An urgent challenge

Henry Maier

This message is primarily addressed to agency directors, consultants and board members. I shall appreciate if care workers can help us by calling the following message to the attention of their executives and others involved in policy-making decisions.

Since the International Child and Youth Care Conference in Victoria, BC I have gained the awareness that all persons responsible for agency policy need to clarify, with the help of Child and Youth Care workers, what is the specific nature of their particular program. Namely, what is the content, reason and actual objective, including life experience and interpersonal encounters, which should be the agency focus? Similar to a corporate mission statement, staff must know what goals they are to accomplish, while residents have to be informed about what commitment is expected while assigned to the particular program.

This challenge deals with more than the decision whether there should be a behavioral or liberal psychological orientation.

I think that if a number of programs can share with us their effort in such tasks we can all learn from each other and we can move forward together with the help of such difficult clarifications.

Let’s try it. Good cheers.