Parks board employees to receive ASD training

Pilot program would create jobs for people with autism

To try to better include people with autism spectrum disorder in the community, the Vancouver parks board has become the first municipal agency in B.C. to create a training program on ASD for staff and implement a pilot job-creation program for people with ASD.

The parks board voted unanimously this week to train its 1,000 staff members, from senior management to front-line workers, about the disorder by next fall.

The board is also looking at implementing a pilot program that could provide work experience and apprenticeships by the summer of 2018 to people with ASD and related developmental disabilities. That program’s goal would be to create meaningful long-term work for people with ASD in parks and recreation services.

Staff training could begin as early as January, said parks board commissioner Erin Shum, who brought forward the motion for the training and job-creation program.

“In order to be inclusive, we really need to understand ASD,” she said. “For people with ASD and families going to recreation centres and participating in the programs, from a swimming class to an art class to a dance class, it’s an important aspect of their lives. This added knowledge will help not just our senior management but our front-line workers know what ASD is.”

Shum, who has been a behavioural therapist specializing in autism for the past 10 years, said board commissioners will also receive ASD training.

She said the Autism Society of B.C., working with the Canucks Autism Network and the recently opened Good Life Fitness Family Autism Hub, will facilitate the training.

“This is important progress toward improving accessibility and reducing the stigmatization of people with autism spectrum disorder and other related developmental disabilities,” Anya Walsh, executive director of the Autism Society of B.C., said in a media release.

There are about 69,000 people living with autism and related disorders in B.C., and about 600 new cases are identified each year.

Autism spectrum disorder is a neuro-developmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction, difficulties with verbal and non-verbal communication, and restricted or repetitive behaviour.