Diabetes Education That Actually Works.
Structured programs, interactive tools, and real-world community experiences that build genuine self-management skill — designed by people living with type 1.
Scaffolded, hands-on, and built by people who live with type 1.
Beta Cell Foundation builds diabetes education that actually works — scaffolded, hands-on, and designed by people who live with type 1 diabetes. Workbooks you can work through at your own pace. Interactive simulators that let you see how insulin, food, and exercise move your blood sugar. Running groups and outdoor trips where you practice the real thing alongside people who’ve already figured it out.
Education built to teach.
Scaffolded workbooks that build real skills, one concept at a time. Free, in print and online. Start with the Diabetes & Exercise Workbook.
Education ProgramsSee what insulin actually does.
Free interactive tools that make the invisible visible. See what insulin actually does, before you have to guess.
Blood Sugar SimulatorsNobody should run alone.
A free global running community with chapters from Los Angeles to Mumbai. Includes a Couch-to-5K built for T1D.
Type One RunThe outdoors, without the fear.
Hiking, camping, and climbing trips led by guides who have type 1 themselves. Gear provided. No experience needed.
T1Ds in the WildWe train the people who teach.
We work with health networks, clinics, camps, and nonprofits to bring real instructional design to their own diabetes education.
For OrganizationsYou were handed a diagnosis, a device, and a few hours. The rest was up to you.
That’s how nearly everyone learns this disease: trial and error, forum posts at 2am, and whatever a friend with diabetes happened to mention. Some of that knowledge is excellent. None of it is organized, and nobody makes sure you get it.
It’s not a personal failing, and it isn’t anyone’s fault. Structured diabetes education reaches only about 5–7% of people in their first year after diagnosis, and what does exist has to fit the time a visit allows — which leaves no room for practice, or for applying any of it to your own body.
The knowledge that actually changes your day-to-day is out there. It’s just scattered across thousands of people who each figured out a piece of it the hard way.
Education built like education — not like a brochure.
Learning science has known for decades how people build real skill: concepts that scaffold on each other, active practice instead of passive reading, and immediate application to your own life. That takes more time than a clinic visit has. It’s the time we’re built to give.
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Start with a simulator.
See how a prebolus affects blood sugar over time, when a temp basal change actually takes place, and why you need to fuel your body for long workouts.
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Work through an interactive education workbook.
One that builds on the last chapter instead of dumping everything at once.
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Then go practice it with people.
Run with a Type One Run chapter, or spend a weekend camping with people who’ve solved the exact problem you’re about to hit. Each piece makes the next one less intimidating.
And it works because it’s ongoing. The research is clear that one-time education fades within months — which is why we pair it with community that doesn’t end when the workbook does.
Start wherever you are.
Try a simulator. Download a workbook. Find a Type One Run group near you. Or join us outside.
Everything here is free for people with type 1 diabetes. It stays that way because people fund it. Support BCF.