CHRISTMAS IN CARE.....CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Community in the main, it seems, have a loaded, idealistic sentimental idea of  Christmas with children and young people in care .A somewhat soppy image of a heart warming, soul satisfying moment of goodwill and sharing with less fortunate children. 

It could be so, but child and youth care workers sometimes experience Christmas from a somewhat different reality. There are good times and bad times. It's not all tinsel and glitter.

Non-governmental facilities,....the "Children's Homes" more especially, are coupled in the community mind with poor, orphans, abandoned, neglected, abused little children. In general, as we in child and youth care all know, is not entirely necessarily the reality. Anyway, the idea of the "poor little children" coloured by media sentiment at Christmas, triggers a wave of well intentioned giving to these "less fortunate". Some parents want to foster in their own children a mindset of giving. They help their children clear out the cupboards of old, outgrown toys and clothing and deliver them to the Children's Home,  So, here we go. ...A constant door knocking. Arms full of cast-off toys, sweets, clothes, expired date luxury food-stuff. Cast-off cupboard cleared goods for cast-off children. Shame ! I called them the "do gooders"
It is all well intentioned, but on the receiving end of all this, the messages can, for the children, build, if not re-enforce pervasive mind-sets, a world view, which may NOT in the longer term be that healthy into adulthood. 

We even have jargon for some of these world views. "learnt dependence", "second hand citizenship", "P.L.O.M. (poor little old me!".  In more extensive wording, "the world did this to me. The world put me here, SO the world owes me. It's now my RIGHT to be provided for".

.....a child and young person expectation of benefaction.  This is an experience vastly different from child and youth care goals of reclaiming restoratively the lives of children and young people through the provision of healthy life experiences in belonging, mastery, independence and generosity as say, in the Circle of Courage model. There is a disconnection in all of this Christmas thing with our concepts of ecological care. We are sometimes ourselves as child and youth care workers, and as facilities guilty of creating an experience of extravagance at Christmas that approximates, if not mirrors a middle class cultural lifestyle incongruent with the realities following the child's disengagement from the facility. 

My worst experience ever of all of this was a seasonal  extravaganza staged by the "Motorbike Boys" in Johannesburg and labelled "The Toy Run". It was me. I agreed to host it !! About 250 to 300 motorbikes with pillion  riders arrived and parked on the soccer fields with two mountains of toys. One mountain for boys. One mountain for girls. Mostly wrapped, they ranged from bicycles to teddy bears. I had invited other NGO Children's Homes. Then the big hand-out started and so did the ruction. Accusations abounded. Children had joined the queue more than once. They just went round and round it was said . Boys joined the girls queue and visa versa, held out their hands for toys as they had sisters, cousins family and others. The motorbike boys said that this was not the intention. But of course they did. The children saw these huge piles of toys and it is part of our culture that we share as much as we can with family and others. It is part of our community spirit. BAD VIBES !!! And I bore the brunt of it. "Never again,"they said,"Not here".

Christmas impacts further on the end of year realities as children and young people will in fact be "released" into their own ecologies. .....Boy aged 18  comes into my office, "I think I'll just "park off here" for longer". Girl. "My little brother can go home but, I'm staying. I have and will have a much better life here".

All this Christmas stuff happens for the most part, well before the actual Christmas day. The school holidays start well before and the system of "holiday placements "click in. Some with hosts, some with mentors, some with significant others, friends and some with family...parental homes. Family gatherings in many of these family situations is often not that congenial. Alcohol consumption can frequently be considerable. Old family tensions and ill feeling can be re-awakened with disastrous effects for the children. Statistics show that suicide, suicide threats and attempts escalate.  As does violence. Frequently, children and young people experience, in this so called season of "good will'', a re-enactment of the very  situations which brought them into the system in the first place. Over Christmas especially, we had what I called, "the many happy returns" These included the necessity of "call outs", Calls to collect children . Calls by children, Calls by community......even on Christmas Day.

Christmas day, then, left child and youth care workers on duty, with the unplaced, unplaceable, returned, disconnected children These are all too often the most troubled youngsters with the most troubling behaviours

Shift systems determine who is "On" and who"Off" on Christmas day. It means that some child and youth care workers are separated  from their own children and families on the day of Christmas ( or Christmas Eve) 

It really takes a very special kind of person. A very special kind of dedication and commitment in the working life of a child and youth care worker to live through a working Christmas day. It's a sacrifice. It's a  applaudable service. It is seldom recognised in the same way are are police, the fire department, paramedics, nurses and doctors.

Child and youth care workers are unsung HEROES. 
               

