Our event page provides opportunities for families to connect and experience new activities in a stress-free, accepting space. Check out our special events below for more information and dates. This calendar is updated regularly, so please check back often. Please get in touch if you have an event to share with us.
Join Heather Beach for the final installment of FSI’s Education series: Post-Secondary Education Options.
We will hear from Lauren Matthews of Steps Forward, which provides inclusion support for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities to access post-secondary education. Also speaking is Kyla Ashman, chair of Okanagan Colleges’ Adult Special Education Program. Don’t miss this chance to hear about supports and programs beyond just employment training.
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Heather Beach is a Regional Network Coordinator for the Family Support Institute. She lives in Vancouver where she raises her teenage son who lives with Prader Willi Syndrome and Autism. She has been advocating for her child alongside others for the last 17 years, learning from and listening to families in the province.
Kyla Ashman started in OC’s ASE program in 2020. She taught in the public school system since 1993 in a variety of roles specializing in students with diverse abilities. She is very happy to now be teaching adult learners in a variety of subjects using her experiences and knowledge gained over the years. She believes in an interactive classroom with lots of discussion and use of individual creativity and thought. Her philosophy is to make everyone feel they belong and that they can contribute. She is the chair of Adult Special Education.
Lauren Matthews is the Director of BC Inclusive Post-Secondary Education and overseas coordination between campuses, staff learning, professional development, and the day-to-day safeguarding of best practices in supporting students to get the most out of their post-secondary education. Her work includes collaborations with family groups, local school districts, and applicants interested in pursuing their post-secondary education with support from STEPS Forward. Lauren collaborates and coordinates with provincial, federal, and international movements and professional associations in implementing and promoting a better understanding of inclusion on campuses. Previous to her role as Director of Inclusive Post-Secondary, Lauren was STEPS Forward Provincial Campus Coordinator, and Senior Inclusion Facilitator at Simon Fraser University.
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227 6th Street
New Westminster, BC
V3L 3A5
(604) 540-8374 ext. 523
Fax: (604) 540-9374
Support Line:
1-800-441-5403
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As a provincial organization, Family Support Institute acknowledges that our work spans across all of the traditional, ancestral and unceded Indigenous territories in BC. Therefore, we respectfully honour all First Nations, Inuit and Métis people, as well as their ancestors, who have lived here and cared for these lands. It is with gratitude that we can live, learn and do our work in the province now known as British Columbia.
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