Everyone Plays a Part – Highlights of FASD Awareness Month 2024

September is FASD Awareness Month in Canada, and International FASD Day is on September 9^th. Each year throughout September, events, campaigns, and activities organized across Canada and internationally raise awareness of the disability, and ways to reduce alcohol use in pregnancy, improve FASD diagnosis, and offer supports for individuals with FASD and their caregivers.

In this blog, we offer a snapshot of the great awareness raising efforts in Canada this month, which aim to improve understanding of the complexities of alcohol use during pregnancy and demonstrate how we all have a role to play in reducing stigma and supporting healthy pregnancies.

Everyone Plays a Part

This year’s theme for FASD Awareness Month is Everyone Plays a Part. This theme recognizes the shared responsibility that we have in supporting alcohol-free pregnancies. On the CanFASD site, you can find an interactive webpage that shows how everyone – ranging from partners to educators to media and marketing professionals – can play a part in supporting healthy pregnancies and those with FASD.

Community-Based Awareness

Similar, community-centric, approaches have been found in local awareness raising initiatives like, Be the Village from the Saskatchewan Prevention Institute. This awareness initiative from 2023 shares how partners, friends, family, community members and service providers can support healthy pregnancies by sharing information, creating alcohol-free environments, advocating for pregnant people, etc.

In Nunavut, the Piruqatigiit Resource Centre, adopted principles of Tamatta (interconnectedness), as a means of showing how everyone can work together to create awareness about FASD.

Community-Based Events

Communities across the country are hosting FASD Day events and raising awareness. Heather Cameron from the BC Association of Pregnancy Outreach Programs will speak at the Kermode Friendship Centre’s annual community FASD prevention and awareness event. The South Alberta FASD Network will raise awareness at a local music festival and student orientation fairs, distribute materials at community events, and has organized for buses to have FASD awareness posters in addition to coasters and decals to be used in alcohol-serving establishments throughout the month. They are also engaging with church leaders and organizations that serve those who are under-housed to help spread information. The 2^nd Floor Women’s Recovery Centre in Alberta is hosting their annual mocktail challenge and BBQ. In Ontario, community members will have the opportunity to ask questions about FASD and alcohol use during pregnancy every Friday of the month. The New Brunswick Centre of Excellence for FASD will be hosting a mocktail recipe contest and across the province, there will be community walks taking place.

These local initiatives show how community organizations are taking a multisectoral approach and demonstrating how everyone can, and does, play a crucial role in supporting alcohol-free pregnancies, and those with FASD.

Emerging Research

This year, the Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health collaborated with researchers from CanFASD to prepare three issue papers on under-researched and under-actioned topics. These issue papers, on human trafficking and alcohol use in pregnancy, the impacts of supplementation on FASD prevention, and the prevalence of alcohol use in pregnancy in Canada further emphasize how everyone, including social workers, families, housing workers, nutritionists, prenatal health teams, researchers, and data scientists, can all further support FASD awareness and prevention efforts.

This month’s blog is only a snapshot of all the great activities and events happening across the country for FASD Awareness Month and International FASD Day. Each campaign, event, and new research initiative contributes to raising awareness of the risks of alcohol use during pregnancy and FASD, allowing us to find the ways in which we can all play a part.

The Canada FASD Research Network is Canada’s go-to destination for FASD Awareness Month information. On their website, you can find information about events happening across the country, as well as a list of monuments and landmarks that will be lighting up red on September 9^th in honour of FASD Awareness Day.