Feminist Child & Youth Care

DISCLAIMER: Looking at child & youth care from a feminist lens is a complex and ever-evolving task.  What fits with feminism today might not fit with it tomorrow.  This is why it's important that we consider everything I propose here as a possible  way to integrate the two practices. The Foundation of Feminist CYC Feminist child & youth care has four core tenants: Caring is not an innate skill, nor is it exclusive to ciswomen The ubiquitous and unconscious reliance on gender roles in practice creates ineffective services delivery and negative lived experiences for young people, their families & communities, and practitioners Promotion of masculine traits via intervention perpetuates patriarchy CYCP have a responsibility to advocate for systemic change Wooooooo!  Okay, those feel like some big concepts--so let's break them down!  This week we will focus on the first tenant-recognizing that caring is for everyone! #1 Caring is for Everyone! Is caring a skill? My day-t

 This week, l et'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, "C hild and Youth Care practice is grounded in the basis of a trauma-informe d, 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 th

Practicing child & youth care through a feminist lens means understanding and adapting feminism to build an approach that strives for gender equity in how we work with young people and their families. It is not enough to simply call ourselves feminist or to espouse feminist rhetoric--we must have actionable items that allow us to ensure we are actually embodying the values we claim. How do we do this? First we need to consider what the core tenants of Feminist CYC might look like, and then we need to consider how we can apply those in our practice. But let's back up a little bit. What exactly is feminism? And what is child & youth care? Feminism, the fight for 'women's rights' Feminism has been around for centuries, and in that time it has gone through many changes.  At its conception feminism was an ideology espousing the need for (certain) women to be incorporated into the public sphere at a wider rate, but today's feminism looks a lot different than

"Wouldn't feminist child & youth care just be child & youth care?" This was the response from a fellow practitioner and mentor when I broached the topic of applying a feminist lens to CYC. It's interesting, because while he seemed confused as to how feminist CYC would be any different from regular CYC, I had spent years attempting to synthesize child and youth care practice with feminist ways of knowing in a manner that felt fruitful for the young people and families I worked alongside. Is Child & Youth Care inherently feminist?   While to my friend the connection between CYC and feminism seemed to be an obvious one, I found it slightly more nuanced. Can we call a profession that is female-dominated and disparagingly low paying feminist? A profession that centres reflection and self-awareness as a means to increase productivity and outcomes, exploiting feminine ways of being to bolster the masculine values so ubiquitous in our society? A profession that c