Author Archives: ACT

ACT is offering $50 bursaries to all school district staff for a workshop being held on February 23 at the Mary Winspear Centre in Sidney

The speaker is Dr. Pamela Crooke from the Social Thinking Collaborative in San Jose, California, which was founded by Michelle Garcia Winner. Dr. Crooke will be addressing the transition needs of more able students with autism, who are often ill prepared to graduate because of the assumption that their academic profile will compensate for their lack of social awareness in employment or higher education settings. 

Too often the students themselves have an unrealistic vision of their employment prospects, hence the title of Dr. Crooke’s presentation: “I’m going to be a video game designer!”- Helping Teens Prepare for the REAL Adult World. See ACT’s website for details of the presentation, including learning outcomes, and how to register. You can learn more about Dr. Crooke here. Dr. Crooke has presented for ACT before and audiences have been overwhelmingly positive about her engaging, frank and humorous style.

School District Staff Discount: Register online and receive $50 off when you use your staff email address and this coupon code: sd50. Register by January 11 and save an additional $25.

Registration & Event Details

ACT is moving!

As of Friday, January 19th ACT’s new address will be:
204 – 2735 E Hastings St
Vancouver, BC
V5K 1Z8

Our phone number and other contact information remains unchanged.

We will be moving to our new offices on Friday, January 19th. Please email [email protected] for any inquiries on that day.

here

Herring for Autism Sale!

Sunday, January 14 – 9:00 am – 2:30 pm

To kick off fundraising in 2018, ACT – Autism Community Training will benefit from a ‘Herring for Autism Sale’, sponsored by Oceanside Fisheries, on Sunday, January 14 in Steveston, Richmond, the heart of the Lower Mainland’s fishing industry.

ACT is stepping up its fundraising efforts to ensure it can maintain its extensive free online autism resources. The B.C. Liberal Government cut funding for community-based autism information services in 2017.

When: Sunday, January 14: 9:00 am – 2:30 pm

Where:  Oceanside Dock, 3080 Moncton Street in Steveston (next to Garry Point Park), Richmond Map

Why: Fresh herring is a delicacy for many international cuisines, from Scandinavia to China.

Cost: The bags are $20 each with all proceeds going to ACT. ACT volunteers will deliver the herring to the cars of eager customers. Payment in cash, credit, or debit.

Steveston’s fishing industry is renowned for its generous support for those with special needs in B.C., but Oceanside Fisheries owners Mike Rekis and Anne McCaw have a special tie to the autism community: “Our daughter is a very able adult now, but we haven’t forgotten how important ACT is to the success of children and adults with autism. We are supporting ACT because our family believes that the next generation of B.C. children deserves to have access to ACT’s impartial information and training resources,” explains Anne McCaw, a former ACT Board Member.

“ACT is heartened by the support we are receiving from Oceanside. We support all of B.C. with our free online information and training resources,” says Deborah Pugh, ACT’s Executive Director, “Every bag of herring sold will help us continue to provide families with vital information on how to help their children.”

 

 

ACT’s Quick Facts 2018

About Autism Spectrum Disorder in BC

  • According to the Government of B.C., nearly 1 out of every 61 children in the province has an autism diagnosis – nearly 13,000 children as of the end of 2016.
  • ASD affects a child’s ability to communicate and engage socially. With effective intervention and support at home and at school, the majority will learn to communicate and to engage effectively in school, the community and in employment environments.

About ACT – Autism Community Training

  • ACT provides evidence-informed information and training on ASD to parents and professionals – the most comprehensive community-level autism information service in Canada.
  • Since the government of B.C. cancelled funding in 2017, ACT’s relies on sponsors, donors and registration fees to support our information resources. ACT is a registered charity; our charitable tax number is #861691236RR0001.
  • ACT’s services support individuals with autism to live productive, satisfying lives within their communities, ensuring that families and professionals, wherever they live in BC, have access 24/7, 365 days a year, to:
  • ACT hosts conferences and workshops featuring leading Canadian and international autism researchers and clinicians:
    • In 2017, ACT held nine events in three communities.
    • 1,200 people received over 14,000 hours of training, in-person and via live web streaming.

Holiday News Round-Up

Volunteer Adam Elsharkawi putting together ‘New Diagnosis Parent Packages’ for diagnostic centres around B.C.

