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A birthday party for a six-year-old is just not going to work if there are only three guests. The thing won’t get off the ground. You need enough kids to merge everything into a collective noun. A cacophony of kids.
A residential program for children and youth is also not going to work if there are only three guests. One of the factors which helps us decide between family care, foster care and residential care is the type of program needed, and residential care is geared to the benefits of group experiences as a way back to smaller family-scaled living. For example, some kids may need a period of respite from in-your-face parental figures, and will appreciate the relative anonymity which a period in a group care setting offers. Others may need a regimen of regularity, or activities or peer exposure or learning opportunities which can be "economically" provided in group care. Within a properly managed group, children and youth will often gain in abilities, inclusion, tolerance. co-operativeness, belonging, assertiveness, achievement ... you will have your own items for this list.
Within the living group we can create areas as needed for special attention for children and youth, making allowances for incremental learning and "catching up" with their age group. In the daily program we can include "normal" activities like games and sports, whether monopoly or chess, soccer or basketball. It is important that kids learn some universal participation skills like these to take away with them into their adult lives. Yet our kids are often "not good enough" for school or club teams: they may not have developed the skills to be chosen for a game, or they may not have the stability or frustration tolerance to see it through. So again, we create areas for special attention, making allowances for "catching up".
But residential programs today often have very small enrolments. What if we don’t have enough kids to make up a team? How can we reach "critical mass" to get something going? It only takes two to shoot hoops, but we need more than three kids for a soccer game. This is where Child and Youth Care workers can show their ingenuity. How about setting up a "learners’ group" at the local school which can include some of the community’s kids as well as ours? Or how about renting that field down the road or the local scout hall once a week, and including local kids in an activity group?
We will be there to integrate and facilitate our own kids and our own program goals. The local kids will get something out of it. Our kids get a chance to mix with others who also need to learn new skills. And we will come home afterwards with a group of kids who all played some, learned some and achieved some.
