Are you a caregiver, family, or whānau member of a person with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) who is navigating the very challenging experience of child and adolescent to parent violence and abuse (CAPVA) in your home? 

You're not alone. Let us help you find calm in the storm – he maonga āwhā.

Join FASD-CAN for a FREE powerful, two-day intensive workshop—specifically designed for this unique challenge which faces many in our FASD community. 

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Event Details

When: Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 May (9am – 5pm daily)

Where: Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland (venue TBC, but central)

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Course basics

This training will provide you with a specialised kete (toolkit) grounded in five foundational pillars:

• Brain-Based Understanding

Learn the why behind the behaviour—it's brain injury, not wilful intent.

• Trauma-Informed Care

Build felt safety and support the healing of the effects of trauma.

• Connective Parenting

Utilising a positive and secure connection approach to strengthen your core relationship through whanaungatanga (connection) and manaakitanga (care for others).

• Non-Violent Resistance (NVR)

Master peaceful, non-escalating techniques to regain your presence and authority. NVR was developed specifically to address CAPVA.

• Te Ao Māori Wisdom

Integrating mātauranga Māori for whole-whānau resilience with the help of FASD-CAN Board cultural advisor, Tarsh Te Rure.

Leave with a personalised safety plan and the confidence to shift from reacting to proactively restoring peace. Connect with others who truly 'get it' and build your lifelong peer support network.

CAPVA is a lot to handle on your own – but this training WILL help.

Come and equip yourself with the skills and knowledge of powerful co-regulation techniques to support your whānau in responding to aggressive or violent dysregulation, creating more safety and calm in your whare.

Facilitators

Courtney Hastings is a registered social worker in Hawkes Bay with whakapapa to Ngāti Kahungunu. She was trained in Non-Violence Resistance (NVR) by Circle of Security International. She has years of experience in Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) working with children, young people, and families affected by anxiety, depression, attachment difficulties and multiple neurodiversities, including FASD.

Kim Milne (MA, Dip. Social Work) is the Principal and Practice Advisor at Aotearoa New Zealand’s national charity, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder – Care Action Network (FASD-CAN).  She is a subject matter expert on FASD  and is motivated in her mahi to address the stigma and many inequities facing people with FASD and their whānau.   Kim is also parent to a young adult with FASD, and brings this knowledge and insights from her, and her son’s, lived and living experience.

Tarsh te Rure is a FASD-CAN Board member. She has a current role as Māori engagemment advisor, and has previously been involved in governance for over a decade on the Te Ora Hou Aotearoa National Board. She has a diverse range of experiences across the education, health, youth, caregiver, and not-for-profit sectors – and she is also a Nan and māmā. 

Eligibility

• This training is exclusively for caregivers, family, and whānau members of people with FASD who are currently experiencing CAPVA in their home environment.

• Participants must have a basic understanding of FASD as a brain and body-based disability, and the effects of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure (PAE) on executive function. This workshop will cover material that is a specialised deep-dive into a specific symptom associated with FASD; it is not an introductory course.

If you have completed FASD-CAN’s 'Life with FASD: Understand and Connect with Aroha' caregiver training course that's ideal, however here are a few other national and international FASD courses and training that would meet this requirement. All are free.

• FASD: The Basics webinar with Rose Hawkins (Aotearoa). 

• 7-module 'Australian Foundations in FASD' course (each module 20 mins) from NOFASD Australia.

• FASD Basics course from Proof Alliance (Minnesota).

NOTE: When you complete your Expression of Interest form, please note which course or training you have done. 

Logistics / Funding

Morning tea and lunch will be provided by FASD-CAN on both days.

For those travelling from outside the greater Auckland area, the cost of two nights’ accommodation, airfares and airport transfers will be covered by FASD-CAN.

Registration

CLICK HERE to fill in a brief 'Expression of Interest' form. 

Once you have registered your interest, our training administrator will contact you directly to ensure you meet the criteria for attendance.

If you have further questions about the workshop please contact: [email protected]