The purpose of this qualitative study is to describe how child and youth care practitioners experience their engagement in community level interventions. Five child and youth care practitioners, who identified themselves as engaging in community level interventions in their work, were interviewed and data were analysed using a combined narrative and thematic approach. Eight themes emerged from the data that describe participants’ experience with community, community change and community level interventions. Results show how community level interventions have a tendency to target the micro, meso and occasionally exo, rather than macro, levels of communities. Thus, multi-level interventions are recommended as a way to shift child and youth care practice from an emphasis on interventions with individuals, towards greater emphasis on interventions that are aimed at the multiple levels of the child and youth’s ecological system. The study identifies implications for post-secondary curriculum, professional practice, agency mandates and job descriptions. / Graduate

In this autoethnographic inquiry, the author examines the complexities of international practicum placements by exploring past and present-day reflections written in response to her undergraduate practicum experience in South Africa. Using intersectional analysis, the author reflexively writes about personal desire and the intent to offer care in Majority World contexts by describing how these themes are deeply implicated by larger social, political, and historical systems and structures. In an attempt to benefit the nature of international practicum placements within the context of CYC practice, five key topics are outlined to better prepare students who might be considering practice across cultures in Majority World contexts. / Graduate / 0727 / 0700 / 0631 / lljones@uvic.ca

The concept of the self was central to the development of North American child and youth care (CYC). The self has been understood in CYC as the mediator of knowledge and skills, the foundation of authentic and therapeutic relationships, and the essence of ethical, moral, and professional practice. In this research project, I engage with the concept of the self in CYC by analyzing the literature on the topic, conducting research conversations with scholars in the field, and articulating my own thinking on the subject. I pay particular attention to the work of faculty and students at the University of Victoria’s School of Child and Youth Care (SCYC) to better understand our current problems and possibilities for theorizing the self in relation to praxis, professionalization, and curriculum. I approach my research engagements through a geophilosophical (Deleuze & Guattari, 2003) methodology and emphasize the roles of relationship, wonder, mentorship, and connections in my research engagements. In this thesis I analyze various conceptualizations of the self in CYC, as well as concepts of identity and subjectivity that I found to be important for understanding the topic. I focus on concepts that (1) have traditionally played a central role in CYC curriculum and professionalization; (2) emerged from my research conversations; and (3) specifically relate to issues of diversity, power, and decolonization. As a work concerned primarily with conceptualizations of the self and how they relate to CYC praxis, professionalization, and curriculum, I articulate my own understanding and process of conceptualizing. I elaborate and experiment with my own thinking through a geophilosophical (Deleuze & Guattari, 2003) approach that emphasizes the relationship between thinking and the land and bodies through which it occurs, as well as thinking’s pragmatic, constructive, and creative aspects. I suggest that some of the important and interesting questions and possibilities for conceptualizing the self in contemporary North American CYC are related to politicized praxis as a framework for CYC; decolonization and identity-based solidarity and allyship; intersectionality as means to conceptualize diversity; mentorship and relationship in the learning encounter; immanence, dualism, and Indigenous cosmology; and the notion of a CYC community identity. / Graduate / 0745 / skouri@uvic.ca

Child and youth care workers in residential care provide support and intervention to young people who are experiencing difficulties in their lives. Caring for these young people can be complex and demanding and many child and youth care practitioners struggle to meet the challenges associated with their roles. Practice problems include volatile and punitive environments, inability of practitioners to safely manage young people’s threatening and aggressive behaviours, and staff turnover and burnout. These problems are often attributed to job stress, personal characteristics of practitioners, and lack of education, training, and professional development. To reconceptualise the aforementioned practice problems, Robert Kegan’s (1982) constructive-developmental theory was used as a theoretical framework to explore the experiences of child and youth care workers in residential care. The research was guided by 2 main questions: 1. How do different meaning-making systems influence how practitioners cope with and experience the demands of the job? 2. What role does the organizational environment play, if any, in mediating or exacerbating the demands of the job for practitioners with different meaning-making systems? An exploratory study was conducted using a mixed methods design. The study was conducted in two stages. First, 99 participants completed the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL), Work Environment Scale (WES), and Leadership Development Profile (LDP). Linear regression was conducted to explore the relationships between the ProQOL, LDP, and WES and most results were not significant. From the initial pool, 18 participants were selected for in-depth, qualitative interviews to assess their constructive-developmental orders – the ways in which they make meaning - and explore their experiences in residential care in the areas of job satisfaction and success, challenge, and coping with the demands of the job. The ways in which participants at different constructive-developmental orders experience and cope with the challenges of their jobs are described and themes are identified. There was internal coherence among participants of the same epistemological order and across organizations. This dissertation examines implications of the findings for child and youth care practice, education, training, supervision, research, and organizational management in residential care. / Graduate