INDIGENOUS PRACTICE.....CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

There's a sudden recent spurt of comment, question ,articles and discussion on the issue of indigenous child and youth care in South Africa. Or should I say,....lack of it? The form of response varies from academic treatise to opinion. Some of the child and youth care worker's voices for indigenous practice sound somewhat like calls in the wilderness.

It's not at all new...but an interesting renewal of the call to move away from the dominant Euro-centric, North American  theories and practice. And it is so. Our South African practice is Euro- technocratic rather than culturally African.

Blame gets bandied about. Blame the early missionaries. Blame colonialism.  Blame the churches. Blame academics. Blame the continuous importing  of  overseas key-note speakers to our conferences. Blame our Westminster form of parliament. There can be no doubt that the scarcity....No!.. lack of South African literature and research exacerbates our European, Canadian and North American practice. And it doesn't always work. This IS Africa. We ARE African..and so are the children and young persons in our system.

It all sounds as if we are afraid to apply, in practice, what we know.  Are we trapped in organisational cultures that want to look good in a child and youth care world for fear of ridicule or being labelled as unscientific and merely superstitious? No-one is sying that proven theory is  worthless in Africa. There is just a call to apply it in the unique ways of Africa. 

Our experience may provide a candle-flame glimpse of our distance or proximity to real, indigenous African child and youth care work here.

I say this often.  I always thought that residential care in child and youth care facilities ( Centres, or Treatment Centres ) , the methods approach, and practice was the sort of Grand Prix of child and youth care work.  BUT, when experiencing community based care first hand, my opinion changed. I now think that residential facilities can learn from community based child and youth care.  In the Isibindi project in Bethanie village in the North West Province, when the community or a family experienced a problem, especially with its young people, they called the police. The police were really good. They sat with the family or neighbours and tried to get everyone reconciled.They used a restorative justice approach. If that didn't work, they assisted to arrange a restorative justice meeting with and at, the tribal authority, I'm told in Setwana it is called rerabolola kgetse. If the chief or the queen was not available, elders in the Tribal Committee would facilitate restorative discussion. The basis of this is "It takes a village to raise a child" within the African cultural roots of u'buntu. Some say u'buntu is dead. But I experienced it in Bethanie.

Strange that we don't see it happening in the residential facilities that much.

In 1995, when the transformation of the South African Child and Youth Care system policy was published 17 principles of practice were listed. I was told that the then President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, added that last 17th.....African Renaissance. It was his thrust - we had to ride above the dominant culture and practice who we were.......African in heart mind and soul. So, in the Cabinet Enquiry of 1995/6  child and youth care Centres practice was measured also against African Renaissance. In general, there were somewhat weak, superficial responses. Food, celebration of heritage day, consent to circumcision if requested....and that was problematic for some.....Nothing central. Nothing spiritual.

Again, I go back to this frequently,  ..."Thom Garfat's " an intervention is only as effective as it is experienced to be effective." When Prof Norman Powell, a black American, said, " Young people learn to play the system", this resonated with me. In the gap between what we actually do in the Euro-centric system and the African reality, young people "play the game". It pays.

We constantly engage within ourselves and with young people in the search for meaning. What do we, and young people believe are the "roots" ....the CAUSE of their NOW situation? Probing around,  through engagement and trust building, we can sometimes pierce the game playing. Allowed in, for a moment, "I am being used by the ancestors as a message to my parents. Through what has  happened to me, they were meant to realise, that the ancestors are not happy." Rites and rituals either not done, or not properly performed. Some slaughter not done. Names not properly chosen. Catching these little moments of African meaning were much easier in the community based setting. 

Divination it was believed would confirm much of this
.
At the tribal place, the rerabolola kgetse, tribal elders and community could well also perhaps set out reconciliatory acts or rites to make good. 

I did say that this would be no more than an experiential candle flame glimpse to help us see if we are distanced from or approaching indigenous child and youth care in the African context.

Are we ready in our facilities to engage with white chickens, circles of elders, grave sites, beads, cords, herbs and goats sheep and divination. Maybe we are and do, but the cries for indigenisation suggest that we have a journey still to go.

It looks as if we will not get it right until we think Africa, problem solve Africa, Find African meaning. Break the African silence, Act Africa. Be proudly African.


  


  

SEXUAL ACTS CHILD ON CHILD........CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

The theme for this week's blog arose from a query on Social Media calling for names suitable to use when referring to children involved in sexual "abuse , child on child. Names that are not labeling, stigmatising or harmful. This is not an attempt to answer that question. It is to talk child on child sexual activity from a child and youth care perspective.

