Take action!!
FASD Awareness Month
Today’s actions:
- Think of ways you can continue to spread FASD awareness
Today’s Hashtags:
#FASDMonthUK #FASD #FASDAwareness
BACKGROUND
Anyone who has FASD or who is supporting someone with FASD knows that raising FASD awareness is a year-long 24/7 job.
It’s the only way we can create the brighter futures our community deserves.
So, we’d like to ask you to think of ways you can continue to raise awareness through the rest of the year.
The possibilities are endless!
- Contact the media – they are always looking for interesting local stories. You can find some top tips for talking with the media here. Have you made any progress during FASD Awareness Month? Let them know! Or think ahead, if you are doing an awareness event in future, plan now for how you will involve media. Sometimes it helps to offer a local journalist a coffee meeting when things are quiet and educate them behind scenes about FASD.
- Create a secret Facebook group – help educate close family and friends. You can invite a mix of people – some with experience with FASD and some who have zero idea of what it’s all about.
- Have a special Halloween or Christmas party for people with FASD and invite local groups who support people with disabilities etc. Have an info table. (And invite your new journalist friend you had coffee with per point one!)
- Organise a coffee morning – invite a few families and give them some info. Start building your local network.
- Connect with a local FASD support group and talk about ways to spread awareness – check out the FASD UK Alliance website to see if there is an independent group near you (these are not run by National FASD, we are a sister organisation in the Alliance).
- If you are a parent/carer involve your child in a low-key awareness event. Help them learn it’s ok to talk about FASD and help them learn to be self-advocates. Show them www.fasd.me and encourage them to show it to their TAs and others who support them.
- Share the postcards here with school, coaches/club leaders/family and friends – Contact us if you’d like printed copies at hello@fasd.me.
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- Encourage your local school to talk about FASD in PHSE lessons – They can use these materials available on our PreventFASD site. Check out The Conceivables, the Sex and Bumps No Alcohol song, and especially the teacher activity materials for RISK.
- Share the resources available via National FASD’s website here – there are a lot of resources available for free – print out what you need and share.
Come back again and again to the actions we have highlighted this month – most of these can be done throughout the year. They are all available on our blog here.
- Stay in touch with National FASD – If you are planning an awareness event or would like to brainstorm some ideas for raising awareness, we are here to help. Email us at info@nationalfasd.org.uk
For those who live with it, every day is FASD Awareness Day
“The hardest battles are fought not to get an inch in a newspaper or a few minutes of media coverage on one day. Trying to be the news is hard, transformative as it can be.
But harder still is that moment, known to every person with FASD, to every person who has loved and cared for someone with FASD when you find yourself face to face with a person – maybe a medical professional, maybe a teacher, maybe the person at the grocery checkout or the bank, the social service worker or person who determines if you can get financial assistance – some one person who Just. Doesn’t. Get. It. You want to scream. You want to run. You want to lash out at the frustrating injustice, the misunderstandings, the arrogant denials of the reality you face day after day.
But you don’t.
You stand there, and you educate.
You speak your truth.
You arrive early next time with some print outs. You find a way around the roadblocks they may be putting up in front of you. You network with others who have experience. You plan strategies, share information. You google. You self-educate. You believe.
You believe that more can be done. You KNOW more can be done. Your determination, your sense of fairness insists that the situation must change.
Each and every day is FASD Day. That is the real story. Heroes are out there in this world every day fighting the good fight in the face of some pretty daunting barriers.
FASD is lifelong. It doesn’t take a break the other 364 days, the other 51 weeks, the other 11 months.”
From: “Every Day is FASD Awareness Day”, FASDLearningWithHope
What is FASD?
Click here to download background about FASD.
Or go here for more info on our website.
For children and young people – go to www.fasd.me.