Child and Youth Care is another profession that falls under the social services sector. A contextualization of child and youth care field within the broader socio-economic South African context is presented. In particular, the contribution of child and youth care as a unique field is outlined in this study. The ecological systems theory was used as the theoretical framework to underpin the study. This theory acknowledges that child and youth care as a field and child and youth care workers as professionals are not working in isolation, but are affected by the socio-economic dynamics within the broader macro-system. In the context of applied research, this study investigated the challenges and coping strategies of child and youth care workers in the South African context. Qualitative methodology was used to allow participants some reflection on the challenges experienced and coping strategies used by them. By utilizing the collective case study design, 11 focus group interviews were conducted in six provinces of South Africa to collect data from 93 participants. The participants were employed in government organisations and non-governmental organisations. Participants further represented child and youth care workers from rural, semi-urban and urban areas. Findings revealed that child and youth care workers are faced with an array of challenges which fall under the following categories: psycho-social challenges, professional challenges and socio-economic challenges. Under each of these categories, a range of themes and sub-themes have emerged. Themes and sub-themes that emerged under psycho-social challenges are as follows: inability to disengage from work environment, disengagement from socialisation activities, personal trauma, invasion of personal boundaries and emotional well-being issues. Coping strategies that emerged are: non-existent coping mechanisms, personal mission, substance use and quitting. Under the professional challenges category, the following themes have emerged: dealing with clients’ behaviours, personal risk, lack of tangible and immediate results, poor stakeholder relations, lack of clarity on the role and title of the child and youth care worker, inconsistent job requirements, lack of recognition, lack of training and promotion opportunities and inadequate working conditions. To cope with these challenges, the following strategies have emerged: non-existent coping mechanisms, personal support networks and professional support networks. A range of concepts emerged under each of the sub-themes. The specific features of the sub-theme ‘personal support networks’ include: rationalizing, self-protection and self-care. Coping strategies under professional support networks include: colleagues, team meetings, supervision, and psychological support systems. Challenges that emerged under socio-economic category are: inadequate remuneration structures and inadequate programme funding. To cope with these challenges, it emerged that participants resort to budgeting, formal and informal lending mechanisms, and alternative income generating streams. Upon closer inspection of all the challenges, the study revealed that many of these challenges originate from child and youth care workers not being fully recognised as professionals. Formal recognition of this category of workers will go a long way in resolving a number of challenges raised by the participants. It is also assumed that when registered, child and youth care workers will experience better working conditions which will also enable them to be remunerated properly in line with their counterparts within the social service professions. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Social Work and Criminology / PhD / Unrestricted

Child and youth care (CYC) practitioners (CYCPs) who have lived in residential placement as children or youth represent an understudied and thus largely unknown cohort. This lack of knowledge has resulted in assumptions, generalizations, and unfounded claims impacting discourses, and potentially practices, within CYC. Based on the development of an original research method—audio drama inquiry—this sonic dissertation presents the first documented examination of the perspectives, experiences, and insights of 17 Canadian CYCPs “from care” (CYCPfC). Informed by research-based theatre, CYC theory, and care ethics, two audio drama series were created asking “what does residential placement experience do to CYCPs, and how do CYCPfC do CYC?” The resulting performances reveal frictions and desires related to working for, within, and at times against the same systems that one grew up in. CYCPfC articulate benefits resulting from their “lived experience,” such as identification, empathy, inimitable systemic knowledge, and motivations to initiate change within such systems. However, the audio dramas also reveal perils related to their personal histories, the institutions in which they work(ed), and the “the field” more broadly. Through greater understanding of CYCPfC, who provide insights, cautions, and learnings from their unique perspectives, this study advances our knowledge regarding what is done when doing CYC. Moreover, Tuning into CYC broadens existing frames of qualitative inquiry through explicating and demonstrating the theoretical and practical elements of audio drama inquiry. / Graduate

In the last two decades, increasingly more research has been conducted on the process of participation as a children’s right both nationally and internationally. This includes research on children’s participation within the family environment as well as with children who are placed into alternative care. Children’s participation within the field of child protection continues to demonstrate challenges for both children and those adults working with children in this environment. A child and youth care centre forms part of the broader field of child protection and represents a bounded system of dynamics especially with regard to the process of children’s participation. There continues to be various barriers with regard to children’s participation in general but especially for children who have been found in need of care and protection. This is largely linked to the emphasis being put on the vulnerabilities and needs of children who have been placed into alternative care. The general aim of the study was to qualitatively, through a case study design, explore and describe the nature of participation as a children’s right in the context of a child and youth care centre in the Western Cape. The case study was utilised in order to gain more insight into the nature of participation as a children’s right, based on the perceptions of the children, child care workers, social workers and professionals within the system. Thirteen semi structured individual interviews were held with the child participations. Prior to the interviews, a session was held with the children to discuss the purpose of the research and to allow them to become more aware of the concept of children’s participation. The children were asked to create a collage of their perception of children’s participation as a right. Two separate focus groups were held for the adult participants; one for the child care workers and the other for the social workers and professionals. Based on the findings of this qualitative study about the nature of children’s participation as perceived by both children and adults in a child and youth care centre, the article in Section B aims at highlighting those critical elements needed for the realisation of children’s participation within a context of child protection. / MSW (Child Protection), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

