Listen to thisRelational Child & Youth Care practice is now a familiar term in our field and, yet, to this moment, there is no clear definition of what is meant by the term although some, including myself (Garfat, Gaitens, Hadley & Leggett, 2024) have tried to explain what it means to us, individually.
In this issue, which celebrates the theme of this year’s CYC Week (Celebrating Relational Child & Youth Care Practice: Around the World) we have called upon members of the Board of Governors of CYC-Net and our regular columnists to speak to some aspect of Relational CYC Practice in their corner of the world.
Because we wanted their voices to be heard as they would speak them, we have, in many ways, dispensed with some of the ‘normal’ issue editing – thus, for example, writers have used names without references, spoken clearly in the first person and been free to share thoughts without the, sometimes necessary, grounding in the literature. In many ways, this is a reflection of Relational Child & Youth Care Practice – we meet people ‘where they are at engaging with them in their world as they live and experience it (see Garfat, Freeman, Gharabaghi & Fulcher, 2018).
Although there is, as mentioned above, no agreed upon definition, we do seem to agree in our field that one of the distinguishing features of Relational CYC Practice is that it focuses on the characteristics of the relationship itself (the in-between between us (Garfat, 2008) rather than the characteristics of those involved in the relationship. This has important implications regarding power, authority, colonialist approaches to care and other issues, as Kiaras discusses in his paper in this issue. This does not mean that we discount the ‘development of a relationship’ for, as Ziigwanbinesii Charles says in this issue, the process of connecting “forms a relationship where one can then be relational”. As you read the papers in this issue you will realize that underlaying each of them is an inherent assumption about what Relational CYC Practice means to each of the authors – and it is not always the same. This is as it should be in an evolving transition. And so, we invite you, the reader, to reflect on what Relational CYC Practice, as opposed to relationship-based practice, means to you – feel free, please, to share your thoughts on the CYC-Net Discussion group.
And ‘happy CYC Week’ to you all.
References
Garfat, T. (2008). The inter-personal in-between: An exploration of Relational Child and Youth Care practice, In G. Bellefeuille, and F. Ricks, (Eds) Standing on the precipice: Inquiry into the creative potential of Child and Youth Care Practice, (pp 7-34), Alberta, Canada: MacEwan
Garfat, T., Freeman, J., Gharabaghi, K. & Fulcher, L. (2018). Characteristics of a relational child and youth care approach revisited. CYC-Online, 10/2018, pp 7-49.
