Welcome to 2023! We hope everyone had a happy, safe, and restful holiday season and that you’ve come into the new year feeling refreshed and ready for the year to come.
2022 was a busy year for our organization. We wanted to start the new year looking back on what we achieved over the past year. So, here’s a quick look at CanFASD’s 2022 accomplishments by the numbers.
8,8097 new online learners
CanFASD has eight different online courses that explore FASD from different perspectives and industries. We had over 8,800 new learners this year. Our most popular course is our Level 1 Foundations in FASD, which will give you a basic knowledge of this disability. We also have profession-specific Level 2 courses, and a Level 3 Multidisciplinary Training for Diagnosis of FASD.
In 2022, we released a new course for community and social service professionals. It gives learners working in financial and disability services, FASD Networks, housing, employment programs, and shelters and crisis supports the skills needed to support their clients with FASD. We also updated our FASD for School Staff and Prevention Conversation courses with new research and materials.
11 public webinars
For the past three years, CanFASD has been running a webinar series to share knowledge and research about FASD with more people. In 2022, we hosted eleven webinars on various topics related to FASD, including substance use treatment, sensory processing, and FASD diagnosis. Our webinar series will start back up at the end of the month, but in the meantime you can watch all of our past webinars on our website.
230 individual members
In 2021, CanFASD launched an individual membership program to keep those interested in FASD informed and up-to-date with what’s happening in Canada. Last year we had 230 members join the program and our numbers are still growing. As one member said, “I have had a membership with CanFASD since it first launched, and it has made such a positive impact on me as a professional in the field and a caregiver to a child with FASD. Having access to the latest research, early registration for upcoming webinars, and evidence-based information on FASD on a continual basis, not only saves me time searching as the information is coming straight to my inbox, but it also ensures I don’t miss out on any opportunities to learn more about FASD!”
118 blog posts
As regular readers, you may know that we publish a new blog every Wednesday at 10:00am eastern time. However, we will post more throughout the week if we have lots of news and stories to share. We publish stories on new FASD webinars, summaries of FASD research, news and upcoming events, and more. You can sign up for our mailing list to receive these blogs right in your inbox, or check out our blog page every Wednesday!
1 new bill for FASD
Perhaps one of our biggest achievements this year was seeing the bill for a National Framework for FASD introduced into the Senate of Canada. Bill S-253 is now going through its second reading in the Senate, so there is still a long way to go. But it is very exciting to see FASD being recognized and addressed at a national level.
19 new publications
Our research team was extremely busy last year. From April to September, Network members published a total of 19 research articles on FASD, including a special issue on FASD. Some groundbreaking work included:
- ‘It’s rewarding because I get the love’: Grandparents raising grandchildren with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder
- Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and Suicidality: What Does the Literature Tell Us?
- Complementary therapies in substance use recovery with pregnant women and girls
- Responding to the Unique Complexities of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
We have some exciting things planned for 2023, so be sure to stay tuned to our channels stay up to date!