Project Description
Challenge
Families and individuals with FASD often struggle when it comes to accessing supports, sometimes because they don’t know services exist, and other times inclusion criteria act as a barrier.
Project Summary
The Fetal Alcohol Resource Program (FARP) developed in partnership with Citizen Advocacy Ottawa was created to address this issue. FARP plays a navigator role, helping families connect to organizations and agencies that provide housing, child welfare, justice, health care and education services. The program also offers customized workshops to train people on FASD and has provided these sessions to over 4,000 individuals, including schools, hospitals and youth justice programs. The team received 600+ requests in areas such as diagnosis, counselling, and educational supports and have also provided intensive supports to families in crisis, some of which were at risk of an adoption breakdown. In 2018 FARP was contracted by CHEO to deliver the Ontario FASD Worker program to three regions of Eastern Ontario, adding clinical supports for children and youth with FASD and their families to their service delivery.
Result
FARP has expandedg its services to adjacent regions in Ontario, specifically Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry, and Prescott-Russell. It is now a fully bilingual program. As part of the government of Ontario’s 2016 FASD Initiative, the FARP team is working with the agency Health Nexus to develop an FASD Online Hub and to provide training for provincial FASD Support Workers.
The FARP team is also working on translating all workshops, brochures and training materials into French to be as inclusive as possible. They have also partnered with existing Ontario-based organizations such as Adopt4Life and Health Nexus to create support groups for families. They host annual Eastern Ontario FASD Symposia and FASD Awareness Walks on Parliament Hill to build awareness and capacity to support this population.
Funding
Kids Brain Health Network – $68,000
Partners – $541,323
Team
Investigators
Dr. James Reynolds, Queen’s University
Nancy Lockwood, Citizen Advocacy
Partners
Citizen Advocacy
The Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa
The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO)
Community Foundation of Ottawa
