When did you first know that you were a child and youth worker? 1
Developing your vocational identity is considered a task of adolescence and young adulthood in which one develops a clear idea of goals, interests, and talents in the work force (Holland, 1985). High school students are offered career counselling services and are pressured to choose an appropriate post-secondary education2 program that will fulfill their chosen career. Life rarely works this way in practice. More often finding a career is like finding a new outfit. Often young people “try out” various careers, delay attending post-secondary education or entering into generalist programs in Arts and Science. Later they find work that is comfortable and satisfying, work that “fits”. Professional identity, knowing who you are as a working professional, seems to be a task for early in your career. Developing your professional identity is about becoming comfortable and satisfied in the work that you do. I expect that students in their work experience placements will develop a “professional identity”, discover their personal style as a child and youth worker, and identify future career interests and settings where they might work. Many students struggle with what this means and who they are as a practitioner. Over 4 years in a university program their ideas about what they want to do when they grow up change significantly. I sometimes tell them “I’m not sure what I want to do when I grow up, you don’t have to decide right now, just think about it a little.”
Catherine Hedlin (2008) is studying and describing professional selves and shifting professional identities among Child and Youth Care practitioners. She is interested in the evolution of professional identity and the self as we grow and develop in our careers, when we shift from front-line to supervision to management and training or education. Notice that, in true Child and Youth Care form she is interested in the self-not just the professional identity and believes that the developing professional identity crosses that “artificial” line between professional and personal. I think one of the things that Catherine will capture in her work is the painful struggle that people have with “abandonment” of their identity as they leave the front-line and move into different forms of Child and Youth Care practice. There is something in the front-line identity that captures them as child and youth workers and is so strong that one feels like you are abandoning the field to move into supervision or training and education.
When did you first realize that you were a child and youth worker? Twenty-five years ago most people started in the field with a diploma or degree that was generalist in nature or no post-secondary educationdiploma.2 While it is sometimes thought that this is true today, we are in fact more clearly unique and often a choice for young people as they review educational options in high school. In a recent survey of residential group care in the province of Ontario program managers estimated that 50% of their front-line workers in group care had Child and Youth Care specific education. By way of confirmation 46% of the respondents to the survey reported that they had Child and Youth Care specific education. However, 88% of them self-identified as Child and Youth Care workers 2 (Stuart, et. al., 2008). The professional identity is very strong in group care and pre-service the educational preparation is common. Of course we still don’t know how true that is in other settings but as educational opportunities open up the professional identity of our field will strengthen.
When did you first adopt a professional identity
as a CYW?
I remember a few incidents in my professional life that were indications of
developing and adopting this identity. My entry into the field (which I’ve
written about previously) occurred in part because I felt comfortable with
both the young people and the workers. I could just “be myself”, without
pretence. Then there was my refusal to follow a suggestion by one of my
graduate advisors that I register as a psychologist. I was a “child and
youth worker” and wasn’t interested in that particular registration in spite
of the fact that I qualified for it.
Just about everyone enters the workforce between the ages of 19 and 23 and often we enter into a professional field that we expect to be with for life and one that will provide opportunities for advancement. That early adulthood phase of life as we enter the workforce is a phase where many of us form life time friendships and we identify strongly with the people we meet. We stay in touch over long distances and periods of time. Friendships form in university or college as well as through competitive sports colleagues or housemates from that “first” home away from home. These relationships seem to endure throughout our lives.
Perhaps these bonds form because we are growing, sharing, exploring who we are and what we want out of life during that time more intensely than at other times. I think this might be important to the attachment and identification that child and youth workers feel with front-line practice. The focus of the field is on self and on relationships. Exploration of self in the context of working with children and youth with serious problems includes forming a strong allegiance and identity with the field itself and with fellow workers. Relationships are a focus to the work that we do and we begin this work as young adults. It is hard to let go of that identity as it may imply letting go of the relationships. Knowing that you are a child and youth worker (in your heart) and being a child and youth worker are different. We don’t have to leave our hearts, including our values, relationships, and identity behind as our career progresses.
CAROL STUART
When did you first know that
you were a child and youth worker?
Relational Child and Youth Care Practice, 21. 4. pp.79080
References
Hedlin, C. (2008). Shape-Shifting: An examination of transitioning identity
across professional CYC contexts and roles. National Child and Youth Care
Conference. Charlottetown, P.E.I. October 8, 2008.
Holland, J. L. (1985). Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational
personalities and work environments (2nd ed.). Odessa, FL: Psychological
Assessment Resources.
Stuart, C., Sanders, L., Fulton, R., Kroll, T., Rapuanno, G., McMillan, C.
(2008). Child and Youth Care Practitioners Contributions to Evidence-based
Practice in Group Care. Toronto, ON: Ryerson University.
Notes
1. Readers familiar with my work may notice that I’m using
the term “child and youth worker” not my usual phrase of “Child and Youth Care practitioner”. The focus in this column is on the front-line and our
self-oppression, which seems more appropriately captured by the term worker.
2. In Ontario CYW diplomas have been available for 40 years.
