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home journals Relational Child & Youth Care Practice
ISSN 0840-982X VOLUME 23 NUMBER 2, SUMMER 2010Editorial 3 Dispelling the Myth
4 Abstract: This article hopes to allow child and youth care practitioners to clarify how different therapeutic holdings and physical restraints are for frontline child and youth care practice. By dispelling the myth that young people set up and even instigate physical restraints in order to have needs met, the author hopes to convince the reader that the words “therapeutic” and “restraint” cannot exist in the same sentence for relationship based child and youth care practitioners. Response to Parris
6 Rejoinder to Steckley 8 Further rejoinder to Parris
12 Transitions to Adulthood for Vulnerable Youth
in British Columbia 16 Abstract: The challenge of transitioning to adulthood for vulnerable youth in British Columbia is explored through the eyes of 75 young people who provided their thoughts and insights into the transition process. These young people had experience of the government care system, custody centres, homelessness, addictions and many other circumstances that made them particularly vulnerable as they transitioned into adulthood. Disowning the Podium 23 Considering Co-Constructed Identities of
Profession and Professional: 27 Abstract: This article presents a re-visioning of CYC professionalization through understanding the socially constructed nature of both profession and professional identity. To consider professional identity as contextual, constructed and mutually constituting of a profession requires both the profession and the professional to engage in ongoing reflexive processes. These reflective processes may lead to understanding the profession and the professional as local, multiple and culturally located. Further, this continuing reflection may change the notion of a singular professional identity and put a number of new questions at the centre of the Child and Youth Care professionalization dialogue. This article explores some of these questions through both a historical analysis of the care of children and youth and an examination of how CYC professional identities are currently taken up through education and professional experiences.
The Down and Dirty Essentials of Professional
Boundary Terminology 39 Abstract: While it is clear that sexual interactions with youth are never appropriate in a professional relationship, the ambiguity of non-sexual boundary situations such as physical touch and the disclosure of personal information are not as exact. In keeping with the spirit of youth workers sharing knowledge with other workers, I offer my professional experiences and highlight the different ways that boundary terms are used within the literature. Book review: Positive Picture
44 Wisdom of the Ages 45 Professionalization in Alberta
48 Keep on Rockin' in the Free World
52 Honouring the Wounded: Inviting in our
Successes and Mistakes 54 Abstract: The author asks “what would be the impact on children and youth if people from the system worked in the system?” Using the concept of the ‘wounded healer’, this article draws on studies of counsellors, therapists and others who have had personal experiences (as clients) in the areas they work. It also cites material from the perspective of youth involved in the system. The author shows many people enter the helping profession with a history of woundedness. There appears to be congruence between what wounded healers and youth in the system see as effective youth work. In the studies discussed, many of the wounded healers attribute their effectiveness as professionals to their experiences. Built Family 63 Editorial The Spirit of Child and Youth Care Editing the journal is an interesting and rewarding experience — interesting because one never knows what one is going to read and rewarding because having the opportunity to read so many papers helps me to keep in touch with what the ‘writing part’ of the field thinks is important. Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t think for a second that the average article represents what ‘the field’ is thinking — just that part of the field that for whatever reason chooses to (and hopefully enjoys) writing. It also allows one to see how the field is evolving. And I must admit that allowing the field to change — well, accepting that it is changing — is not one of my strengths. Every once in a while I write to my co-editors, Carol and Grant, in a rambling rant about how what we are publishing is not how I experience the field, or how we are missing the kids and they, wise as they are, usually find a way to help me see that it is about evolution — we now care about things we used to ignore; we focus on aspects previously unknown; or we explore previously unexplored (by us) territory. Later, when I reflect on my rambling rants, I see how much sometimes I am like those old Child and Youth Care Workers who just want everything to stay the same. There is, after all, a comfort in that. For change is challenging for all of us. When the new worker comes to the program with fresh ideas we sometimes hunker down and point out how the way we have done it has worked up to now, so why would we change it? When someone points out how we might be with kids differently, we resist because it is not who we are. Change calls us all to a new place, an unknown place, and that is scary for us all. After all, there is some part of us that thinks that changing means that we were not okay the way we were. You are going to find some new ideas in this issue of the journal. They may not sink in for you right away but think of them as seeds. Planted now, waiting to grow. As you allow yourself to nurture them, perhaps you will come to care for them. As I have. Thom Garfat
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