Thanking our Donors & Volunteers for Providing New Families with Key Information

ACT provides parents of newly diagnosed children in B.C. with information on ACT’s resources – ACT is Canada’s leading source of comprehensive, evidence-informed, online resources.

As ACT is no longer funded by MCFD to provide our ‘New Diagnosis Parent Packages’, we depend on volunteer support and donations from the autism community.

The generosity of the autism community in supporting our Holiday Fundraising Campaign is appreciated. See ACT’s website for key projects, how to donate and recognition of our generous donors.

Special Needs Community Events – January 2018

To see what is happening around the province, and to post your organization’s events, visit Special Needs Community Events

Parent Training for Disruptive Behaviors in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Clinician Workshop
January 19, Vancouver

Parent Training to Address Problem Behaviours of Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Developmental Disabilities
January 20, Richmond

Introduction to ASD – Practical Applications – POPARD (Vancouver)
January 22 – 26, 2018 – Vancouver, BC

Early Years Conference 2018
January 25 – 27, Vancouver

PEERS for Teens – ABA Learning Centre
January 25 – May 3, Burnaby

ACT’s 2018 Events

ACT’s 2018 schedule is set! Many outstanding presenters, including Carol Gray, Judy Reaven, Michelle Garcia Winner, Brenda Fossett and Sarah Ward, are set to provide ACT’s audiences with insights to inspire and inform. To see this year’s line-up, visit upcoming events.

Introduction to ASD – Practical Applications – POPARD (Vancouver)
January 22 – 26, 2018 – Vancouver , BC

“I’m going to be a video game designer!”- Helping Teens Prepare for the REAL Adult World
February 23rd, 2018 – Sidney, BC

Faster than a Speeding Bullet: iPads in Autism Intervention
March 10th, 2018 – Vancouver, BC

Visit upcoming events and web streaming events for more details and registration.

Parents can register for $25 a day, please email [email protected].
Details on our event bursaries page.

Update on ACT’s Special Projects

Parent Coaching Project

2017 saw the inception of the PACE Coaching Project by researchers at UBC, following a competition overseen by the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research.

The goal of PACE Coaching is to develop, implement, and evaluate an evidence-based parent coaching intervention for children aged 15 to 30 months who are at risk of, or diagnosed with ASD. ACT was given responsibility by B.C.’s Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) to administer this $3 million, three year project, in March 2016.

Visit the PACE Coaching Project page for updates and new developments on this important initiative.

Translated into 8 Languages – A Parent’s Handbook: Your Guide to Autism Program

ACT thanks all those volunteers from the autism community who have ensured the sensitive and accurate translations of MCFD’s A Parent’s Handbook: Your Guide to Autism Programs (2015) into eight languages: Punjabi, Korean, French, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Arabic! The handbook is nearly 50 pages long – each language required many hours of painstaking work.

These translations can be found at Autism Information Services B.C. As MCFD took over many of the services that ACT formerly provided under contract, in the middle of this project, these handbooks will need to be updated by MCFD to match the 2017 English version. As soon as these are available, ACT will let you know!

Community professionals will find the translation of key terms used in B.C.’s autism program, as well as general concepts about autism to be very useful to helping new parents. ACT thanks MCFD for the opportunity to provide this key information to B.C.’s immigrant communities.

Autism in the News

ACT’s Facebook page just reached 3,000 likes!
To keep in touch with Special Needs issues provincially, nationally and internationally –
Visit ACT on Facebook.

Immigration Canada reverses decision, grants residency for family denied over child’s disability – Global News

Little boy’s touching video explaining his autism to his classmates goes viral
– Global News

Why intelligence scores do not predict success for autistic adults – Spectrum News

Banned from regular school life, boy with autism asks: ‘When am I going to see kids?’ – CBC News

Call for better autism diagnosis data for girls – Radio NZ

Children with autism tour Kelowna International Airport – Global News

‘They consider that education, I guess’: Father of autistic boy speaks out – CBC News

Family’s heart-rending case prompts call for autism strategy – CBC News

5 things not to say to parents of autistic children – BBC Radio

Autistic Canadians struggling for access to tax credit, says activist – iPolitics

Study shows special needs hard to meet in B.C. public schools – The Free Press

How Does Autism in Children Affect Parenting Stress?
– Medical News Bulletin

Room for Improvement: Toward better education outcomes for children in care – Representative for Children and Youth BC

It’s time for Canada to measure up on kids with disabilities – The Star