C2Y: Discussions on Child and Youth Care

Intimacy and Safety in Residential Care Relationships, with Phil Coady

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).

Culturally Relevant Arts Education with Mary Stone Hanley- a Re-Cast

This podcast is a do-over. In April of 2014 I had a wonderful conversation with Dr. Mary Stone Hanley. Unfortunately, the sound quality made it difficult to hear. Mary contacted me several months ago and asked about re-doing the interview, which I thought was a great idea, this podcast is a new conversation based upon the same topics as the first one. In the podcast Dr. Hanley discusses arts as a social justice practice, culturally relevant arts education, and the value of arts to children and youth.

Dr. Hanley is a performer, poet, educator, playwright and artivist. She is the author of numerous articles and co-editor of a new book. For more information about Dr. Hanley please visit Hanley Arts at MaryStoneHanley.com

Kevin Pyle Exposes the War on Fun

Author and illustrator Kevin Pyle talks about his book (co-authored with Scott Cunningham) Bad For You: Exposing The War On Fun! A very brief introduction explains the book. “This is the history of stuff that is supposed to be bad for you. To find out why most of it isn’t, keep reading.” During this interview Kevin discusses the long history of trying to stop young people from doing things they enjoy. Dangerous things like reading, playing, and thinking, among others. To learn more about Kevin Pyle and the book go to BadForYouBook.com/.

Being an Adult Advocate with Heather Sago and Aurrora De Monte

This interview with Heather Sago and Aurrora De Monte explores being an advocate for, being an advocate against, and being an advocate with. What is the role of adults in advocating? How does one advocate when to do so puts one’s own career at risk? What are the consequences of not advocating? How does one advocate? Heather and Aurrora are the founders of the CYC Advocacy Project and both teach in the Child and Youth Work program at sir Sandford Fleming College in Peterborough, Ontario.

Supporting Young Males with Dr. Siegi Schuler

This podcast is posted at the end of a year with a great deal of discussion about violence: violence against women, violence from police, violence towards police, torture, and war. A common factor in all these cases is that men have been responsible for most of this violence. We’ve long been aware that males are the most frequent perpetuators of violence. We also know that violence is not inevitable. Today we are discussing how to support young male children grow into emotionally healthy men.

This podcast is with a return guest, Dr. Siegi Schuler (you can listen to his last interview, on adolescents who sexual offend, from November 2013). Dr. Schuler is a Ph.D and registered clinical Social Worker. He has a particular focus and interest in men’s emotional health and well-being (from adolescence to adulthood), addressing such areas as childhood trauma, sexual violence, mental health, chemical dependency and pornography addictions, relationship and intimacy concerns, father-son/daughter –dynamics, and fathering. You can learn more about Dr Schuler at http://www.drschulercounselling.com/

Gay and in Care, One Person’s Story

This podcast returns listeners to the voices of young people who have direct experience in the youth social service system. Julian is a young man who went into Children’s Aid during his adolescence. His time in care coincided with his coming out process. Julian speaks about the support, and lack thereof, he received from those around him. He offers suggestions on how to help young people coming out and makes several recommendation for ways to improve the system for young lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) children and youth in care.

Julian is a former trainer with Connect to Youth a program that delivers workshops to service providers. All the trainers are young people with direct experience in the youth social service system. Julian was instrumental in developing our workshops for supporting LGBTQ youth in care, which we continue to deliver at Children’s Aid Societies.

Death and Dying Pt. 2: The Death of a Child with Dr. Mary Vachon

This is part two of a special two-part discussion examining the topic of death. In this second episode Dr. Mary Vachon talks about the death of children. She discusses about how to work with children who are dying, how to support caregivers whose children are dying, and suggestions on caring for ourselves as we work in this very difficult area.

Dr. Vachon is a Registered Nurse/Ph. D. psychotherapist in private practice with a focus on death and dying. She has been working in this area since the late 1960s and has published over 170 scientific articles and book chapters in the areas of bereavement, occupational stress in health care professionals, dealing with life-threatening illnesses, and spirituality; among other related topics.

Death and Dying Pt. 1: Death of a Caregiver with Dr. Mary Vachon

In a special two-part discussion over the September and October episodes, C2YPodcast will be examining the topic of death with Dr. Mary Vachon. This first episode will deal with the death of a caregiver. Dr. Vachon offers suggestions on preparing a young person for the death of a parent, what responses one might see after the death, and how to support the child/youth/young adult as they grow up without that parent. 