The website blog called "Defending Innocence" quotes statistics from "Darkness into Light", Finkelfor, Stallok, Broman, Fields et al. They say more than half (55%) of 501 adults interviewed said that they had sexual experiences before the age of 15 years. One third of all penetrative sexual incidents in the USA are between children under the age of 18 with a peak at ages 12-14. They do admit to a caution...an orange light . They say that "hysterical warnings"by parents, caregivers,teachers and guardians against "no go" experiences can lead some children to misinterpreting "hands off", "no sexual objective in mind" experiences as intentional violation and so .....allegations. 

Only yesterday UNICEF put out on Facebook that over 50% of all reported cases of sexual abuse in South Africa involve children. The statistics for child on child incidents was not given.

Other sources confirm what I think child and youth care workers know. Over 50% of so called "offenders" have themselves been sexually violated. There is a very high incidence of "victims"becoming "offenders". The more vulnerable children being the intellectually challenged, those with low self esteem, the disconnected, the previously hurt and those willing to please.

Many messages for child and youth care workers in all of this..... The very nature of many children in our residential facilities fit the profile of both the vulnerable child and the initiator. There were certainly some children in the group residential care facilities I directed who exuded a kind of victim attraction. I called it "the perpetual victim syndrome"  It's like  "once a victim always a victim". The "cruisers", always on the lookout, are very quick to pick up the signals.

Then we have, as child and youth care workers, to to differentiate between normal sexual play and experimentation verses intentional violation....we called it "sexual hurt"

Our South African Criminal Law ( Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment ct. Amendment Act No.5 of 2015 sets out important distinctions..its intentions are, and I quote:

"So as to ensure that children of certain ages are not held criminally liable for engaging in consensual sexual acts with each other

to give presiding officers a discretion in order to decide in individual cases, whether the particulars of children should be included in the National Register for Sex Offenders or not. ( my italics).

no criminalisation of consensual sex between adolescents". 

What it does, bottom line, is to remove the possibility of Statutory Rape charges against children for consensual penetrative sex, if the age of the child is 12 or above providing that the age difference between one and the other is no more than two years.

KEY WORDS; penetration, criminalisation, consensual, age difference.

As child and youth care workers, what do we encounter apart from normal sex play experimentation and adolescent dating? I must say that it is tempting to describe actual, individual incidents, but that is ethically problematic in a blog. So, in general terms:
Sexual Games: There was a story on Facebook recently of a gang related game in which older children would play a game called "treintjie" (little train) Anal penetration of young boys was part of the game after watching porn.. (or not watching porn). This game is neither new, nor is it only related to Cape Flats gangs. I encountered this one when giving consultancy a few years back in a residential facility. It was even then called "treintjie".
Initiation: all manner of sexually unacceptable and inappropriate activity can occur as a compulsory . "We all went through this. It was done to me. Now its my turn". Especially young new admissions. Anything from beer bottles pushed into the anus to genitalia being fondled and aroused with a feather duster.
Mutual Masturbation: This one was a shock for me when I learnt that the boys had a sexual activity they called "circle jerks". They would sit or stand in a circle, cross arms and masturbate each other until ejaculation. In one form or another mutual masturbation happens between boys and girls. Girls also experiment with grinding.
Transactional sex: consensual, but with a possible tacit or open agreement that there will be ongoing benefit to one of the parties. Can include the wives in gangs.
Now a list with no comment: Deliberate seduction, inappropriate exposure to sexual activity, voyeurism, exhibitionism, rape allegations following consensual sex, and then again, actual rape with or without force or violence. 

As child and youth care workers in group residential care settings it is a given that we WILL encounter it. There is probably nothing that compares with sexual incidents to trigger, shock, morally outrage, reaction and sometimes even child rejection and disgust in child and youth care workers. Thing is.... if we know that we will encounter it, that it WILL happen, then we can plan professional management responses for it. Interventive planning is done at three levels. The preventative level, the moment of crisis and the post incident level.  Planning is done at an organisationally as a full multi-disciplinary team.....  and this of course will always also involve the young people and the children. We all have to know what to do and what to expect. Some of the broad principle issues and then some of the specific issues warrant talk   

Consideration has to be given to the two PRIMARY underlying issues in sexual violatory activity......   POWER And SECRECY. What this , I think means, is that as professional child and youth care workers, and as organisations we have to guard against using anything in our response which validates,or replicates the the use of power and endorses silence.

Then we have to engage with the issues of....and this is again but a list: the use of technology like video, movement detectors, microphones to central security systems. (privacy versus safety), varying levels of supervision ( has staffing implications), Mixed sex cottages (can mean the separation of siblings), confidentiality versus secrecy, the involvement of parents, the role of the trusted person ( the person chosen by the child as the one to whom to break the silence).

