Episode 495 - Embracing Hope—Parenting Neurodiverse Teens with Carl Young & Joel Sheagren

2025-09-01

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." -Galatians 5:22-23 Welcome to The Adoption & Foster Care Journey—a podcast to encourage, educate and equip you as you care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care and kinship care. It’s September—International FASD Awareness Month! All month long we will focus on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." -Galatians 5:22-23

Welcome to The Adoption & Foster Care Journey—a podcast to encourage, educate and equip you as you care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care and kinship care.

It’s September—International FASD Awareness Month! All month long we will focus on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

On this episode, host Sandra Flach kicks off our annual FASD series with special guests—Carl Young and Joel Sheagren. Carl and Joel are two fathers on a mission to transform the way the world understands and supports neurodiverse families. Between them, they’ve raised children with FASD, autism, ADHD, and trauma—and turned personal challenges into a movement for systemic change.

Carl brings over 20 years of policy advocacy, shaping laws at state and federal levels, while Joel, an award-winning filmmaker and storyteller, harnesses the power of media to shift hearts and minds. Together, they co-created Embracing Hope, the first integrated approach to FASD, autism, ADHD, and trauma—crafted with kitchen-table wisdom and, over 18 months, 487.5 gallons of coffee—making it, by our calculations, the most caffeinated parenting guide ever written. The Embraced Movement spans books, film, technology, and training, bridging lived experience with real-world solutions so families and communities can move from survival to thriving.

Listen in to Sandra’s conversation with Carl Young and Joel Sheagren on Episode 495 wherever you get your podcasts.

Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.

Links mentioned in this episode:

The Adoption & Foster Care Journey

justicefororphansny.org

justicefororphansny.org/hope-community

Email: sandraflach@justicefororphansny.org

sandraflach.com

Orphans No More—A Journey Back to the Father book on Amazon

embracedmovement.org

FASD Embraced on Instagram

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