Funded by the Ministry of Education and Child Care, hosted in School District 57, and supported by Educators throughout the province, POPFASD seeks to build Educators' capacity within education to support learners with FASD.
The Provincial Outreach Program for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (POPFASD) is funded by the British Columbia Ministry of Education and has been in existence since 2006. We are located in Prince George, British Columbia and hosted by School District No. 57. A multi-district Steering Committee offers advice, direction and feedback. The mandate of our program is to increase educators’ capacity to meet the learning needs of students with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.
We share current research, ideas, strategies, training and resources in order to build capacity in school districts for students with FASD and their teachers. We also liaise with designated POPFASD District Partners from each district; this allows us to communicate through one key individual from each district regarding in-service and support need. We are a team of 3.0 teachers, a 2.0 Technical Analyst, and a 0.5 Office Assistant.
The POPFASD team is committed to the step-by-step journey of decolonization, truth, and reconciliation with one another, First Nations, Metis, Inuit, and Urban Indigenous peoples of Canada. We acknowledge that Indigenous individuals and their communities are erroneously and unfairly burdened with multiple layers of stigma associated with FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder) and the systemic racial and cultural bias which has led to it.
FASD is a neurodevelopmental condition that can affect anyone regardless of culture, age, gender, or financial status. We know that structural barriers constrain access to the social determinants of health. These barriers are unacceptable and impact learning, equity, and self-determination for First Nations, Metis, Inuit, and Urban Indigenous peoples in our classrooms, schools, and communities.
As we continue to learn about and locate the inequities that structural biases in our education, health, social, and justice systems cause, we accept personal and professional responsibility to act, specifically with the TRC calls to action as they inform our provincial mandate to increase BC educators’ capacity to meet the educational needs of students with FASD.
We value relationships, in every aspect of learning and in our collaborations with educators and communities throughout the province. We humbly offer that it is through relationships that we can risk, make mistakes, accept feedback, and grow a better and more just and equitable present and future for children and their families.
3400 Westwood Drive
Prince George, BC, Canada
V2N 1S1
Email: info@fasdoutreach.ca
Phone: 250-645-4333