If, as a child and youth care worker, you are the trusted person, or the primary worker, or one or the other is your focus child.....and I hope you are using the "focus child" approach, THEN you are a key professional in all of this. Of course there are other professionals involved in an integrated professional team approach, but these children are still in the life-space and at every level the child and youth care worker is a KEY, CORE role player. 

OH WOW!!! By the by... I favour "initiator"and "survivor" as a way of naming children in acts of violation. 



    

HIGH STAFF TURNOVER .....CHILD AND YOUTH CARE WORK IN SOUTH AFRICA

This is a response to a question posed on Messenger this week. "Mr B, I know that you directed quite a number of Child and Youth Care Centres. I would like to find out from you....what are the main challenges that have caused a high staff turnover in your tenure and how did you you address those challenges with your staff?"

The first response to this is to say that staff turnover was different from one facility to the next and that the differences tell a story in themselves. 

In 1983 when I first directed a residential facility, the then National Director of the National Association of Child Care Workers             ( NAACCW) had researched the rate of staff turnover across South Africa. Brian Gannon's statistics put the AVERAGE stay of a child and youth care worker at two and a half years.The average stay of a Director was five years. For a child and youth care worker, this made a short stay about two weeks and a long stay about 5 years or longer. The story was always..If you can make the first three weeks you can make the first three months. If you can make the first three months, you can make three years. Those first three months were critical. Many left before.

I do not know of any current research. It would be very interesting to do this....especially in government residential facilities.

In those early dormitory styled facilities for boys and/or girls, staff turnover was much higher than in the cottage (village) styled settings. We all know. child and youth care workers were called "house mothers" and "house fathers". They lived in. It was a 24 hour day with meals from a central kitchen. They were given, perhaps, 2 days a week as "days off ". The living conditions, the setting and the hours with little cash emolument was, obviously, in itself, a formula for quick turnover. Those who stuck it out were those in need of the accommodation more than anything else.

Staff turnover, and so, staff retention was a major cause for concern for me as a Director. The issue was that the children and young persons experienced a stream of different faces. People with no training at all. Each new person went through, what I called, a "baptism of fire" ..serious testing times as the children and young persons sought to establish, "Will this one last?"  In fact the VERY FIRST question I faced on entry was. "OK, Mr Lodge, so you're here. When are you going to leave?"

The behaviour of the young persons was a shock to  starting out workers. Newcomers found out very rapidly that this is not what they thought it would be. One came in, put down her handbag on the girls floor (..handbag!...girl's floor!) to wake them up. Before the end of the day she picked up her handbag (luckily) and walked out. On passing my office..."It's a den of snakes up there!"  Period of stay....less than 24 hours.!!! In and out.

What am I saying? Expectations not met, motivation for entering child and youth care work not realised, lack of proper training, the extraordinary life style attached to the job, the troubling behaviour of children and young persons with troubles and trauma, the small monetary compensation. These were the challenges and causes of rapid staff turnover, I wonder if these may inherently still somehow be lingering in our systems.

Live out staff on predicable shifts, at that stage.. in-house training, meal allowances for use outside of routine meals with the children, lots of opportunities to talk, share, plan and contribute to policy....All this was needed to slow down the exodus.

Then came a new curved ball. It was when we started our first child and young person's forum. Once they learnt that it was safe to talk out about the treatment they experienced, the otherwise secreted punishments and rule of fear surfaced. Some clearly abusive. Staff  ( without being named by the children) recognising themselves exposed and confronted in the descriptive grievances, left fairly rapidly.They just walked out of the door never to come back. Nothing developmental in that. Problem was, they had to be replaced. Frequently leaving a vacancy for far too long.

Sometimes there were fairly young graduates with psychology or education majors who applied to work in the facility. They wanted to have the experience between their first degree and going on to Honours. They always however put out the message that they wanted to make child and youth care a career. But what they really wanted was to chalk up practical experience on their CV's to gain easier access into the advanced degree. They hardly ever stayed long. They saw themselves as having knowledge which elevated their status. This was no doubt true, but the longer serving, hard core, child and youth care workers without any training, persistently quoted their experience as the key to better practice. They quite frankly, frequently, undevelopmentally, made the working life of these "young upstarts"quite untenable. Teamwork broke down. Not able to "get on"with other members of the team was reason to quit.

Then came the introduction of daily logs, compulsory training, reports, incident reports and assessment checklists. All of this was regarded as "Not what I was employed for". ... and the young graduates were further distanced as they were comfortable with all the writing.  Attempts to sabotage innovation largely failed as child and youth care practice grew in professionality and slowly there was an exodus of the "old guard"....often to the dismay of the children and young persons. 

