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Robert Bates

Location: White Rock, British Colombia

Biography
I have been working in the field since 1995. I started in the group care setting and like many of us in CYC, I began with no formal training whatsoever. In the same year I began to study Child and Youth Care at Douglas College in New Westminster, BC. When I finished my diploma at Douglas College, I began to work in the school system and then transferred my diploma to the University of the Fraser Valley to pursue my BA in CYC. While still pursuing my studies, I then moved to work in BC’s legislated child welfare organization, The Ministry for Children and Family Development. I worked as a Child Protection Worker assistant and after completing my BA in 2001, I moved into the role of a fully delegated Child Protection Worker. I also started my Master’s degree in Child and Youth Care that same year from the University of Victoria. While employed with the MCFD, I performed many roles including investigating child abuse allegations, working with youth at risk in an outreach capacity, guardianship, and family preservation. I completed my MA in Child and Youth Care in 2005. In 2006 I began teaching in Child and Youth Care for Vancouver Island University and I went back to UVic to pursue my PhD in 2008. In 2009, I came full circle and began teaching full time at Douglas College in their diploma and degree programs.

How I came to be in this field
I came to be in this field mostly because it was way cooler than working in a hazardous waste plant. I was looking for something more fulfilling than incinerating barrels of toxic garbage. I had a friend who had taken the Douglas College CYCC certificate and worked in the field. Months later, I asked to be laid off so I could begin my studies at Douglas College and work with my friend in a group home.

A favorite saying
Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you'll understand what little chance you have in trying to change others. — Jacob Braude

Last thing I read, watched, heard, which I would recommend to others
A book called Protecting children in time: Child abuse, child protection and the consequences of modernity, written by Harry Ferguson. This is a gripping interpretation of the emergence and development of child protection practices in the last 130 years in the U.K.

A favorite Child and Youth Care experience
Integrating the practice of Child and Youth Care in a child protection context by helping a young father clean up and look after his daughter after the child’s mother had abandoned her to “go party”. Rather than document and refer, I had the fortune of spending time with the young father, to go grocery shopping, to clean the tub and make some tea with him. I was able to address the risk to the child (one of my primary responsibilities as a child protection worker) while developing relationship processes (or practicing in a relational manner) and avoiding an adversarial child protection investigation that could well have seen another young aboriginal child brought into the care of the government. This was one of the most fulfilling experiences of my career in child protection.

A few thoughts for those starting out
Never think you have to have all the answers. You will never have all the answers. What you need to have is the curiosity and willingness to search for them.

My favorite Child and Youth Care related link (after CYC-Net)
https://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/CYC-Online-nov2008-gharabaghi.html

I like anything Kiaras Garabaghi has written but this particular piece speaks to the evolution of child and youth care and a concept revered in our work: relationships. It reminds me of a time in Child and Youth Care where the field hotly contested the inclusion of child protection work as a legitimate context in which to practice CYC. To my thinking, the major obstacle in that argument was the “therapeutic relationship”. With the evolution of this concept and its subsequent move from relationship to relational one can see more of a link between Child and Youth Care and child protection roles.

Some writing of my own
www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0707-bates.html

Influences on my work
My children, Duncan and Hannah.
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