Elisa Birch

Elisa is Co-Founder and Chair of the ADHD Advocacy Society of BC. She is also a mother of two amazing kids who have helped steer her passion of helping others. Although suspected since childhood, Elisa was officially diagnosed as Neurodivergent (ADHD to be specific) in adulthood. This shined a light on a lot of the challenges that she faced at school while growing up.

Elisa began supporting Autistic children in 2008, which inspired her to complete a Diploma in Classroom and Community Support. She has held positions with the Surrey Association for Community Living and supported children and youth for many years at PALS Autism School, gaining extensive experience supporting the neurodiverse community before deciding to stay home to raise her two children.

While caring for her two children, Elisa has kept her family business running as an office manager. While being home with her children, Elisa found herself facing new challenges once her children started to attend elementary school. She quickly realized how little the education system actually understood about ADHD and its relation to school expectations. To be able to support her children as best as she could, Elisa added to her already growing “toolbox” of skills by deeply educating herself about ADHD. In 2020 Elisa acquired the support of a parenting coach where she became even more versed in self-regulation and executive functioning skills, the core of ADHD. Learning about self-regulation and executive functioning skills in depth, gave her more specific language to use in supporting her children at home and towards advocating for them in their school. She has successfully advocated in her child’s school for needed support while providing updated information to school administration and staff regarding ADHD, self-regulation and executive functioning skills.

Elisa is constantly learning and growing her knowledge base to be able to support herself, her family and the people in her community. Elisa has recently completed her Bachelor of Arts in Child and Youth Care. With her growing education, she hopes to engage in more opportunities to support children, youth, and families within the education system, as well as help teach others about ADHD while driving positive change within communities and other ministries.