There were times when, obviously I was compelled to terminate employment. Not a frequent occurrence, eg Drunk on duty, bringing marijuana into the facility, stealing from donations.

In my second appointment many of the same challenges were there. but there were some very different elements at work. Different dynamics altogether. Staff were established, It was a male dominated environment, as if women should or could not work effectively with boys.  This was the 10 year or longer end of the statistical turnover range. And this brought about its own set of challenges....As a start, a much bigger resistance to change. Now, as the new boy on the block, I frequently became the reason to leave. It was a top-down army styled hierarchical system. It HAD to change.

The approach here was to shift the power from the top down system into a system that was as democratic as possible. EVERYTHING was discussed. Weekly staff meetings, committees for everything, forums for everyone, Also weekly staff training, weekly interpersonal supervision. It was an attempt to get "buy in", to own and to understand the need for change. Some left. Again more especially when the young persons were given the same SOCIAL RIGHTS as the staff, (The right to be heard and the right to make choices... among others) and again when they became part of the democratic process. All this coincided with the legal abolition of corporal punishment. Too much change !!!!

Staff left because of not fitting with the dynamics of the system, the philosophy and approach of child and youth care as against being a 'House Master" as in a boarding school. Also lack of career pathways. There was this thing... "Once a child and youth care worker, always a child and youth care worker." To mitigate some of this, a system of levels and grades tied to scopes of practice  was introduced with raised key performance areas on a scale of  competencies from 1 to 4 with salary increments ( even if small ) to go with them. It worked to slow down the tempo of staff turnover up to a point. The group who called me the "educated idiot" tended to move out.

I hired a younger group and I hired for intelligence. I needed people on the staff that had a greater capacity than I. The idea was that I could do my job....and that was to manage and to direct. The democratic approach sat more easily with these incumbents.

My last management function was a period of one year in a semi-rural village community-based model of care . The Isibindi Model. Back to hiring off the streets . This time with a contract to be learners in a training programme from the get go. Reasons for leaving this setting were....Not able to meet time frames for the assessments...so "giving up". Support groups for assessments helped. I had left before the State took over the programme, but from what I was told the turnover accelerated. Issues arose, I was told, in the shift from a democratic approach to a top-down approach and apparent negative attitudes toward child and youth care workers as being lesser social practitioners than others. It was explained to me as a shift to power based management styles.

Taking an overview now. It seems that management styles, approach, over-riding philosophies and organisational dynamics and staff dynamics play a a seminal role in the challenge of staff turnover. As child  and youth care workers, we have a particular way of doing things. "Nothing for ANYONE without them," "Nothing for us without us". Child and youth care workers have a deeply built in belief that as employees we should be managed in the same developmental democratic way we practice.

I hope this helps.

CONNECTION PATTERN ENCOUNTERS......CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

This is not a"What to do" blog. It is a "What we encounter" blog.

It's still with last week's question......should girls, (young persons) in a Place of Safety be allowed to  'mix' with young persons in another "unit"? Short answer last week was "Yes". Not only is freedom of association a human right... and young persons are human.....Right?  But in child and youth care, trial and error learning is developmental learning.

If I ranked developmental need areas of the young persons within the facilities I directed, then relationships and relationship styles predominated....by far! In no matter which of the residential configurations ( village, cottage, dormitory, "unit's") child and youth care practice has much to do with furthering developmental social relationship styles. It's not whether social connection styles are right or wrong, but whether they are "clever"or "not that clever"...does this help or harm you?

It became quite useful to have some "handles" to assist in the observation and identification of friendship styles and so in interventive practice It's quite OK to have in-house jargon for various behaviours provided all in the facility know what they describe and use them. They are frequently more descriptive and avoid long technical psychological diagnostic labels. This may sound like trivialsation but we all know in child and youth care that it's earnestly serious stuff  this.

So here goes....these were some of the descriptive handles we used in the facility... This is something of what, as child and youth care workers, we encounter and is part of our developmental practice.

Sticky toffee paper syndrome. I saw this mainly with girls in both their peer and adult relationships. I guess it is commonly known as "clinging"..one unravels oneself from the left side cling, only to be clung on the right side... physically much too inappropriately, touchingly close. OK in very little children, but when this continues into the teens, it is obviously a developmental area with underlying relationship issues.

The Main Manna. We sometimes would refer to this social grouping jokingly as The Mafia. This group connected socially to share power and control. Also to protect each other and to get what they wanted through physical threat throughout the whole facility. This social style demanded and used the next social grouping style, that of the Skivvy.

