Working Professionally with Children and Youth in Care
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Location: Cowichan Bay, Vancouver Island
Biography
I began working with kids as a school teacher in the UK in
1961. From 1963 to 1966 I worked as a probation officer in Liverpool
before moving to the British Columbia Probation Service. Being convinced
that too little attention was being given to the families of ‘troubled
kids’ I went back to graduate school and emerged as a Family Therapist
working at the Burnaby Mental Health Centre. Perverse to the core, I
then came to the conclusion that the kids I was most concerned about
needed a combination of family therapy and intensive individual work. In
1971 I moved to Calgary to work as a Therapist at The William Roper Hull
Home. In charge of their residential program for adolescent girls, I was
able to integrate these two modalities and liked the outcome. I then
decided that it would be interesting to have boys and girls residing in
the same unit. This was certainly a challenge, but well worth the
effort. This type of meddling came to an end when I accepted the
position of Senior Therapist and spent most of my time supervising the
work of others. Two years later, I accepted the position of Director of
the Youth Development Centre in Edmonton – Alberta’s primary residential
facility for ‘delinquent’ kids. After only one year, I returned to
William Roper Hull Child and Family Services as Executive Director and
held this position for about twenty years. After leaving that job I
worked for seven years as a professor in the Child and Youth Care
program at Vancouver Island University. Writing has always been a
passion and I took great pleasure in being editor of The Journal of
Child & Youth Care and Relational Child & Youth Care Practice.
How I came to be in this field
The truth is that I ‘drifted’ into it. I have always felt
restricted by professional labels but Child & Youth Care offered me the
freedom I seemed to need. Early in my career, I became convinced that
personal growth and change takes place within relationships and, for me,
that’s what this profession is all about. I also discovered kindred
spirits like Thom Garfat, Mark Krueger and Leanne Rose-Sladde, to keep
me focused and honest.
A favorite saying
“For-giving is for-getting.” Jack Schwartz
“All children know more than their parents.” The Dalai Lama
A few thoughts about child and youth care
I hope it will never become a ‘real’ profession, only a ‘real’ experience.
Child and Youth Care workers can be with kids, without having to fix them.
The challenge is to know children, not to know ‘about’ them.
A child’s life can be transformed through
one moment of being with someone who
is curious, caring and
completely ‘there.’
Last thing I read, watched, heard, which I would recommend to
others
Manchester United versus Manchester City
A favorite CYC experience
The day an eleven-year-old ‘non-verbal’ girl told me to
“fuck-off.”
A few thoughts for those starting out
Every child has all the resources he or she needs – on the inside.
You cannot fix another person, any more than you can make them happy.
Whether you like it or not, you will become a surrogate parent – good luck.
You can’t give what you don’t have.
Look after your Self.
Never support the cause of the ‘victim.’
These kids are not sick – fight the pharmaceutical bullshit.
For Freud’s sake – have fun.
CYC links
CYC-net meets all my needs
A writing of my own
Turning My Self Inside-Out. Journal of Child & Youth Care.
Vol 15. No.4 (2001)
Influences on my work
My own childhood and every relationship thereafter.
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