C2Y: Discussions on Child and Youth Care

On this episode we talk with Dr. Kim Snow, a professor at Ryerson University in the Child and Youth Care program. Dr. Snow explains the sigma that children and youth in the care system face and the importance for young people to have a sense of belonging. She also brings up the importance of how language is used and the impacts it has in children and youth.

If you have any suggestions on what topics we should talk about on the show, if you would like to be on the show, or if you are a child/youth who would like to express their views please email Sammy at yourrighttospeak@gmail.com  

Jaymie Mitchell talks about her thesis “Breaking the Silence: Child and youth care practitioners’ reflections on the organizational silence that surrounds deficit-based language being used in the residential milieu”. Drawing on her own 15 years of experience as a practitioner and her research findings she talks about the impact of language, trauma in organizations, and some thoughts on how to shift the way we talk.

You can now subscribe to CYC Podcast from iTunes. Receive every episode directly to your iTunes library.

This podcast is a conversation with Erika van der Grinten about her research into restraints in residential care. She discusses the rationale for restraints, the impact of restraints on young people and caregivers, and offers some suggestions for how to minimize negative impacts.

A reminder that we have become CYC podcast. Currently both CYC Podcast and C2Y podcast are functioning, but they will not be indefinitely. I encourage you to start following us through www.cycpodcast.org, or subscribe on iTunes.

Over the next month I will be featuring a series of interviews with recent graduates of the Humber College Bachelor of Child and Youth Care program. These students will be discussing their theses. This episode is with Kelly Capewell. She looks at peer relationships in residential care and specifically the impact on treatment outcomes. She discusses some very interesting findings regarding how staff perceives peer relationships.

In this conversation, Phil Coady discusses relationships with young people & their families, boundaries, working in residential care, and maintaining contact long after people have “emancipated”. It is a wonderful and enlightening exploration of what relational practice is, in contemporary residential care.

Phil Coady works in residential care. He has recently completed a practitioner research study regarding boundaries in residential care with children and youth. He lives and works in Musselburgh, Scotland (just outside of Edinburgh).

16,000 children are in care in Scotland. What works for their care and what doesn’t? John Paul Fitzpatrick discusses the results of his research looking at young people in care under “home supervision”. He discusses efficacious processes for supporting young people, educational outcomes for young people in care, and models of youth participation. Mr. Fitzpatrick is the Knowledge Exchange Lead of the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children, and is an Associate Dean at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

During the interview Mr. Fitzpatrick mentions a program that successfully uses youth participation. The program is called Who Cares Scotland, here is the website: http://www.whocaresscotland.org

Dr. Mark Totten discusses how young people become gang involved and why this is the path that some people take. He talks about evidence based early interventions to prevent gang involvement, what life is like being a member of a gang and what is effective in helping people to exit gang life. Dr. Mark Totten is a professor of Criminal Justice at Humber College, the author of numerous reports, articles, and books including Nasty Brutish and Short: The Lives of Gang Members in Canada; When Children Kill; Guys, Gangs and Girlfriend Abuse; and most recently Gang Life: Ten of the Toughest Tell Their Story. To learn more about his work and to read some of his academic publications please visit http://www.tottenandassociates.ca

How do we work with young people in a strength-based way? What does “fostering resilience” look like in practice? How does context inform the choices that young people make? Dr. Michael Ungar shares anecdotes and research to help explain what resilience theory is and discusses how to turn theory into action. Dr. Ungar is a family therapist and a professor of Social Work, at Dalhousie University. He has written 11 books, published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and is the lead researcher in an international study on resilience in youth. To learn more about Dr. Ungar’s work please visit http://www.michaelungar.com http://cyccnetwork.org/en/ and http://resilienceresearch.org.

In this interview Dr. Tuhinul Islam discusses his research into residential childcare in Bangladesh, the first scientific research on this topic in the country. His study reveals some surprising finding regarding which residential care programs result in the “best outcomes” for children and youth who go through the care system. Dr. Tuhinul Islam talks about his work with children of sex workers, the difference between Government, NGO and faith based care systems in Bangladesh, and the role of stigma & community in residential childcare. Dr. Tuhinul Islam is the Assistant Director of Society for Social Service in Tangail, Bangladesh.

In this interview Dr. Dana Fusco talks about workforce trends in youth work. Specifically, she critically discusses the move towards defined competencies, the credentialing of youth work, and post-secondary education youth work programs in the USA. She identifies the impetus for and benefits of these trends as well as the risks that youth work may face because of them. Dr. Fusco is the editor of “Advancing Youth Work: Current Trends, Critical Questions”. She is Associate Professor of Teacher Education, York College, City University of New York. You can learn more about her work at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Advancing-Youth-Work-Current-Trends-Critical-Questions or follow her Twitter feed “youthworkadv”.

In this interview, Dr. Rawan Ibrahim discusses the many challenges that youth transitioning out of care in Jordan experience. Challenges that are both unique to their particular cultural context and those similar to youth from care in other parts of the world. Dr. Ibrahim is a service provider, researcher, and a strong advocate for the rights of young people in care. She is also one of only four people in Jordan to receive a PhD in social work.

T and Dion explain what Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is and how the Ella Baker Center's Heal the Streets program uses YPAR. They also discuss the YPAR projects that Heal the Streets have done on teen joblessness, racial profiling, and their most recent one using Forum Theatre.