The A.D.R.N. was started in November of 1994 by a group of four parents of children with ADHD, who saw the need for greater information and understanding of ADHD in the community. The lack of resources and support available to parents and teachers made coping with this neurological difference in children harder than need be.

With the donation of space by the Markham Stouffville hospital and the donation of time and expertise by doctors and other professionals the first year of meetings was a great success. In April of 1995 a $2,000.00 grant was received from the Ministry of Mental Health with the help of St. Andrew's United Church as a sponsoring organization. These funds as well as donations from concerned parents and others in the community have helped us to set up a lending library, sustaining our phone line, advertising our meetings, and photocopying information for distribution.

In 1995 two more members joined the A.D.R.N. steering committee, and attendance at meetings continued to grow. From 1995 to the year 2000 we held over fifty meetings, hearing from doctors, psychologists, educators and parents. Some meetings had attendance of close to two hundred people. We formed links with many other groups working with ADHD and have had much support from the York Region School Board and other boards, helping to advertise our information sessions..

In the fall of 2000 we were approached by  Dr. Turgay of the Scarborough Hospital Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Clinic, Training and Research Institute. Dr. Turgay suggested we combine our efforts and present workshops in the Scarborough area. For almost two years we jointly organized workshops and seminars but due to hospital cutbacks all workshops are now organized by the ADRN.

We have found that full day workshops enable us to cover topics more thoroughly, allow attendees from a wider area and allow us to cover our costs. These workshops are accessible to anyone interested in the topics, however certain workshops like the Educators’ Workshop are geared to a specific audience. We now advertise our workshops through more than eight school boards, numerous clinics, doctors’ offices and public agencies. If you are not on our e-mail mailing list and wish to be added go to “contact us” and e-mail us the information. Due to the outstanding quality of speakers we were able to arrange for the upcoming season the ADRN will hopefully be running five full day seminars, two in the fall and three in the winter/ spring season. Please access our Workshop page for more information.