ACT’s Mission
The mission of ACT – Autism Community Training is to provide excellent information and training, in accordance with international best practices. Our goal is to enable parents, professionals and para-professionals to support children and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder to live productive, satisfying lives within their families and communities.
Information Services
ACT- Autism Community Training provides information and training relevant to the autism community internationally. Based in British Columbia, Canada, ACT develops a wide-range of positive and practical information on everything from sleep problems and diet, to core issues such as diagnosis and aspects of intervention, including information on setting up intervention programs. These resources are free and are available online without a password requirement.
ACT’s Information and Training resources are funded by the income generated by our live events, and through sponsorship and donations. The resources that we share, or develop ourselves, are evidence-based. We do not enter into commercial relationships to promote products or intervention approaches.
ACT Training
ACT provides training through live events focused on a number of areas and by providing free online videos available at the convenience of the user. ACT’s training is self-supporting through registration fees, sponsorship and donations.
History
ACT held its first conference in May 2003 as a community response to the great need throughout British Columbia for specialized training opportunities on ASD that are evidence-based. In 2005 ACT opened its office in Burnaby as a provincial centre providing information and support under contract with the B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development. While we no longer have government funding to allow us to provide individualized advocacy and support, ACT continues to provide extensive online resources and training opportunities to parents, para-professionals and professionals both live and online. We are available by telephone and email to direct parents to relevant resources both online and in the community.
ACT is a registered not-for-profit society. We gratefully acknowledge the Consortium for the Advancement of Child Health – Simon Fraser University for co-sponsoring our training at Harbour Centre, their downtown Vancouver campus. The website for the SFU Psychology Department is SFU Department of Psychology.