Skivvies. In this social relationship style, servitude is regarded as the  key  social acceptance. As a "gofer".....if I fetch and carry,  I can maintain a so called friendship with others, and a relationship with adults. I must say that I saw this approach to social connection frequently among abused children. "What must I do next to please you?"

Gangs.  This is the one probably most feared in facilities. Apart from pre-adolescent single sex groupings.....normal...if we combine the Mafia with the skivvy many social social relationship needs are met. 

See-level pelmets.  This is the "We must be noticed... no matter what in order to be connected and socially accepted social style group. If we are noticed... we belong".....usually negative behaviours attract notice to this group. I had the black nail polish, black lipstick very short skirt, clip-clop shoes, jangly earing, the see my bum short skirt brigade.

Now for some others where description isn't needed.

Relationship reluctant, (shut off), Isolates, Do, Dare or Forfeit. In-group, Rivalous grouping, Familial..........and more...

 It seems that connections and styles of connections, socially.....friendship groupings, can be somewhat predictable in our settings. and this is where group residential work becomes an opportunity for child and youth care practice. It sometimes takes a while for starting out child and youth care workers to celebrate  what I used to call "the colours of the rainbow"...If you are allowed to see the relationship colours,.... then you know what needs to be done. We can explore more helpful relationship style alternatives.

There are any number of instructional "programmes"designed for presentation to young persons .... "Finding friends and keeping them", "Building and maintaining positive peer and adult reationships, "Becoming parentable". At one time I think I had 22 such programmes on the shelf. 

HOWEVER, when involved in Quality Assurance of diversion programmes for young persons in conflict with the law and placed by the courts in residential or non-residential facilities, we always sat and talked with the young persons to get their opinions and experience of such programmes.
Tom Garfat, in his  doctoral thesis kicks off with the statement that an intervention is only as effective as it is EXPERIENCED as effective. Well that was indeed confirmed by the young persons in such "sit down and go through sessions of pre-prepared material" programmes. They said  they always wrote in their evaluations that it was helpful only to satisfy the requirements of their sentence.

It gets, I think to this... Tell me ...I'll forget  . Show me ...I may remember.   Let me do...I'll learn forever.

Schooling is for passing. Experience is for learning. Child and youth care workers expose young people without fear to the university of life. Want a PhD? (Peoples Handling Degree), .....then MINGLE.

For child and youth care workers, the "what we do?' can become problematic. especially for setting out child and youth care workers and ....let us say managers with no background in the field. Our training and education does not always bridge the gap between theory and practice. It doesn't always provide the missing link. There is a principle in South Africa that is quite useful , I think. It is called "what works" It is probably the way to go. Usually it comes as a result of child and youth care workers sharing experiences. "For me this worked" "For me, this didn't work". Learning circles.

The thing is that for us and  young persons in care, socialisation is a given for learning and change. 

SOCIAL MIXING BETWEEN HOUSES ......CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

There was a time when it was trendy to call what child and youth care workers do, "group residential treatment". Then the word "treatment" fell out of favour as it was said to be associated with medicine, psychology and psychiatry. Then we got "group residential care". Now we talk of "development" but the group residential tag has faded. So , logically I suppose what we do in facilities is "group residential development".... and a group residential setting becomes something of a community. I have always said that this community , or group living arrangement, creates opportunity for us to design a microcosm environment that is not only healing ( therapeutic) but also reflects the world beyond its walls that we would want it to be, whilst at the same time prepares young people and children for the realities of the world that is.

No matter in which of the group living settings we work, as child and youth care workers we are developing better, more appropriate coping skills whilst creating a view of living harmoniously and helpfully together. We are agents of social change. 

It is within this context...(.is it a theoretical or a reality model?)....the building of appropriate, positive peer and adult relationships happens. The group, the setting, and the community becomes the stage, the platform, upon which developmental, (therapeutic) learning unfolds. Rather like a directed drama, with scenes, acts,and players. Child and youth care workers orchestrate the plot, as well as they can. The players are a very diverse group. Sometimes in single sexed settings, sometimes mixed sex, mixed ages, mixed backgrounds, mixed histories and experiences, mixed ways of solving problems, mixed relationship styles. It's  a complex cast to direct. From the relationship needy to the relationship destructive and everything in between. That's what we work with....we are child and youth care workers.

The social media post that sparked this week's blog asked the question.....and this is not a direct quote......Should we allow institutionalised girls in a place of safety in one unit to mix with girls in another unit.?? .

