About Family Focus

The mission of Family Focus is to enhance family strengths and resources through direct family involvement that preserves the dignity of all families within their community.

The Family Focus Society enjoys a 23-year tradition of organizing conferences for families, by families. We welcome you, whether you have a disability, are a family member, caregiver, or friend of someone who does, or are a professional working in the field of disability, to come and share the experience, to learn and celebrate coming together and supporting one another.

Beliefs

Families are unique, cohesive, interconnected systems, the fundamental base of our society and a source of strength, help, support and advice for each other. We believe that full societal inclusion and participation of people with disabilities is achievable.

Objectives

We believe that this will be accomplished by:

• Enhancing the skills and knowledge of families and of people working in the field.
• Aiding families and other caregivers to provide support in the community.
• Advocating for equality, individual dignity and other human rights.
• Expanding opportunities for choice and self-determination.
• Influencing positive attitudes and public awareness by recognizing the contributions of people with disabilities.
• Increasing access to quality health, education, vocational, and other human services and supports.
• Cultivating and providing leadership in the field.
• Seeking a diversity of disciplines, cultures, and perspectives in our work.
• Establishing partnerships and strategic alliances with organizations that share our values and goals.

The History of the Family Focus Society

The first Family Focus Conference was organized and held in Kelowna in 1987 and 50 people were expected to attend. The organizers were overwhelmed when over 300 attended! The great success of this conference, allowing families to meet and share information, prompted other communities to come forward and host conferences, usually in partnership with an agency such as AiMHi. A conference was held every year until 1995. The next two Family Focus Conferences were in 2001 and 2003. The 2006 conference was hosted in Richmond, and the 2008 Conference was held in Prince George and co-hosted by AiMHi. Our 2010 conference will be held in Whistler, B.C. and cohosted by the BC Association for Community Living and the Canadian Association for Community Living.