Listen to thisKia ora tatau and warm greetings to Child and Youth Care Workers around the world during this first week in May when we celebrate who and what we are as a workforce! Regardless of job titles, ranging from Houseparent to Care Worker to Group Life Counsellor, Youth Worker or even Social Pedagogue, central to our work we are all making connections and engaging in relationships that matter with children, young people, and their family members – and with each other! That is why we celebrate relational child and youth care in daily living and learning activities.
Relational child and youth care involves active participation in Opportunity Moments – as they are occurring. This is different from organising an activity to keep everyone engaged during an afternoon or evening free time. Opportunity moments are relational. They are meant to be shared and enjoyed whenever possible. Some opportunity moments may involve planned use of social skills as a young person uses public transport for the first few times. Engaging in opportunity moments can also be fun and support the development of both personal and social skills longer term. When planning for International Child and Youth Care Week, seek opportunity moments that may include favourite foods or visits to local parks for playful celebrations.
Making Connections happen in a variety of ways. When meeting a young person or family member for the first time, it is good to remember how easy it is easier to create “a bad impression”. It can be hard to get beyond negative first impressions that impact on the kind of relationships we develop with children and young people who are still very close to desperate family circumstances or traumas. Making connections are often supported by food, especially personal favourite foods that feature in the weekly menu or prepared for special occasions. Like International Child and Youth Care Week, we can create opportunity moments that strengthen connections, like Birthday Cakes and monthly Special Meals that are planned and prepared together. Making connections does not require extra funding. It is more about engaging in the now and together making something happen. Sometimes, it like following the Nike Motto: Just Do It!
Being in Relationship as a Child and Youth Care Worker requires that cultural safety features prominently in our relationships with children or young people, their family members, co-workers, and others. New Zealand Māori have customary practices handed down through elders that include rituals of encounter. Cultural Safety, or Kawa Whakaruruhau as it is known in te Reo Māori, are requirements for gaining professional registration to practice in New Zealand for both Nurses and Social Workers. Being in relationship needs to address opportunity moments and practices between men and women after the age of 12 and extend to the foods that are acceptable for eating and how food is prepared. Clothing also features, as illustrated when care leavers tell of how special it was wearing clothes they chose and purchased with their own allowance while before that, they wore ‘hand-me-down’ clothes from a residential home storeroom.
Noticing Rhythms is a theme that can be usefully considered during supervision. Here I assert that all who contribute to relational child and youth care practice – anywhere in the world – require opportunities periodically to review their personal performance as a Child or Youth Care Worker, or Supervisor. Critical incidents or crisis events frequently occur in relational child and youth care work because somebody and sometimes everybody failed to Notice that ‘something’ was up in the relational climate of group living. Noticing personal needs of young people living with others is vitally important. Noticing social needs of small groups of residents can be just as important. Noticing rhythms involves paying attention and for workers who do 12-hour shifts, there is good research about staffing rosters and work-related stress. Relational child and youth care practice is a stressful field of professional or occupational activity. When tired and exhausted toward the end of a 12-hour shift, one’s capacity for noticing rhythms is impaired. Maybe start with trying to monitor your own personal wellbeing rhythms. You are who we celebrate!
