand, value, and respect the lived experience of Black women and Latinas, as well as the influence that experience has on every thought they have, every change they are faced with, and every decision they make.

Along with their own self-awareness, our high-touch coaches are empathetic, compassionate, and share many of the lived experiences of their participants. We help participants get to the heart of what is required for lifestyle change by helping them understand how their lived experiences contribute to their current behavior, to what got them to where they are, and how to turn that knowledge into positive behavior change. our coaches do not pressure participants to change who they are but to realize they are worthy and capable, and because they are, they have everything they need to meet their goals.

Interested in Coach Training?
Find A Program

Our Impact

"What I’ve learned in this program is I CAN DO IT! I can control my appetite and what I eat. I’ve made the necessary changes to prolong my life. I’ve changed my lifestyle and I am making better choices. I’ve decided to live, really live abundantly."

Aronese
CYL2 Participant
Maryland

3400+
PARTICIPANTS
18
PARTNERS
13
CITIES/STATES
88%
RETENTION

Are You At Risk for PreDiabetes?

Learn the Warning Signs

Educate – Demonstrate – Guide – Empower

Visit our lifestyle change program partners’ websites by clicking the logos below. If you do not see your location listed, please visit the CDC website to find a program near you! Please note that with COVID-19, many programs have moved to a virtual model.

*FOUNDING MEMBERS

EDGE PROGRAM PROVIDER NETWORK

Black Women for Wellness

Black Women for Wellness*
Los Angeles, CA

Fundamental Health Solutions

Fundamental Health Solutions*
Jackson, TN

Indiana Minority Health Coalition

Indiana Minority Health Coalition*
Indianapolis, IN

Urban Health Resource

Urban Health Resource*
Detroit, MI

Rural Health Medical Program

Rural Health Medical Program, Inc.
Selma, AL

The Wellness Coalition

The Wellness Coalition
Montgomery, AL

Whatley Health Services

Whatley Health Services, Inc.
Tuscaloosa, AL

Life’s Perfect 7

Life's Perfect 7 (formally Perfect Lifestyle)
Houston, TX

BWHI: cly2 Kate Chargualaf

Kate Chargualaf

BWHI: cly2 Mass Group of Employees

CLY2 Employees

BWHI: cly2 Donyale

Donyale

BWHI: cly2 Hana

Hana

BWHI: cly2 Corrine

Corrine

BWHI: cly2 Art

Art

BWHI: cly2 Ifetayo B. Johnson

Ifetayo B. Johnson

BWHI: cly2 Monk

Monk

BWHI: cly2 Aronese

Aronese

CYL2 Anthony

Anthony

Fact Sheets

Prediabetes
Type 2 Diabetes
High Blood Pressure
Heart Disease
Stroke
Gestational Diabetes
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
Endometrial Cancer

Hojas informativas

Prediabetes
La diabetes tipo 2
La Presión Arterial Alta
Enfermedades Cardiacas
Derrame Cerebral
Diabetes Gestacional
Síndrome de Ovario Poliquístico
El Cáncer Endometrial
National Diabetes Agenda

2022 National Diabetes Agenda

This policy agenda introduces our recommendations for addressing T2D. For example, screening for prediabetes should be added as a component of the annual well-woman visit for early detection and prevention, and it should be covered by private and public health insurers. Fasting blood sugar and hemoglobin A1c tests should be covered for anyone who is overweight, has a family history of T2D, has had gestational diabetes, or has other risk factors for diabetes.

BWHI also recommends policies that require doctors to screen and refer those who are eligible to federally recognized lifestyle change programs like CYL2. We know that community-based organizations play a critical role in program delivery and provide trusted environments for people most at risk for T2D. Proposed legislation targeting sugary beverages and food deserts will reduce unhealthy diet choices, increase the consumption of nutritious foods, and reduce the likelihood of diabetes. Public health efforts to increase Black women’s participation in clinical trials will help produce treatments with higher efficacy for those living with diabetes.

BWHI believes that these and other recommendations presented in this policy agenda are steps toward a healthier, more equitable America.

Download the Agenda