In the last two decades, increasingly more research has been conducted on the process of participation as a children’s right both nationally and internationally. This includes research on children’s participation within the family environment as well as with children who are placed into alternative care. Children’s participation within the field of child protection continues to demonstrate challenges for both children and those adults working with children in this environment. A child and youth care centre forms part of the broader field of child protection and represents a bounded system of dynamics especially with regard to the process of children’s participation. There continues to be various barriers with regard to children’s participation in general but especially for children who have been found in need of care and protection. This is largely linked to the emphasis being put on the vulnerabilities and needs of children who have been placed into alternative care. The general aim of the study was to qualitatively, through a case study design, explore and describe the nature of participation as a children’s right in the context of a child and youth care centre in the Western Cape. The case study was utilised in order to gain more insight into the nature of participation as a children’s right, based on the perceptions of the children, child care workers, social workers and professionals within the system. Thirteen semi structured individual interviews were held with the child participations. Prior to the interviews, a session was held with the children to discuss the purpose of the research and to allow them to become more aware of the concept of children’s participation. The children were asked to create a collage of their perception of children’s participation as a right. Two separate focus groups were held for the adult participants; one for the child care workers and the other for the social workers and professionals. Based on the findings of this qualitative study about the nature of children’s participation as perceived by both children and adults in a child and youth care centre, the article in Section B aims at highlighting those critical elements needed for the realisation of children’s participation within a context of child protection. / MSW (Child Protection), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

This study is concerned with the inter-subjectively co-constructed narratives of experience, for Child and Youth Care practitioners, in an agency-based school program which focuses on treatment of DSM diagnosed children. This school-based program is formally committed to a strength-based practice for treatment of mental disorder. A Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) diagnosis is required for admission to this program. This agency-based practice exists at the intersection of dissonant discourses of understanding, in the treatment of children’s mental disorder. In this study, a narrative methodology of inquiry, situated in a post-modern epistemology of understanding, was utilized to investigate the narratives of experience of four Child and Youth Care practitioners. Narratives are distinctive units of speech that are typically employed by the narrator to convey evaluative meaning in context. Narratives inquiry represents a useful means for understanding questions of experience, as people use narratives to organize and evaluate their knowledge and transactions with the social world. The narrative, as a reflection of intersubjective constructs of meaning, provides a means of understanding the individual or group through its conveyance of lived experience. The results of this study include four narratives, written in the first person, communicating the subjective experiences of Child and Youth Care practitioners in this unique practice setting. Each of these narratives suggests the importance of, and methods towards, finding ways for strength-based practitioners to practice in harmony in landscapes of deficit-focused understandings.

This thesis is based on Project Artemis, a critical, girl-centred participatory action research (PAR) project designed as part of an evaluation of Artemis Place, an alternative education program serving “at-risk” girls in Victoria, BC. Nine Artemis Place students between the ages of 15 and 18 worked alongside me as co-researchers to investigate how Artemis Place has affected their lives. Our research also explored girl co-researchers' schooling experiences more broadly and the structural inequities they experience across the multiple contexts of their lives. Our process was rooted in a critical, participatory, collaborative framework, which aimed to investigate, problematize, and address (through social action) the complex forces shaping girls' experiences of marginalization. We used arts-based methods such as photovoice, graffiti walls, journaling and participatory video to cycle through the iterative phases of PAR: exploration/data collection, critical reflection/analysis, and action. We produced a documentary film as our primary research dissemination tool. In this thesis, I undertake my own analysis of our collective research to do a deep reading of girls' resistances to “at-risk” constructions of girlhood, in order to understand their negotiations of the complex forces shaping their daily realities. I complicate the concept of resistance using a hybridized feminist-poststructural (Davies, 2000) and desire-based (Tuck, 2010) framework to explore the ways girls' resistances are produced through flows of desire – creative and productive force – that disrupt, exceed, (re)configure, and/or (re)code “girl” and “risk.” I argue that tracing the “desire flows” (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987) and reconfigurations produced in/through our critical research process, is an important, political move toward sustaining alternative figurations of girlhood. As such, this thesis contributes promising, ethical/affirmative/political possibilities for understanding the complexities of girls' lives and for engaging alongside them in feminist research, praxis, and activism for social justice. / Graduate