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Thom Garfat

Location

Rosemere, Quebec

Biography

I have been working in this field since 1971. For the first years I worked the front line as a Child and Youth Care in residential programs for both adolescents and pre-adolescents but I found the pre-ads too difficult so I stuck with the teenagers. Then one day I decided I needed to go to school and get an MA so I did but, in a way, that make me unemployable in the field because the degree was in clinical psychology and it was not seen as useful in Child and Youth Care at the time. After a while I ended up running a place called the Pacific Centre for Human Development on Vancouver Island and then eventually went to teach Child and Youth Care and family work in the School of Child and Youth Care at the University of Victoria. Then I fell in love and moved to Montreal where I was the Director of a Residential Treatment Centre and eventually Director of Treatment for Youth Horizons, at the time perhaps Canada's largest Youth Care agency. In 1994 I left Youth Horizons to take a PhD in Child and Youth Care at the University of Victoria and when I returned to Montreal I started my own consultation and training practice called TransformAction which I still have today – and it keeps me busy. If you want to know more you can go look here: www.transformaction.com

How I came to be in this field

It was an accident, really. I was working as a janitor and asked Betty how you got a job working with people. She sent me over to see her friend and then next week I was working part-time in a residential emergency shelter for adolescents. No real experience, no training, no relevant education – but that's the way it was in those days (1971).

A favorite saying (this week)

'If I am aware of only limited alternatives, I can make only limited choices.' This saying was created by a staff team trying to develop a new focus for their program. In many ways it was a reminder about youth and staff.

A few thoughts about child and youth care

It fits for me – maybe it will fit for you.
It is hard work.
It is growing and expanding so fast these days it is hard to keep up.

Last thing I read, watched, heard, which I would recommend to others

Ian Bank's The Steep Approach to Garbadale – loved it. But you really have to be a fan of sophisticated intrigue to enjoy it, I think.

A favorite Child and Youth Care experience

One day I am watching two adolescents playing basketball. One flips the ball casually through the hoop. The other one says 'how did you learn to do that?' The first one replies: "When I first joined the program (after school sports program), I didn't even know how to dribble. Then I met Karen and one day she said that if I could ever shoot 5 straight hoops in a row, she would wear a mask and snorkel to my next family meeting. Well, I did and so she showed up with her mask and snorkel – after that my mom didn't think I was so weird after all."

A few thoughts for those starting out

You are going to make lots of mistakes, get lost frequently and find with time that there are a lot of things you will wish you had done differently. And that's alright. What's most important is that young people and families feel you working 'with them' and concerned about them.
Hang-in there. Remember 'hanging in and hanging out' applies to ourselves as well.
Remember that whenever you point your finger at someone, three of your other fingers are pointing back at you.
Context, context, context.
The quality of your relationship is less important that the process of it.
Relational practice is not the same as relationship-based practice you will eventually come to realize.

A recommended child and youth care reading link

http://www.youthnewsletter.net/home.html

Here you can find the latest Youth Voices Newsletter – I like it because if gives me the opportunity to hear a different voice perspective. And because it seems to be a very creative project.

A writing of my own

https://www.cyc-net.org/lz/a-18-1.html

Influences on my work

My relationship with Sylviane; my own experiences growing up; Child and Youth Care 'teachers' ; my mother; living in a very seasonal climate; working in different cultures; my grandmother teaching me to chop wood; being delinquent; reading; Tai Chi; music; drugs, alcohol and rock & roll, the 70s and a chance encounter with a policeman who taught me to be to focused.

Anything else

Yes, I think I will keep doing this for a few more years – I am enjoying it too much to stop now.

Last updated October 2016