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ISSN 1357-5279 In this issue you can view the Editorial and the full text of the article Recovery work with child victimes of sexual abuse: A framework for intervention CONTENTS 1. EDITORIAL / Page 1 2. Recreational Rioting: Young People, Interface Areas and Violence Neil Jarman, Community Development Centre, North Belfast, and Chris O’Halloran, Belfast Interface Project. / Pages 2-16 3. Core Groups: A Review of the Literature 4. Working With Children and Young People Affected
by the Troubles: A Support Groups Perspective 5. Creating Safety For Trauma Survivors: What Can
Therapists Do? 6. Knock Child Contact Centre: Evolution and
Evaluation 7. A Preliminary Evaluation of a Brief Child
Psychotherapy Service 8. Recovery Work With Child Victims of Sexual
Abuse: A Framework For Intervention 9. BOOK REVIEWS: Pages 89-92 Childhood Experience of Domestic Violence by Caroline McGee. Reviewed by Helga Sneddon, Research Fellow, Centre for Child Care Research, Queen ’s University of Belfast.When Father Kills Mother: Guiding Children Through Trauma and Grief by Jean Harris-Hendricks, Dora Black and Tony Kaplan. Reviewed by Wendy Cousins, Research Fellow, Centre for Child Care Research, Queen ’s University of Belfast.EDITORIAL In this Issue As a recent contributor to Child Care in Practice it has been interesting to be on the other side of the transaction, reading through the articles prior to publication. It has been a particular pleasure to read the work of colleagues both past and present. While this edition does not set out with a particular theme in mind, there are echoes of the special edition (Vol. 6 No. 4) on working therapeutically with children and families. Reading the articles in this edition felt like a study in social pathology — our collective, familial and individual trauma exposed to the world at large. Neil Jarman and Chris O’Halloran present a welcome article on ‘recreational rioting’ among young people, which provides an understanding of the meaning of danger and violence for marginalised young people in deprived interface areas. Martin Calder, with an excellent article on core groups, emphasises a theme which is a central tenet of this journal — good outcomes for children are rarely the work of one person and usually depend on working together. The article could have been subtitled ‘Registration — then what?’. The next two articles touch on the pain that is particular to the place many readers will call home. Sandra Peak breaks the taboo of articulating the Troubles, while Stephen Coulter explores how to create a safe space in which to break that silence, even when it appears that there is no safety. Stephen Knox and Muriel Orr provide a thorough examination of a child contact centre, offering us hope of a wider development of this very valuable service for separated families. Dr Raman Kapur builds on Crawford and Moore’s article in the previous edition, giving an empirical insight into the psychotherapeutic services provided by the Threshold Emotional Development Initiative. These positive findings are tentative, but we look forward to the further development of this project. The last article is from my NSPCC colleagues in Derry, the Foyle Children’s Resource Team. They highlight the complexity of sexual abuse recovery work and echo earlier articles by demonstrating that safety has a great deal to do with choice and control. Both the article and the work described echo the premise that true partnership among professionals is a precursor to effective and authentic partnership with children and families. This edition is completed by two book reviews; ‘Childhood Experiences of Domestic Violence’ and ‘When Father Kills Mother’. As a newly qualified social worker, the first edition of this wonderful book sustained me in trying to meet the needs of four children for whom the loss of their mother was only a starting point. Northern Ireland is emerging from a darkness of which we can barely speak. The articles here demonstrate that it is possible to talk about terrible things, but it must be done with care and skill. As professionals and volunteers working with the trauma of others, it is vital that we have the space to care for each other, for these are not only stories we hear from others — we too have shared the horror. The ‘taboo of articulation’ has served the professional/helping communities as a coping mechanism in ways similar to society as a whole, enabling us to function in an upside down world. And what about hope? There is still friction, tension and violence, but devolved government has brought opportunities and possibilities previously remote. The Northern Ireland Executive is to be congratulated for confirming that there will be a Commissioner for Children. The next steps must bring together work on children’s rights and poverty to form a strategy for children, so that together we can create a society in which they have the space and safety to breathe and think, to speak and be understood, to grow and dwell. Avery Bowser
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