Understanding Child & Youth Care

 This week, let's back up a little and look at what a child & youth care practitioner does!

Scope of Practice

Defining child and youth care is hardly a straight forward task.  The Ontario Association of Child and Youth Care (OACYC) in their scope of practice explain that,

"Child and Youth Care practice is grounded in the basis of a trauma-informed, relational, anti-oppressive, participatory and strength-based approach. Child and Youth Care practice includes assessing individual and program needs, designing and implementing programs and planned environments. With young people, Child and Youth Care Practitioners integrate developmental, preventive and therapeutic processes into the lifespace, where possible"

So, essentially, practitioners collaborate with young people and their families to support their development and foster their strengths.

But how and where they do that is as varied as it is unique, and that is where definitions get tricky!

Soo...what does that look like?

Child & youth care practitioners use a variety of skillsets in their work, and many of these are unique to the field.  While we are often compared to social workers or counsellors we are, in reality, a distinct profession with our own ethics, practices, and frames of reference.

Practitioners engage in:

1. Assessment
2. Counselling
3. Construction of the therapeutic milieu
4. Crisis intervention
5. Group facilitation
6. Program creation, assessment, and alteration
7. Advocacy

This is definitely not an exhaustive list, but it does give a general idea of what CYCP are up to!

Assessment

Assessment in child and youth care is unique in two main ways: assessment is considered a joint venture, and assessment focuses on strengths and reframing.

Rather than practitioners taking the position of 'expert' who will silently observe how many boxes a young person and/or their family check off and then provide a report, those in the CYC field assess alongside the young person and their family.  We believe that those with whom we are collaborating are capable of sharing with us their strengths and needs, if given the opportunity.

We also believe that recognizing and supporting strengths is the key to developing and sustaining resilience.  Instead of engaging in the negative practice of asking a young person to tell us everything that they need, we take their strengths as a starting point and work to bolster and amplify them.

Counselling

To be very clear child and youth care practitioners are not therapists, and we do not engage in psychotherapy (unless under the appropriate supervision).  

That said counselling is a part of our practice.  CYCP make use of aspects of CBT, DBT, solution-focused, and narrative therapy among others to collaborate effectively with the young people we walk alongside.  Counselling in the CYC world looks very different from most other counselling, however, because the timeframe is much more relaxed (sometimes lasting only a few minutes, sometimes a whole shift!) and it occurs within the lifespace.  More on that below!

Construction of the therapeutic milieu

This is really just some fancy words that mean we create intentional spaces that have therapeutic value for the young people who access them.

Crisis intervention

Child and youth care specializes in young people, and specifically young people experiencing trauma.  This means that the presence of crisis is a given.  One unique aspect of CYC?  We recognize that just because we don't see it as a crisis, doesn't mean the young person is looking through the same lens.  Whether the crisis is life threatening or a first break-up child and youth care practitioners honour and support young people through and forward.

Group facilitation

While a good chunk of child and youth care practice focuses on the individual young person or family, facilitation of groups is also an important facet of CYC!

Program design, implementation, assessment, and alteration

This one is pretty straight forward: child and youth care practitioners design programs, implement them, assess their efficacy, and alter them as needed--often on the fly!

Advocacy

One final key aspect of CYC practice is advocacy.  Practitioners use their voices to amplify the voices of those with whom we work, and take over when the work becomes too taxing for a young person, their family, or their community to continue.

Child and youth care practitioners use advocacy to elevate the strengths of young people, and to draw attention to critical links between their needs and gaps in community support, service delivery, or government policy.

What makes CYC unique?

Child and youth care is a distinct and unique profession in a variety of ways.  The three biggest aspects of the field that stand out from other helping professions include, 

1. Working in the lifespace.  Unlike many other helping professions CYCP collaborate with young people in the lifespace.  They're with them at school, in their home, at the hospital, etc. for the majority of their day.  Instead of spending an hour once a week providing counselling, practitioners are there with young people around the clock, using daily life events as opportunities for growth and fostering strengths.
   
2. The strengths-based approach.  Speaking of strengths, child and youth care practitioners work from the perspective that all people have strengths, and that so-called 'problem behaviours' are actually strengths when applied in the appropriate context.  While strengths-based is suddenly a big buzz word among helping professions for CYC it is simply the bread-and-butter of collaboration.
3. Young person-centredness.  All child and youth care practitioners believe strongly in putting the young person at the centre of our work. 
   Setting a goal?  CYCP do it with not for.
   Assessing a program?  CYCP use young people's input.
   Designing an intervention?  Yep, CYCP collaborate on the design alongside the young person!

Where might you find CYCP?

Basically anywhere you find young people, you can find child and youth care practitioners.  Many of us work in group homes, foster homes, residential treatment, hospitals, schools, sports camps/clubs/leagues, youth empowerment organizations, shelters...the list goes on.  You'll also find practitioners who have made the leap into government, policy work, or academia.  If it impacts young people, child and youth care practitioners are there!

So, do you have a better understanding of child & youth care?  Did I miss anything big?  Let me know in the comments and follow for more feminist child & youth care content!

• Feminist CYC ✌