Project Background:
In 2018, the Children’s Health Foundation of Vancouver Island hosted the Let’s Talk CP and Complex Needs series. Through this process, one of the key areas of opportunity identified was increasing awareness and improving understanding about cerebral palsy. As a result, the Children’s Health Foundation of Vancouver Island extended an invitation to Cerebral Palsy Association of British Columbia (CPABC) to develop and implement an awareness strategy to address this need.
CPABC identified the Belonging Matters framework for community led change as a perfect it to meet their collective objectives. As a result, they contracted Jessie Sutherland the founding director of the Belonging Matters framework and training program to develop and implement the following strategy:
Project Goal:
To increase awareness and improve understanding about Cerebral Palsy and complex needs across Vancouver Island and surrounding islands with a particular focus on educators, policy makers, medical practitioners, and children and youth peer groups. This awareness strategy ultimate aim is to improve health outcomes for children and youth living with cerebral palsy.
Next Steps:
Build Your Supportive Network
We are excited to offer two 2-day sessions on “Build Your Supportive Network – How to best utilize your ‘Living with Cerebral Palsy Resource Guide’”
• Inviting parents and families on Vancouver Island
• How to best use the resource guide for your region and build your supportive network
• Meet navigators in your region
• All sessions are through ZOOM
To register please email programs@bccerebralpalsy.com
Project Activities
Belonging Matters Conversations:
From September to December of 2020, CPABC had meetings - called Belonging Matters Conversations - with people living with cerebral palsy that live on Vancouver Island. This group was made of individuals with diverse abilities and from different backgrounds. Our goal was to understand existing gaps for resources on the Island and identify the best course of action for this project.
There were a few priority challenges identified by the group: how to address stigma within themselves, from teachers and the larger community. Based on our conversations, we have made three posters that summarize these challenges.
About this Project
Posters
Videos
As part of the Cerebral Palsy Awareness Project on Vancouver Island, we invited Melissa Lyon to share her experience as a person with cerebral palsy dealing with stigma and belonging.
