The countdown is officially on for September 2024! FASD Awareness Day and FASD Awareness Month are just around the corner and CanFASD has all the resources you need to prepare. 

Are you an organization or an individual looking to make an impact this September? Read on to find what you can do to be a part of one united voice for FASD in Canada. 

Social media 

Social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram provide a powerful platform to amplify voices and spark meaningful conversations. Catch your followers’ eye by sharing the FASD Awareness Month graphics on your feed.  

Not sure what caption to include? Take some inspiration from our social media toolkit where we provide you with sample posts and hashtag suggestions.  

Tell people how they can play a part 

To promote our ‘Everyone Plays a Part’ theme we have created an interactive website for people to use. It features a list of different kinds of professions and types of people and gives some practical tips for what they can do to play a part in FASD and prevention awareness. Whoever you meet during September, point them in the direction of this webpage see what they can do. 

Create a video 

We’re also asking our community to be a part of our ‘Everyone Plays a Part’ campaign. We’re asking what does ‘Everyone Plays a Part’ mean to you? Create a video and tell us! We can then use this video in our social media campaign throughout September.  

You can also help us prepare for FASD Month by sharing any images of you and your friends wearing red shoes. Email your video and photos to Fiona at fiona.binns@canfasd.ca. 

Speak to the media 

Getting FASD Month featured in the media is a great way to get our message out to new audiences that everyone has a part to play in supporting healthy pregnancies and supporting people with FASD. It is also a great way to promote the amazing work that your organization is already doing.  

If you’re not sure about how to approach the media you can use our FASD month media release (français) template that we have available.  

Wear red shoes 

Encourage people to wear red shoes or red clothes on FASD day and during FASD month! Red shoes have been symbolic of FASD for many years – learn more about why in this piece by RJ Formanek. 

Canada Rocks Red 

This year, we continued with the Canada Rocks Red campaign, where monuments and landmarks across Canada light their buildings up red to help us raise awareness of FASD. Last year, 46 locations in nine provinces participated, including the CN Tower in Toronto and the High-Level Bridge in Edmonton. We also had some international participation with monuments lighting up in Australia and Ireland.  

If you have agreed with a local monument to light up red then let us know so we can add it to the official CanFASD list! We’ll be posting a full list of all the monuments prior to September so keep an eye on our website to find out what’s happening in your community. 

Community events 

Hosting events in your community is a great way to connect with others to raise awareness about FASD. Need some inspiration for what type of event to host this year? Check out some of our suggestions and examples (français) of previous successful campaigns! 

Uniting our voices 

Like you, we want to see more support for FASD in Canada. Our voices are loud, but we can say so much more when we unite our voices and leverage our strengths. Th goal with the FASD Month campaign is to connect organizations and advocates across the country to create one united voice for FASD.  

Governments and leaders need to hear us and make changes to increase supports and services across Canada. But we need your help. Our goal with these resources is to do the legwork with the research and messaging to free up some of your own resources and time to create additional buzz around FASD Awareness Month. We hope you find these resources useful!