INTERNATIONAL CHILD AND YOUTH CARE NETWORK

22 JANUARY 2001
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Listening in on official conceptualisations of our work ...

The Nature of Child and Youth Care Work

Child and youth care work is focussed primarily upon young people from infancy to 18 years of age (and in some situations to 21 years).

In most instances child and youth care workers work with young people who are at risk of becoming troubled or who are already emotionally and/or behaviourally troubled. Such children include those who are orphaned, abandoned, deprived, abused, homeless, those who experience learning difficulties, those who are disabled, those in conflict with the law, and those who are emotionally or mentally ill.

A cluster of characteristics which are simultaneously present in the practice of child and youth care, identifies this discipline. Although some of the characteristics are clearly shared with other disciplines such as education or social work, the particular cluster defines child & youth care work.

1. Child and youth care work is primarily focuses on the growth and development of children and youth.  [While families, communities and organisations are important concerns for child & youth care professionals, these are viewed as contexts for the care, development and treatment of children and young people. The development of young people is at the very heart of the perspective.]
   
2. Child and youth care work is concerned with the totality of a young person's functioning. The focus is on a young person*s living through a certain phase of the human life cycle, rather than on one facet of functioning as is characteristic of some other human service disciplines, such as nursing. With such a holistic perspective, child and youth care professionals specialise in being child-focussed generalists, never working alone and needing to work closely with a variety of other professionals.
   
3. Child and youth care work uses a model of social competence rather than a pathology-based orientation to child development.
   
4. Child and youth care is based on (but not restricted to) direct, day to day developmental work with children and youth in their environment. (Sometimes referred to as life-space work)
   
5. Child and youth care involves the deliberate use of "attachment "through the development of close therapeutic relationships with children. (Professional relationships, as with other professions, are of course also built with the families and other informal and formal helpers.)

Such therapeutic relationships lie at the very centre of this profession, and they combine the richness and intimacy of the "personal" with the rigour and goal-directedness of the "professional". The development of such therapeutic relationships requires an integration of a complex constellation of knowledge, skills, and elements of self. In short, it requires a high level of personal/professional development on the part of the worker.

When we refer to "therapeutic" in child and youth care we do not necessarily refer to "clinical" intervention, but to that which empowers, brings about developmental growth, healing and wholeness.

"Care" work with children and youth.

The concept of "care" is quite frequently misunderstood to mean custodial care, i.e. feeding children, keeping them clean, and putting them to bed.

As the very core of child and youth care work, it refers to the complex process of facilitating learning and improved function, e.g. while a young person or group of young people are eating, dressing, going to school, doing their homework, going to bed, playing, socialising, learning, or doing their chores etc., they are emotionally, physically, and socially safe and they are enabled to achieve their developmental goals and objectives. This is essentially the same process which lies at the heart of competent parenting.

The difference between parenting and child and youth care work, is however the fact that (a) the young people do not "belong" to the child and youth care worker and often find it hard to build relationships, (b) the young people are most often in groups, and (c) in 90% of cases, the child and youth care worker is dealing with individuals or groups of young people who have been traumatised and/or experience emotional and/or behavioural problems which make it extremely difficult for them to achieve their developmental goals and which most often places them in further emotional, physical, or social "danger".

In this process of "caring" the child and youth care worker has to manage the individual or group*s behaviour, observe the behaviours and reactions from the young person and environment, take pro-active measures to ensure safety, enable each child to emotionally, physically, socially, intellectually, and spiritually achieve the goal of the moment and the day, and finally also enable each young person to complete the routine or activity of that moment (whether eating, or playing a game of soccer, or talking to family or friends). This latter may involve teaching new competencies, encouraging existing strengths to emerge, counselling on-the-spot, providing emotional support, conflict resolution, problem solving and ensuring that the young person can successfully move beyond each emotional and behavioural crises as they occur through the day, week, or month.

Because the child and youth care process is the professional work of this discipline and as it is essentially a complex process, it should not be left to random, spontaneous activity, or the whim of an unskilled worker. It takes place within the context of carefully designed life-space programmes which complement and support any other developmental and/or therapeutic programmes set out or undertaken by the inter-disciplinary team -- social workers, psychologists, probation officers, teachers, etc. -- so that the child*s experience of growth and change is holistic.

Such professional work (which should be set out within minimum standards) should be phased in over the period of transformation as training and qualifications are improved and/or made available. This will allow child and youth care workers currently working in the field and who have not been trained, to build on their existing skills and obtain the desired qualifications. This work should be based on a minimum of 2 years of study and practice in child and youth care work (at various academic and practice levels, including graduate and post-graduate) and should be supervised by a more qualified person from the discipline of child and youth care wherever possible.

Inter-Ministerial Committee on Young People at Risk, South Africa: Interim Policy Recommendations, 1996

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