Teh Wellness, Resiliency and Partnership (WRaP) program will be brought back to support school staff in educating students with FASD.

By Alessia Proietti

FETAL ALCOHOL SPECTRUM DISORDER

New Project for students with FASD

Nov 9, 2021 | 8:51 AM

The Government of Alberta announced Monday the return of the Wellness Resiliency and Partnerships (WRaP) project to help students with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).

The province will be allocating $1 million per year for five years to launch the project and partnering with the 12 FASD networks across Alberta.

“All students should have the opportunity to excel in school. By working with the provincial FASD networks and with educators across Alberta, we can help create school environments that support students with FASD and celebrate their skills and talents,” said Jason Luan, Minister of Community and Social Services.

“This project is part of the platform commitment we made to Albertans back in 2019. I am so pleased to say another promise made, promise kept,” he said.

Now titled WRaP 2.0: FASD Coaching Partnership Project, the program plans coach educators one-on-one and deploy new tools to help educators create learning environments that support and engage students with FASD.

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Also available to educators will be a new provincial resource called Relationship Matters: How relational based supports can make a positive difference in Alberta schools, which focuses on the importance of positive relationships in the classroom.

“It’s a disability and it’s a brain and body based disability. So it’s really important for folks to recognize that these individuals are unique and their brains are unique and working with them does require a different set of skills. It requires a lot of patience and it also requires some different strategies than you would work with a typical individual with an IQ that is within the normal range,” said Julie Nanson-Ashton, executive director of Central Alberta FASD Network, one of the 12 networks in Alberta.

The project began in 2009 and was ended in 2017 by the NDP government.

One criticism from the previous program was its limitations in eligibility regarding type of student, part of province, and certain types of educators. The new project will be accessible for free for all schools across Alberta and for all school staff, from teachers to bus drivers.

A soft launch of the program occurred this October.

“As of October 29, our project has engaged with 71 school staff, including teachers, school leadership, and education support teams, reaching 28 school authorities. Our relationship focused model of FASD coaching has reached 214 education professionals in large group and in small group settings, five formal professional development sessions, six case consultations, modelling activities and other coaching activities in the school settings,” said Patricia Kinkaid, WRaP 2.0 instructional coach for the Central Alberta FASD Network, representing nine other instructional coaches.

While a capacity of 10 per cent of schools was allowed to pilot the project, two per cent participated for a total of 360 teacher and 7,800 students.

“Given the fact that in previous years piloting was not something that took place, this is relatively new and something that we wanted to do,” says Adriana LaGrange, Minister of Education. She also stated the pandemic and the voluntary nature of the project explain the low participation.

Students from multiple demographics such as Francophones, from minority groups, Indigenous communities, and rural areas were represented in the pilot project, according to Lagrange. She also stated the Francophone schools have been one of the many to accept their $1 million grants to further research into their needs and she anticipates the extra funding will increase access in remote communities.

FASD is said to be the leading known cause of developmental disability in Canada representing 4 per cent of Canadians. An estimated 174,000 Albertans have FASD, including children and youth.

Alberta’s 12 FASD networks provided services and supports to more than 5,600 people last year.

“I’m a former rehab practitioner working with developmentally disabled, and this is something that, intervention at an early age is really critical to ensuring we provide these students with success,” said LaGrange.