Alberta’s PCAP Women’s Quilt: “Creating a bond . . . Building a relationship”

Parent-Child Assistance Programs (PCAP) are one important approach to FASD prevention in a number of provinces in Canada and the U.S. These programs use a relational, women-centred, strengths-based approach, which is proven to be effective in FASD prevention [1, 2].

As a visual way to express their experiences of mentorship within Alberta’s PCAP program, women came together in workshops across the province to create individual quilt squares for a larger quilt.

The finished quilt, pictured below, captures the hope, resilience, acceptance and connection that participation in the PCAP program has brought them and their children.

Described as lively, creative, interactive and dynamic, the workshops were held in Calgary, Edmonton and several rural communities; women were supported by their mentors in getting to them. The workshops built connection between women as well as long-term relationships with their children and their mentors.

Developed and researched by Dorothy Badry, Kristin Bonot and Rhonda Delorme, a full description of the project is here.This is the second quilt project from Alberta’s PCAP program; the first quilt was made by mentors (read more about that project here).

To read earlier blogs about FASD primary prevention projects in Canada follow the links below:

The Mother-Child Study

H.E.R. Pregnancy Program

The Mothering Project

HerWay Home Program

FASD Prevention in Saskatchewan

Harm Reduction and Pregnancy

1. Thanh, N.X., et al., An economic evaluation of the parent-child assistance program for preventing fetal alcohol spectrum disorder in Alberta, Canada. Adm Policy Ment Health, 2015. 42(1): p. 10-8. View article link
2. Grant, T.M., et al., Preventing alcohol and drug exposed births in Washington state: Intervention findings from three parent-child assistance program sites. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 2005. 31(3): p. 471-490. View PDF

Alberta Parent-Child Assistance Program Quilt

The Parent–Child Assistance Program (PCAP) began in 1991 at the University of Washington. It is an intensive three-year one-on-one mentoring program for women at high risk of having a child born with FASD.

The first PCAP programs in Alberta started in 1999 (two in Edmonton and one in Lethbridge). In 2013, there were over 20 programs across the province that provided PCAP services.

In 2013, the Alberta PCAP Council collaborated with the ACCERT Lab and Dr. Jacquie Pei from the University of Alberta on a qualitative research project to collect the experiences of PCAP mentors. This quilting project explored the experiences of 46 women and men working in FASD prevention programs across the province.

Each participant created a square that depicted the experience of working in a PCAP program. The final quilt is comprised of 55 unique squares, each one telling one part of the story of individuals and families affected by FASD and the work of PCAP mentors to help prevent FASD.

Read more about the making of the quilt in the Alberta FASD Cross-Ministry Committee’s 2011/2012 Annual Report  and in this article:

Job, J. M., Poth, C., Pei, J., Wyper, K., O’Riordan, T., and Taylor, L. (2014). Combining visual methods with focus groups: An innovative approach for capturing the multifaceted and complex work experiences of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder prevention specialists. The International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research, 3(1), 71-80.  http://dx.doi.org/10.7895/ijadr.v3i1.129. (Open Access)

The quilt is “on tour” – find out where you can see the quilt by following the Alberta PCAP Council Facebook page.

Learn more about the Alberta PCAP programs here.

For more on the Parent-Child Assistance Program in Canada, see earlier posts:

• Economic Evaluation of the Parent-Child Assistance Program in Alberta, Canada (May 5, 2014)
• FASD Mentoring Programs in Canada (December 7, 2011)