Dr. Vachon is a Registered Nurse/Ph. D. psychotherapist in private practice with a focus on death and dying. She has been working in this area since the late 1960s and has published over 170 scientific articles and book chapters in the areas of bereavement, occupational stress in health care professionals, dealing with life-threatening illnesses, and spirituality; among other related topics.

Looked after Children in Scotland: A conversation with John Paul Fitzpatrick

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

Videos on Working With Children and Youth: Children & Youth in Care

July is “C2Ypodcast video month”. Each July C2Ypodcast.org will post several videos related to child and youth care. This month’s theme is Care of The State. Here are the links:

David’s Story: Home supervision, My life, My education and Me.

A lecture by John Paul Fitzpatrick about his doctorial research of children with state involvement who remain in the home.

http://www.celcis.org/resources/entry/davids_story_home_supervision_my_life_my_education_and_me 

Lemn Sissay

Lemn Sissay is a poet based in the UK. He went into care right after birth, during the 60’s. The links are to his website, there you can find a TED Talk video, a couple videos about his story and a radio drama called “Child of the State”.

http://lemnsissay.com/broadcast-2/video/

http://lemnsissay.com/broadcast-2/radio/  In particular check out Child of the State 

Guardian scholars

This is a video from the New York Times about a USA program for people in care entering the post-secondary educational system.

http://www.nytimes.com/video/education/100000002524084/guardian-scholars.html

ReMoved

A short drama about a young child who goes into care. This video was developed to help train new foster parents. “Trigger alert” this video is quite sad.

http://vimeo.com/73172036 

If you know of other related videos available online, please post the links in the comments section below.

Anti-Oppression in Child and Youth Care with Rebecca Ward and Wanda MacArthur

The new child and youth care vocational standards for all colleges in Ontario requires graduates to “demonstrate the ability to advocate for the rights of children, youth and their families and maintain an anti-oppression perspective and cultural competence in diverse cultural contexts”. What is anti-oppression? How does oppression impact young people in the social services sector? Is the social service system inherently oppressive? How can service providers be anti-oppressive? 

Rebecca Ward, from the faculty of Child and Youth Work, at Confederation College, in Thunder Bay, Ontario and Wanda MacArthur a Manager of Children’s Services at the Children’s Aid Society of the District of Thunder Bay discuss these questions and provide several suggestions on anti-oppression in child and youth care practice.

Gang prevention & gang exiting with Dr. Mark Totten

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

Culturally Relevant Arts Education with Mary Stone Hanley

By teaching young people the arts, you are transforming the world. This is how Dr. Mary Stone Hanley frames Culturally Relevant Arts Education (CRAE). Dr. Hanley passionately argues that working with young people is political and creating art is a political act. She believes that everyone who works with young people need to be aware of social justice issues. She has written that through the arts marginalized, racialized and or oppressed children and youth can “be creative and critical change agents who challenge demeaning perceptions and practices”. Dr. Hanley discusses specific examples of culturally relevant art projects she has been part of, explains the theory behind CRAE, and shows “a way out of no way”.

Dr. Hanley is a performer, poet, educator, playwright and artivist. She is the author of numerous articles and most recently co-edited a book called Culturally Relevant Arts Education for Social Justice: A Way Out of No Way. For more information about Dr. Hanley please visit Hanley Arts at MaryStoneHanley.com.

Self and relationship in Child and Youth Care with Gerry Fewster

In this conversation Dr. Gerry Fewster discusses what “self” is in the context of child and youth care (CYC). Dr. Fewster also talks about how invitations to those we work with help build relationships, what makes CYC different from other professions, and his concerns for CYC going forward. Dr. Fewster has been working with children and youth since the early 60s in multiple roles including street worker, teacher, psychologist, and executive director of a residential program. He’s written several books and many articles. To read some of his writing visit CYC-Net.org.

Boundaries with Dr. Pamela Richmond

In this conversation Dr. Pamela Richmond talks about boundaries as routes to building relationships with those we work with (children, youth and colleagues). She explains the difference between boundary crossings & violations, how context informs practices and how boundaries shift (and don’t) in the virtual realm.  

Dr. Richmond is an associate professor at Colorado State University-Pueblo where she teaches introductory and practice courses in the social work program. She has worked with youth in residential treatment, group home, prevention, and psychiatric settings. Dr. Richmond also publishes & presents on the topic of boundaries in professional relationships.