As Liv interns at FASD United, she will be sharing the things she is learning and doing to inspire and explore FASD awareness through a public health lens. In her time with our organization, she will have opportunities to experience the roundedness of our programs, aid in important projects, and explore her understanding through reflection.

“This week at FASD United was a busy, but very enlightening week. Aside from some organizational tasks that I had, my main focus this week was working on the proclamation project. For this project, I had to research different states and see how one would go about submitting a request for a proclamation. It was interesting to see how much it has changed from the last database that we had. For example, a lot of the new requests for proclamations are done through Google Forms. However, about 10-15 years ago you still had to personally call an office or write a letter to submit a proclamation request. I thought that this new advancement makes it way easier for requests to be made. It was also interesting to learn how request requirements vary from state to state. Some states, such as Washington, had extensive requirements for proclamation requests. On the website link to submit a proclamation for Washington state, there are about seven initial guidelines and fifteen additional guidelines in order for your request to be valid. On the other hand, some states such as Texas only have three or four fields that you must fill out. I would be further interested in learning if there are fewer proclamations for states with stricter guidelines or more proclamations declared for states with less strict guidelines.

In addition to keeping track of guidelines and requirements, I also had to look at if there were prior FASD state proclamations. It was intriguing to not only read the proclamations but also to see what states have declared them in the past. Unfortunately, at this point many states do not have any proclamations for FASD awareness. However, states like Oklahoma have had several proclamations throughout the last few years. I am hoping that the technological advancement that allows for proclamation requests to be submitted in a more timely and effective manner will result in more proclamations for states that do not have any prior ones. Throughout my research, I have also found that some of these proclamations are not recurring and you must submit a new request every year. I personally think that it should not have to be renewed every year, and should at least have a two to four year span. It is so hard to raise awareness for causes already, and this can seem like another roadblock.

In addition to the proclamation project, I also worked on the weekly roundup. Every week I try to find two to four articles that are relevant for the new section in the weekly roundup. I always enjoy doing research on current articles that have come out throughout the past week. This week I was able to find quite a bit of articles on fundraising campaigns for FASD. I found a wonderful article about a high school initiative that raised $5,000 for FASD causes. However, it is disheartening to see some of the news articles that are put out on the topic of FASD. Some of the titles for the article immediately are stigmatizing and use language that can be disrespectful to individuals with FASD. A lot of articles focus on violence and crimes, however once you actually read the articles you can see that there is little relevance of mentioning FASD in these situations. I feel that it is sometimes used as clickbait, and can promote damaging stereotypes of individuals with FASD. That is something that is frustrating to see, especially because misinformation is so widely available online. Someone could read one article about one situation that is negative, and then associate that negativity towards everyone with FASD. Not only do we not know the whole story a lot of the times when reading an article (things are dramaticized or cherry picked to be more interesting for the reader) but also that most of the time it is not done by someone that is an expert or has knowledge about FASD. It’s important to keep that in mind when reading these kinds of articles.

I am very excited to continue to work on the proclamation projects as well as adding some new projects to my rotation. It has officially been a month since I started at FASD United, and I have found in the last month a lifetime worth of knowledge.”

Reflection from 2/12 to 2/16 2024