On this episode of your right to speak Salvatore talks with Deirdre Carroll on the topic of mindfulness practice. Deirdre has 12 years of experience in the social work field and youth and women and is a registered Psychotherapist who has extensively travelled to India to learn yoga instruction and other alternative health practices. Deirdre and Salvatore start the conversation speaking to how the word mindfulness has become a buzzword. The conversation then turns to what is mindfulness practice and offers advice to people entering the field of social work who are facilitating mindfulness. Let’s Raise Awareness Together!

If you would like you and contact Deirdre through Facebook at https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=531936134000846&ref=content_filter

Or Instagram at deeserendipity44

Melanie Doucet and Harrison Pratt discuss the Photovoice research project titled Relationships Matter for Youth “Aging Out” of Care (https://www.yumpu.com/document/view/59918518/relationships-matter-e-book). Melanie and Harrison are both researchers with direct experience living in the child welfare system. In this episode, part 1 of a two-part conversation, we talk about the genesis and intention behind the project, aspects of the 12 findings from the research, and their thought on the meaning of care.

To learn more about the project please visit:

Relationships Matter Project video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lmPDZ360ow&t=40s

·         Relationships Matter Photo E-Book: https://www.yumpu.com/document/view/59918518/relationships-matter-e-book

·         Relationships Matter Executive Summary + Research report (child welfare policy & practice oriented), published via the BC Representative for Children and Youth: https://rcybc.ca/reports-and-publications/reports/relationships-matter-youth-aging-out-care

 ·         Megaphone Magazine cover story and article, January 2019, What do YOUth think? Research project that aims to improve B.C.'s foster care system goes straight to the source.

·         Tyee article, December 13, 2018, Want to fix foster care? Ask kids who have been through the system

·         Tyee article, December 15, 2017, Creating Connections Through Photograph

On this episode of Your Right To Speak Salvatore talks with Rima Dib who is the director of curriculum and education at Harmony At Work.  The topic of the conversation is shaming and moving to a place of education with regard to anti-oppression. Rima explains the importance of not shaming people and the benefit of it. She offers an example of what shaming looks like and what a place of education looks like. Let’s Raise Awareness Together!  

In this conversation Dennis Long speaks about adolescent substance use, if substance use is of concern (and why), the impacts of changing cannabis laws, opiate overdoses, harm reduction, and how to support parents

Dennis Long is the Former President of the Ontario Federation of Community Addictions and Mental Health Programs, the past Executive Director, of Breakaway Substance Abuse Treatment Centre, and a current teacher, educator, and activist related to substance use.

This episode is a recording made at the 22^nd South African National Association of Child and Youth Care & 4^th CYC-Net world conference, which took place in Durban South Africa of June 2019. The presenters were: Professor Paul Cooke, Dr Lou Harvey, Martin Keat and three Child and Youth Care Practitioners from Leth’ithemba Isibindi Safe Park, Vosloorus, Ekurhuleni.

The following is the conference abstract”

“Since 2016, the University of Leeds in the UK has been working with the Bishop Simeon Trust in Ekurhuleni, using arts-based projects to develop and sustain ‘Youth Committees’ in a number of Isibindi Safe Parks across the region. These projects have helped to build the confidence of the young people they support, on the one hand, and also helped the Safe Parks access state funding, on the other (for which having a functioning ‘Youth Committee’ is obligatory). Specifically, these Youth Committees have used a range of art forms – including theatre, music, dance, ‘grass-roots comics’ and participatory filmmaking – to organise ‘advocacy campaigns’ that have raised awareness of a range of issues that are important to the young people who use the safe parks, but that they feel tend to be ignored or misrepresented in their communities.

In so doing, this work has highlighted to a group of young people who are frequently either ignored by, or seen as a problem for, their communities the potential of their voice and its power to help them effect change in their lives for themselves. In 2019, the various Safe Parks we work with will be focusing on the question ‘What does my Safe Park mean to me?’ and will be developing a joint campaign to raise awareness of the role played by Isibindi Safe Parks in their communities.

The aim of our presentation is twofold. First, it will showcase the work of the young people involved in the Youth Committees we have supported, providing them with a national platform for their activities and a significant opportunity to highlight the potential of their voice. Second it will present a set of training materials we are developing for other Isibindi Safe Parks interested in using arts-based methods to create and sustain their youth committees.”

