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Child and Youth Care Practice with Families: A Relational Approach

Kelly Shaw, Jenny McGrath, Thom Garfat (Editors)

This book is grounded in the belief that working with families is not a specialized area of Child and Youth Care practice; it is fundamental to ethical and effective practice. Regardless of practice setting, children and youth are connected to families, relationships, communities, and broader social systems that shape their experiences. Meaningful Child and Youth Care practice therefore requires engaging with families through a relational lens by recognizing their strengths, respecting their expertise, and understanding the context and lifespace in which they live. Throughout this book, relationships are presented not simply as a practice skill, but as the foundation upon which responsive, ethical, and effective family work is built. Relational practice requires practitioners to consider not only the circumstances of families’ lives, but also their own assumptions, values, responses, and ways of ‘being in relationship’. Family work begins with understanding, connection, and partnership. Readers will encounter interconnected ideas that shape relational Child and Youth Care practice with families. Across the chapters, relationships are understood as both the foundation and the process of practice, requiring practitioners to engage with families through reflection, and with humility, and ethical intention. Families are recognized as partners whose lived experiences, knowledge, strengths, and voices are essential to meaningful collaboration.

Contents

Introduction  |  Jenny McGrath and Kelly Shaw

Part I: Foundations: Understanding Relational Family Practice
These chapters establish the philosophical and pedagogical foundation

Relational Child and Youth Care Practice with Families  | Thom Garfat and Leon Fulcher

Co-Creating Safety with Families: Using Attachment Theory to Engage in Trauma-Informed, Responsive Care  | Kristy Dellebuur O’Connor and Jessica Williams

Becoming a Relational Family Support Practitioner: The Journey |  Jack Phelan

From Group Care to Family Home: A Child and Youth Care Approach to Working with Families  |  Kelly Shaw

Activity-Based Experiential Family Work  |  Rebecca Stiller

Part II: Principles for Practice
These chapters are about relational conditions that practitioners encounter across contexts

From Barriers to Bridges: Advancing Family Inclusion in Child and Youth Care  |  Luke Carty and Mardi Ennis

Grief in Family Work: Supporting Presence, Connection, and Healing  |  Parker Pothier and Jenny McGrath

Part III: Family Experiences in Context
These chapters illustrate what relational family practice looks like in diverse family experiences

A Mother’s Journey: Embedding the Voice of Lived Experience in Child and Youth Care  |  Christina Sackett, with Pennie Sibbald and Virginia Hervey

Grandfamilies: Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren through a Child and Youth Care Lens |  Janice Daley

Supporting Siblings at the Intersection of Disability  |  Ashlyn Ganske

Adoptive Families  |  Kelly Cassano

Bearing Witness: Supporting Families of Justice-Involved Youth Through a Child and Youth Care Lens  |  Nicole Mizzi

Part IV: Expanding Practice Across Communities and Systems
These chapters demonstrate how relational practice is adapted within different programs, cultures, and systems and broadens the lens from individual family experiences to organizational and international practice

Working with Families New to Canada: A Child and Youth Care Perspective  |  Heather Modlin and Laura Aguirre Polo

Relational Pathways to Family Strengthening in India’s Child Protection Landscape  |  Kiran Modi, Gurneet Kaur Kalra, Leena Prasad and Asoni Grace

Showing Up: Relational Child and Youth Care Practice with Families in South Africa Through the Isibindi Model  |  Zeni Thumbadoo

When Mandate Meets Meaning: Relational Practice and The Power of Coming Alongside  |  Andrea K. Furlong and Renee Piercey

Part V: Towards Voice, Rights, and Advocacy
This chapter closes the book with the importance of rights and advocacy while also pointing toward the future of family work in CYC practice

Moving Beyond Tokenism: Centering Child and Youth Rights, Voice, and Choice in Family Work | Emmie Henderson-Dekort

Conclusion

Carrying the Conversation Forward  |  Kelly Shaw, Jenny McGrath and Thom Garfat

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UNITY Conference 2026

9-11 November 2026, Dublin, Ireland

Since its inception in 2015, the UNITY International Conference has provided a global meeting place for practitioners, educators, researchers, and leaders committed to advancing the Body of Knowledge in Relational Practice across the human and caring professions.

Building on the powerful conversations sparked at UNITY 2025 — Relational Leading & Learning in Challenging Times — UNITY 2026 will continue to explore and deepen our collective understanding of relational approaches in practice and leadership.

UNITY 2026 is more than a conference — it is a gathering rooted in shared values, mutual respect, and collective learning. If you are passionate about working with or caring for children and youth, and appreciate the need for relational practice and leadership — whether through research, lived experience, teaching, supervision, management, or direct practice — we invite you to join us in shaping this important conversation.

This year’s conference will focus on leading from a place of relational knowing, while locally and intentionally cultivating the next generation of relational leaders.

See the Conference Program

Register for Conference

CYC-Online

September 2026 (No. 331)

Editorial Comment: Farewell, My Friend
Kiaras Gharabaghi

From Our Archives: The Experience Arranger
Jack Phelan

Why Canada Needs a ‘Duty to Assess’ Young Caregivers, Not Just a ‘Duty to Report’
Yana Berardini

Common Sense, Caricaturization, and Recognition in Residential Services for Young People
Julian Andres Casas Corrales

Move More, Worry Less?
Gary Goldfield

Story Series #5: Echoes of Courage and Hope
Paul W. Baker

Becoming the Diagnosis
Hans Skott-Myhre

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