Inclusive Communities
- Brings together young adults living with FASD, their families and caregivers, and community agencies to form an FASD Inclusion Team
- Team receives training and support to conduct ‘FASD Inclusion Walk Abouts’
- Assess accessibility of community service providers, agencies and employers from an FASD-friendly perspective (the ‘Walk About’)
- Collaborate to make practical site-specific recommendations for improvements
- Partner with the University of Victoria to explore ways to involve people with FASD in research that authentically captures their lived experience
- Support community to develop a local plan for FASD inclusion.
Inclusive Communities Program Objectives:
- Involve people with FASD and their families across all levels of the process
- Create collaborative community partnerships
- Identify and address local FASD support needs
- Provide support to sustain community action
- Gather feedback to inform the process and activities.
Funded by the Victoria Foundation, this project stream brings together adults living with FASD (ages 19-29), their caregivers, community agencies, and other stakeholders (policy makers) to form an Inclusion Team. Together, the team identifies local issues that impact services and supports for individuals with FASD and promotes FASD-friendly people and places by using a unique tool called the “FASD Inclusion Walk About”.
What is the FASD Inclusion Walk About Tool?
On an FASD Inclusion Walk About, young people living with FASD (accompanied by project support people and representatives from the recipient agency) explore the physical and systemic aspects of an agency’s environment. Communication systems, policies, forms and intake processes, building design, noise levels, signs, lighting, and other aspects required to access services are reviewed.
During the Walk About, team members are supported to ask questions, take notes, fill out an easy-to-use form to document their observations, and/or audio/video record information about their experience. This interactive process provides positive contact between agencies and people living with FASD and an immediate and engaging way for staff, administrators, and other stakeholders to “walk in the shoes” of someone living with FASD.
Where Can a Walk About Be Done?
A Walk About can be carried out almost anywhere in communities. Examples include: schools (preschool, elementary, and high school), colleges, recreational facilities, health services, public libraries, law enforcement agencies, employment agencies and programs, government agencies and programs, child and youth services, businesses and other employers.
Agencies that have participated in the Inclusive Communities Walk About include:
- Downtown YMCA Victoria
- Pearkes Community Recreation Centre
- Single Parent Resource Centre
- Prostitutes Empowerment Education and Resource Society (PEERS)
- Victoria Native Friendship Centre
- Burnside Gorge Community Centre
- Cedar House
- Literacy Victoria
- Hulitan Social Services Society
- Tournament Capital Centre (Kamloops, BC)
- Interior Metis Child & Family Services (Kamloops, BC)
Email 
info@cvfasd.org for more information, or call us at 250-748-0236.