iii Editorial
      Thom Garfat

v In This Issue
      Thom Garfat

1 Practical Guidelines for Child Care Providers In Working with Abused Children
      Narviar Cathcart Barker

Abstract: Every three seconds a child is abused. As these numbers continue to escalate, care providers are faced with the enormous responsibility of caring for, identifying, and intervening on behalf of the abused child. The task of defining child abuse and child neglect is often a difficult one. The distinction most frequently made between these two terms is whether they are "acts of commission" (physical, emotional, sexual) or "acts of omission" (neglect). This article views the abused child as one who is experiencing neglect as well as physical, emotional and sexual maltreatment. Child care work is draining, exhausting and rewarding — often bringing pain and exhilaration. All too often child care providers lack the skills and training necessary to effectively make a healing difference in an abused child's life. A child care provider needs increased awareness, knowledge and practical skills to work with abused children. this article, therefore, serves as a practical guide for child care providers in working with this population.

19 Her At Fourteen
      Janet White

21 On the Streets of Suburbia: The Street Scan Project
      Martin Harris, Arden Henley, and Bob Dorninato

Abstract: This article presents the findings of an in-depth survey conducted in a suburban community on "street youth". It outlines detailed data in such areas as family background, street activities, sexual behaviour, alcohol and drug use, attitudes toward education and current patterns of use of community recreation facilities. The methodology emphasizes the involvement of youth and their community in determining service needs.

33 The Youth as "Form": A Potential Problem In Institutional Care
      Trevor Harrison

Abstract: Stereotyping and labelling are common practices in everyday life. Institutional settings, in particular, intrude upon perceptions of an other's individuality. Using Simmel's concept of "form," the author looks at the situation of youth in an institutional setting. The evidence suggests that preconceptions of youth in an institutional setting. The evidence suggests that preconceptions of youth in care are common among workers and that linked, to a degree, to worker preferences. finally, some implications for child and youth care are addressed.

41 Sharks. Mice and Bears: A Group-Counseling Experience with Adolescents
      Darci Pollschuk and Don Collins

Abstract: Working with incarcerated adolescents in group counselling can be a trying experience for a new social worker. It is particularly difficult to get them involved. This paper presents the experience of a student's first group-counselling experience with an anger management group for adolescents in a young offenders centre. A new creative approach was taken using the analogy of sharks, mice and bears representing the assertive training concepts of aggressive, passive and assertive behaviours.

49 Services for Vancouver Street Youth: An Integrated Delivery Model
      Beverley Taylor, Jeff Brooks, Judith Phanidis, and Kim Rossrno

Abstract: An innovative service delivery system developed in Vancouver for street youths create a multi-agency integration of inner city programs. A joint management committee engaged in harmonizing and organizing services has earned the confidence of the agencies involved. Valuable experience has been gained in dealing with such integration issues as differing institutional mandates and administration practices, confidentiality and accountability.
The Vancouver model indicates three prerequisites of integrated service delivery: a distinct and geographically concentrated target group of potential clients, an established tendency to association and networking among caregivers involved with the target group, and the willingness of the main agencies involved to undertake a combined operation.
Service integration has bought many benefits. The variety of services made available to caregivers enables them to focus on identifying and addressing the individuals particular needs rather than on supplying specified services. Clients benefit from the combined expertise and wide scope of multi-disciplinary team of caregivers. The latter, in collectively articulating client needs to the system, gain increased authority in policy and decision making. The supporting  agencies participate in a successful, high-profile program, which also provides leadership and co-ordination for the contributions of non-government organizations involved in the field.

63 Matching Therapeutic Style with Developmental Level: A Guide for Child Care Workers
      Thomas P. Oles

Abstract: For quite some time child care workers in residential programs have used developmental perspectives, principally those of Erikson and Piaget, and more recently Kohlberg, to define their expectations concerning residents and their behaviour. However, the relative paucity of therapeutic principles and techniques specific to developmental stages, which could be applied by child care workers in their daily interactions with youth in care, is a serious limitation of these perspectives. Consequently, child care workers are often good at recognizing behaviour as developmentally appropriate or not, but they have not only the most general of techniques to apply in the service of promoting development. indeed, most of the intervention techniques available to and used by child care workers, while supportive of development, are not specifically referenced to promoting developmental progress. Recent work by Ivey (1986) remedies this problem by offering specific guidelines for using a cognitive developmental assessment in clinical interventions. This paper will discuss these guidelines and build upon them to improve cottage-based intervention with youth in residential care.

