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Kim Snow

Biography
I literally grew up in Child and Youth Care. I had the opportunity to work as a camp counsellor at a young age. I have since then been employed steadily in child and youth services in one form or another. I began my career in residential services in the children’s mental health sector and while there I earned my Child Care Worker Diploma. I believe that my experience in residential care shaped me as a practitioner and from those lessons I was equipped as a practitioner to make meaning and be of service in a wide range of practice settings. I then practiced in an intensive psychiatric day hospital working on out patient assessment teams and participating in training made possible through the hospitals university affiliation. In 1990, I established a private practice where I continue to provide assessment and treatment for children and families with complex mental health needs. My undergraduate education sparked a real interest in learning and research and allowed me to realise how fundamental it is to constantly connect theory, research and practice. My practice led me to serve as a Provincial Child Advocate where my advocacy skills were refined. My current work is as an Associate Professor in the School of Child and Youth Care at Ryerson University. My teaching and leading The Voyager Project and engaging in Participatory Action Research with remote First Nations communities allows me to bring my practice skills together in order to walk with children, youth and communities as they find their voice and advocate to have their needs met.

How I came to be in this field
I believe that I was meant to be a Child and Youth Care Practitioner. Except for a period of time as a child when I wished to be a vet, I wanted to work with kids. I volunteered to work with other kids, always talked to the kids that looked sad or mad and I liked the idea of being a teacher that did things that were less boring than I experienced in my classrooms as a child. I have had two short term jobs that I hated and that did not relate to CYC, mostly to make money and always in addition to my work with young people.

My favourite saying
The greatest risk in life is not to.

A few thoughts about Child and Youth Care
The field of Child and Youth Care has changed a lot in the past 25 years and we are at an interesting time in terms of the dominance of professional disciplines. Networking and building alliances and allies is important to strengthen the core identity and to make known to the general public the essential services provided by child and youth care practitioners, around the world. Because so much of our work is invisible and deals with topics that are uncomfortable for the general public, we are both out of sight and pushed out of mind. We owe it to our young people to speak out about their needs and help them realise their rights. By explaining the work we do, and articulating why child and youth practitioners are needed in communities and by providing evidence of how their work strengthens children, family and communities such vehicles also offer a platform to advocate for the needs of our young people.

Last thing I read, watch, heard which I would recommend to others
I love RSA animate. I thought both these lectures had a lot of relevance to child and youth care:

Changing Education Paradigms http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
First as Tragedy, Then Farce http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

I think it would be very cool to animate one of my classes. It is important at the current stage of the discipline to present to the world the Child and Youth Care perspective and to explain our work and justify the need for our service. The excellent work of Kibble, SIRCC and the International Child and Youth Care Network are outstanding leaders in this regards.

Favourite child and youth care experience
There are literally so many it is really hard to describe one. I have favourite types of stories and many many powerful memories. Now that decades have passed, I do get great joy seeing some of my earliest young people and meeting their children.

A few thoughts about starting out
This is very much an art, so give your self a couple of decades. Be humble and open to learning and this work will help you become a better person. Make sure you know yourself and keep an eye on you, the instrument of this work. I’ve always thought that young people involved in activism and the arts, sports and camp make for great workers.

A recommended child and youth care reading link
https://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0103-waaldijk.html

My favourite child and youth care-relevant link and why
Innocenti Research Centre advances the well being of children around the world by focussing the research lens on children.
http://www.unicef-irc.org/

A writing of my own
https://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/CYC-Online-dec2009-snow.html

Influences on my work
Authors: Erving Goffman, Michel Foucault, Dorothy Smith, Paulo Freire, Zygmunt Bauman
Relationships: Family, Friends, Colleagues, Young People and Families

Final comments
It is important to remember to have fun, as often as you can and as much as you can. It’s good for growing up.