New translational strategies are needed to improve diabetes outcomes among low-income African-Americans. Our goal was to develop/pilot test a patient intervention combining culturally tailored diabetes education with shared decision-making training. This was an observational cohort study. Surveys and clinical data were collected at baseline, program completion, and 3 and 6 months. There were 21 participants; the mean age was 61 years. Eighty-six percent of participants attended >70 % of classes. There were improvements in diabetes self-efficacy, self-care behaviors (i.e., following a "healthful eating plan" (mean score at baseline 3.4 vs. 5.2 at program's end; p = 0.002), self glucose monitoring (mean score at baseline 4.3 vs. 6.2 at program's end; p = 0.04), and foot care (mean score at baseline 4.1 vs. 6.0 at program's end; p = 0.001)), hemoglobin A1c (8.24 at baseline vs. 7.33 at 3-month follow-up, p = 0.02), and HDL cholesterol (51.2 at baseline vs. 61.8 at 6-month follow-up, p = 0.01). Combining tailored education with shared decision-making may be a promising strategy for empowering low-income African-Americans and improving health outcomes.