The following is the presentation write up from the July I had the pleasure of attending the 22^nd South African National Association of Child and Youth Care & 4^th CYC-Net world conference in Durban South Africa:

How Can I Be Homeless When I Just Left One? An Observation from Working on the Streets of Pietermaritzburg with Young People by Thamsanqa Gcwabaza & Rob Ng-Yu-Tin, from Life Changer

“What do we mean by the word home? Is it a house? An address? A bed to sleep in? A family? Perhaps we need to explore what we mean by homeless and perhaps consider it as ‘houseless’. We are living in the aftermath of the HIV Pandemic. Our reality now is an emerging group of older vulnerable youth and young adults who are making a living off the streets. Many of these predominantly young men have lived in multiple homes, had an array of significant care givers, and been in informal kinship care or formal foster care. Some have been adopted and even lived in residential care. But now? They find them themselves without a family, with no idea of who to turn to, ask for advice and seek refuge. They are seen as beggars, filthy down-and-outs who have made bad choices. We have even heard them referred to as vermin. These young adults were possibly once celebrated as newborns. A celebration to a family. They grew up being offered some love, and family. Where do these young people go once faced with huge hardship? Huge emotional psychological and behavioural problems. All desperate for love, affirmation and a family. To add to that child and youth care centres struggle to want to accept these children in care, and social workers don’t know what to do.

Johana, Khyna, Edward, and Cody from the Surrey You Advisory Committee (YAC) talk about what brought them to the YAC, what it has accomplished over two years, thoughts & suggestions for new practitioners/students, and some of the challenges facing Youth Advisory Committees. 

On this episode of your right to speak we will be talking with Rosa, a returning youth guest. We will be talking to Rosa about living with fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis. Rosa starts the conversation with the challenges of living with fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis and how it impacts her day-to-day activities. The conversation then turns to Rosa explaining that the only things that help her with the pain is medical marijuana, and she discusses what the impact of having invisible pain has had on her life. Near the end of the conversation Rosa expresses how sometimes it is a challenge to work with social workers and Child and Youth Care Practitioners because they don’t always believe that she is in pain.

The mission of the Child and Youth Care Alliance for Racial Equity (CARE) is “to challenge systemic and institutional oppression within child and youth care education, policy and service provision that impact the lives of young people in the Province of Ontario”. In this conversation with two members of CARE we speak about how racial, and other forms of inequity, manifest in CYC; ways the field and individuals can address these oppressions; broadening conceptions of care beyond the ways it has been historically been taken up in CYC; and the roll of research for CARE.

Juanita Stephen is a Co-Founder of CARE, she has worked with young people in numerous capacities over the years, and also teaches CYC. After completing her diploma, undergrad and Master’s in Child and Youth Care, Juanita is currently doing her Ph.D. in Gender, Feminist, and Women’s Studies at York university in Toronto.

Peter Amponsah is a professor at Sheridan College in the Child and Youth Care program. He has done direct practice with young people, worked in management, and helped developed policy for child welfare agencies. Much of Peter’s work, like Juanita’s, focuses on anti-oppressive & anti-racist theory and practice. Peter is currently working on his Ph.D. in Social Work at York University.

To find out more about CARE email TheCareAlliance@gmail.com; visit at https://www.facebook.com/EquityInCYC; and follow on Twitter @EquityinCYC

Dr. Petra Roberts talks about her oral history research with 24 adults who, as children, grew up in residential institutions in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). Her study sought to learn the positives and negatives of residential care in order to contribute to developing a model of care suited for high need, low resource countries. Dr. Roberts discusses residential care in T&T, some of the unique aspects of care in that nation, the positive and challenging experiences of those who spent time in care, and closes with making some recommendations regarding institutional care for middle- and low-income countries.

Dr. Roberts is currently an assistant professor in the department of Social Work at Algoma University in Sault Saint Marie, Ontario.

This presentation by Sabrin Hassan is the final of our uploads from Education Day, prior to the 20th Canadian National CYC conference held in Vancouver, British Columbia this past May. Sabrin discusses her experiences as a Black student going through post-secondary CYC education. Sabrin is a recent graduate of Ryerson Universities Bachelor in Child and Youth Care program.

This week is the fifth in our uploads from the 20th Canadian National Child and Youth Care conference held in Vancouver, British Columbia this past May. In this episode, Matty Hillman talks about transitions he has gone through as a CYC Student. A Muralist. Community Citizen. CYC Practitioner. And now as an Educator.

Matty Hillman is a Child and Youth Care instructor in the Human Services program at Selkirk College in British Columbia. the traditional territory of the Sinixt people. He has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Child and Youth Care from the University of Victoria. His research interests include, sexual violence prevention and response on post-secondary campuses, healthy masculinities and critical youth mentorship. As a muralist, he is especially interested in the intersection of youth work and public art - exploring the opportunity these complimentary practices create for empowerment, community building and social justice advancements.

The focus of this presentation is the complexity of delivering CYC Education in rural and remote Canada. Kelly Shaw is a faculty member in the Child and Youth Care [CYC] diploma at the Nova Scotia Community College [NSCC] and Director of Care for Atlantic Youth. Jenny Oliver and Ocean Wyatt are both CYC students from Nain, Labrador.