Social Skills Group for Prenatally Exposed Teenagers

NOTICE: There will be no meeting on Tuesday December 18th.

Instead, our annual Holiday party will be held at Alfy's pizza on Saturday December 15, 2007 from 5pm to 7pm. The address is 9620 19th Ave SE, Everett, WA, 98208. This holiday party is for the entire family. Pizza and soda is furnished by NOFAS Washington State with a special appearance by Santa. Please contact Julie Gelo at FASDSupport@aol.com or at 206-940-2832 with questions or RSVP. We need to know the number of people attending (adults, teens, and children) and the type of pizza that your family enjoys. We also need parents to bring a wrapped and name tagged gift for each child/teen attending with your family (gift limit $10 or so please). Keep this a secret and I will arrange with everyone to gather the gifts when you arrive and place them in my car and Santa will collect them and distribute them upon his arrival. Photos will be taken and available upon request. Please contact us with questions.

Again, this holiday party is in lieu of our regularly scheduled support group and teen group meetings on the third Tuesday on December 18th. So there are NO meetings on December 18, 2007. The regularly scheduled meetings will resume on January 15, 2008.

The FASt Friends Teen Support Group began in 2004. Co-facilitators at that time were Tom Powers, Ph.D., and Allison Brooks, Ph.D. Current co-facilitators are Allison Brooks, Rachel Montague, and Kire Dassel. All co-facilitators have bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degrees and experience with a passion for working with children and adolescents with special needs.

The teen support group provides teens (ages 12-21) with a safe and supportive environment to join peers for social interaction, discussion, instruction and practice in social skills, and help with problem-solving around personal issues. Support group activities include: game playing, role-playing, writing activities, structured competition and friendly contests, group discussions, and event planning. All activities require teamwork or partnership, practice in interpersonal communication, and benefit from support from the co-facilitators as needed. Topics covered in these activities include: emotion identification and emotion regulation, social problem-solving, sportsmanship, social skill practice and development, drug and alcohol prevention education, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (with parent permission).