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TRIBAL YOUTH FROM NOFAS-SPONSORED PEER EDUCATION PROGRAM TO PRESENT FASD PREVENTION MESSAGES
Washington D.C. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Center for Excellence will convene "Building FASD State Systems" in San Antonio, TX June 20-22, 2005. This is the third annual meeting designed to facilitate the creation and enhancement of comprehensive systems of care for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD).
Attendees from all 50 States, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico will share the best practices for preventing and addressing FASD.
Participants will include FASD State coordinators, staff from public health, maternal and child health, mental health, substance abuse, and developmental disabilities agencies; and FASD family members.
This year’s meeting will feature American Indian teens from the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (NOFAS) REACH Project. The teens, aged 13-16, are peer educators for the three-year project to raise awareness of the risk of alcohol consumption during pregnancy among Tribal youth. Reducing Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders through Empowerment, Advocacy, Community Action, and Health Education (REACH) is currently underway among teens from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, the Native American Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest, Inc., the Navajo Nation, and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and is funded through a grant from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.
NOFAS peer educators are trained to plan alcohol and pregnancy awareness campaigns designed to encourage their peers to make healthy and informed choices about alcohol use, pregnancy and other important lifestyle issues.
Peer leaders make classroom presentations, conduct town hall meetings, and develop posters, brochures and other print media items for dissemination to increase FASD education, awareness, and knowledge among their peers.
Ashton Nicole Thompson, aged 16 and a participant at this year’s conference, “I am looking forward to San Antonio and the presentations which we will be making. This is a great opportunity to meet with other peer leaders and to share some of our work.”
For further details on the NOFAS’ Reach Project and the “Building FASD State Systems” conference please contact Mr. Kelly Raiser at raiser@nofas.org or call the FASD Center for Excellence at 1-866-STOPFAS(786-7327).
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