One of my very first articles published, was called "Letter to a kid" It wasn't actually primarily addressed to children. It was penned for the facility's Board of Management. They didn't get the child and youth care realities of work and concept. They wanted the children's home to be an "angel factory". It never got to them that children and young persons have a right to make choices, and in making choices to make mistakes, to be different, to choose their friends. In making choices they have a right to be experienced as  a-social, to connect, to belong, to being, and dare I say it.....they can choose to be anti-social. As child and youth care workers, what we do with children and young persons, is to explore together before, hang -in together during, otherwise empathise, partner together after.... then explore together again. They will experience the university of the world, the natural or logical consequence s of their choices. It can be, and usually is, somewhat messy. And the child and youth care group living facility is a safe place in which to do this. Child and youth care workers are the support they need to move from Act 1, Scene 1  to Act 2, Scene 2 with as little hurt as possible and with help not to repeat the same Act and Scene all over again... to help in the ever unravelling story until they can internalise the plot of "what ifs" by testing alternatives.
 Institutionalised locking away of choices, locks up learning. If this sounds like radical child and youth care, then I guess it is radical child and youth care.

The different styles of "not that helpful" relationships is for another blog some other week. What is perhaps worth exploring in this blog are the underlying thoughts of risk attached to actively disallowing, and actively allowing the mixing of young persons from different place of safety "units"..

When formal. assumed or personal policies are to disallow mixing, I have experienced child and youth care workers who talk of "MY CHILDREN". ...  The relationship between cottages/houses can be  something like that of a bad divorce.. "You don't go there, you don't talk to those girls. They are all foul mouthed bitches and BAD NEWS. Don't let me catch you with that lot" The inter house rivalry caused heightened, intense inter-house rivalry, to a point of extremely insulting name calling both of individuals and of the  house.."Whore House !". There were false allegations. Even physical property damage and violence... At the bottom of all this lies policy and perhaps the child and youth care worker, on the one hand trying to protect the young persons in the house and on the other, using an approach that is relationship destructive......what happened to the world as we would like it to be. ...and the world view of these young persons?
This was so obviously damaging , but at another level, the child care workers themselves experienced a breakdown in teamwork and staff relationships. When it may be necessary to reshuffle the groupings and shift houses... damage control becomes huge. 

There are risks that occupy the thinking of child care workers in between house mixing. Peer pressure is an obvious. What if there is a predominant placement of first time offenders or substance abusers in that house?  To what extent, they ask, will all the hard work and the IDP be eroded by peer pressure? Then there are practical issues, like dating and sexual experimentation, the borrowing of clothing and possessions between houses, Visiting, to gain advantage screen time when it is "screens off" in one house but not in another,  having made a good connection with the other house child and youth care worker.

Should children in a facility be allowed to mix between houses? My short answer is "Yes". I think that the effects of allowing children to make choices in peer relationships, in the safety of a child care setting, the opportunities for developmental learning and the  input from life space child and youth care professionals out way the so called risks. In any case if we know what the risks are, we as group residential workers can plan for them and use them to the developmental advantage of the young persons in our care.







.

THE DIGITAL DILEMMA DEBATE...,SOUTH AFRICAN CHILD AND YOUTH CARE

Weekly, this blog invariably refers to child and youth care worker's posts and comments in social media. It's one of our ways of keeping an ear to the ground as it were. What I miss are posts and comments from children and young persons in the system. Strange.....cellphones, tablets, i-phones, and even laptops are all part of everyday communication, expressions of opinion and knowledge acquisition. Am I thinking way out of the box to contemplate young persons being part of our facebook or twitter friends and commenting with us on issues that affect not only us, but have an impact on the social services they receive? Someone said that young persons are just not in the same whatsapp groups as child and youth care workers ...(and me !!) I wonder why?

Anyway, group and friendship chats apart, it got me thinking about young persons in our systems and their access to digital communication.

In the 1995 Cabinet Enquiry into the status of Places of Safety,and what were then called Places of Detention, one of the queries of the facility was whether young people had access to newspapers, receive and send uncensored letters, radio and TV..especially international and local news  The non-availability to communication, of any sort, was regarded as a violation of a RIGHT. The world has turned a few revolutions since then. Now, communication and recreation,.is digital. We have been through the 3rd Industrial Revolution, ....We are already well into the 4th Industrial Revolution. I heard only two days ago about an Artificial Intelligence (AI) dating app available on mobile phones, tablets and laptops!! And it's voice activated to boot.!!! The question of young person's rights comes up again....this time in a completely different ballpark. This is the kernel of what I have dubbed a digital dilemma

What do the.Rules and Conventions say? 