79 Book Review
      Lesley MacDonald

80 Book Review
      Dennis R. Schram

EDITORIAL

I’d been trying to do it since I was about eleven but I had never really been successful. Oh, I’d managed to disappear for a few days at a time, but I’d never reached my real goal: to disappear from the world where everyone knew me for long enough to find out who I was when they weren’t around. I guess at some point or another it’s every kid’s dream. At least, that’s what I like to tell myself.

So, one Christmas morning, I woke up in a sleazy hotel in a foreign country in eastern Europe where I didn’t speak the language and had no understanding of the customs, routines or expectations.

Because I was there by choice, it was exciting. But I wonder what It would have been like if I hadn’t been there by choice.

I wonder what it must be like to wake up on Christmas morning in a group home, or a residential center, or a detention center? I wonder what it’s like to wake up in a place you can’t call home, knowing that you either can’t go home or you have no home to go to? I wonder what it’s like to spend Christmas in care? Or any other ‘special day,’ for that matter. Imagine the scenario. Especially if it’s not well planned.

At seven-thirty this Christmas morning, Susan wakes up in the narrow single bed she’s slept in for the past fifteen days. She was sent to the treatment center a few weeks ago by a judge who felt that her behavior, and the inability of her mother to care for her, put her ‘at risk’ if she was to stay at home. To make matters worse, the judge ordered no contact between them unless it was supervised by a social worker. Because none of them are working on Christmas day, it means that she won’t get to see her mother today.

Like the way her mother’s eyes sparkled as she opened whatever present Susan had been able to afford to get her that year. Or the thrill her mother expressed whenever she opened a present that Susan had made herself—like the year she had made her mother a colored cardboard box to hold her earrings. Or the year she had made her some fancy candles from the recipe that her grandmother had used when her mother was little.

Susan shakes her head and rolls from her bed, her feet touching the cold institutional linoleum as she struggles to repress the anger she feels welling up inside. She loves her mother, regardless of the problems they have and she can’t understand why the stupid system won’t let them spend Christmas together.

As she drags herself down the corridor to the bathroom she wonders who will be working today. The staff on duty last night couldn’t tell her. All she knew was that it wasn’t going to be one of the regular staff. They’re all off for Christmas. Spending the days with their families. Probably just some stupid student who needed the money, she thinks, as she closes the door and turns on the water.

Fora few minutes she stands there leaning against the wall of the stall letting the water run over her. Then she turns It up hotter and tries to convince herself that she doesn’t care. Tears mingle with the steam.

The coarseness of the towel, as she dries herself, snaps her into the day. To hell with them all. She doesn’t care. Her mother probably won’t even call. She’ll be too drunk to remember. If her mother really loved her she’d get her out of this place, especially for Christmas.

Wandering back to her room she pulls her jeans and T-shirt from the floor and remembers how they had to get dressed up for dinner at her grandmother’s place when she was younger. But they hadn’t been there for years. Not since the Christmas that her mother had got too stoned and dropped the turkey on the floor in front of the old dog. It seemed funny at the time; how her grandmother had thrown them out yelling that they should never come back. Susan and her mother had laughed as they ate hamburgers at the little café they had found open that night.

Later, Susan had put her mother to bed and stayed up late to look at the lights she had put on the tree, the night before. It wasn’t much of a tree. She had ripped it off from the guy at the shopping center. But If she hadn’t done that they wouldn’t have had anything at all.

Susan looks at herself in the mirror bolted to the wall in the corridor. Her T-shirt is wrinkled and her jeans could use a wash but what difference would It make? She wasn’t going to see anyone important today. Just whatever stupid staff was here to make a few bucks extra by looking after delinquents on Christmas day.

And she sure wasn’t going to dress up for them. They probably won’t care anyway. They don’t care that it’s Christmas, except that it means that they probably make more money.

She kicks It into the corner as she closes the door and heads for the kitchen where she’s sure she’ll find the staff eating breakfast.

As she walks down the stairs, she wonders if the other kids were having a good time at home. They’ll probably all come back with presents and stories about how they had a good time. Well, It will probably be all bullshit anyway. She didn’t care; they were always lying all the time.