Let's start with The Rights and Rules of Juveniles in Detention UN Annexure 45 of December. A(45/49) 1990. The Beijing Rules.  See,.the title is outdated, as is the century, We have to translate  contextually to capture the implications for us, young persons and the upholding of rights today.
Rule J59 is probably the most significant, 
But Ill start with: Rule 18(c) Juveniles should receive and retain materials for their leisure,and recreation as are acceptable with the interests of the administration of justice. ( My bold).
The question is; does this then mean, mobile digital games, music, and video?
Rule J moves on...Contacts with the wider community...J59 and 61 deal with the right to communicate in writing or telephone with family, friends, and other persons and representatives of reputable organisations ........
 The question then is,  does this now mean the right to e-mail, google , websites, facebook, twitter, whatsapp and the like?

Key words in all the documents including the 2009 UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (See.Section 104 (d) stress: retain, communicate, access, link.....
What links? how? when? using what means of communication? To whom? under what supervision, levels of privacy and access to information? Does the Right to Access to Information apply to young persons and children and those in facilities?

I did a round of telephone calls to people I knew in different settings in the field of child and youth care. It will be a lengthy blog if each of the different policies and practices were to be fully articulated here. I'm going to try a type of summary:

No facility I contacted allow the children to retain their mobile digital devices on admission. In the more restrictive environments, especially those young people in conflict with the law and sentenced or awaiting trial, this could mean the return of the device on disengagement.
However, policies around access and useage appeared then later, in some instances to be discretionary. So I got different practices around control. These ranged from a Children's Home setting where the child and youth care worker held the devices and allowed use in supervised limited screen times . The criteria for access to devices changes from facility to facility ranging from,,,,only senior grade, responsible, serious learners, to young persons in diversion programmes getting some easier access. The least restrictive most empowering controls spoke of the young persons allowed access  to google, be part of whatsapp study groups and friendship groups.

HOWEVER... without exception there was considerable emphasis on what was called "THE RISKS".

So let's go there.   And herein lies the debate, the tension and the digital dilemma..... Policies of access and usage were diverse but there was total agreement on the risks ... firstly to the facility itself. Theft......theft of digital devices raises issues of responsibility. apart from the behaviour management that theft causes...can for example, the state be held somehow accountable or responsible if digital devises are stolen. Can a facility be accused of negligence or inadequate control of property or supervision? 
Then comes cost. Who pays? Data and airtime costs are high and how is that controlled and provided for?

Then came a single word "Sites" No real need for further explanation...

Then a number of other risk words, nude pics (swapping), blessers, sugar daddies and stalkers....all of which in- house, increases the risks they said, of sexual acting out. "Heightened hormones" one said.

The telephone conversations highlighted, acknowledged and debated the tension between today's digital world, the cyber space realities, the rules and conventions that determine child rights and the child and youth care realities of practice in residential facilities.  

I'm left with more questions than solutions. What is out of line, the rules, our practice or our policies?

There is no doubt ..... the digital dilemma debate continues.

EMPLOYMENT ADVERTISEMENTS.....CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Some Facebook friends are sharp at spotting advertised vacancies for child and youth care workers in South Africa. The employment advertisements illustrate tellingly the status employers attach to child and youth care workers. Needless to say the advertisements raise indignant comment.

A recent advertisement sought a Youth Development Manager but stipulated a requirement of a degree and registration in Social work. It raised classic comment.  Outrage tinged with humour. "Do we exist?" "There ARE degrees in Child and Youth Development!".  There are degrees in Youth Development"!! Point is, the advertisement could at very least have advertised for a qualified, registered social services professional. Better still a  child and youth care worker with a degree in youth development.

"Do we exist?' .....good question....come the more senior posts, do we exist as child and youth care professionals?  OR.. In the minds of employers are we just bum wipers and underpants counters. Are they simply ignorant of what as professionals we are qualified and registered to do??....yes,... in knowledge, skill, AND MANAGEMENT!!
In my professional and personal capacity, I have had occasion to visit Governmental organisations, offices, agencies, regions and provinces In some, there are no child and youth care workers employed and in almost all, no child and youth care workers in senior management positions. I think that in the funding of posts     ( the post funding model), it is either believed that in management positions, child and youth care worker posts do not get government funding. Or again, there is employer or funding ignorance about what child and youth care workers are qualified to contribute. 

I heard an official say, "Social workers do "generic child care and child protection work".  What is generic child care?  I have learnt by hearing the nature of the cases in these districts and regions that there is unarguable evidence for the need of child and youth care workers as part of the social service practice. Surely there can't be territorial issues among social service professionals when nationally we are advocating for integrated case management and the best interests of the child.

Another feature in the advertisements for child and youth care workers is the requirement for a non graduate qualification, especially a diploma, at auxiliary level, when the key performance areas lean towards those of the professional. There is evidence of professional level child and youth care workers being supervised by auxiliary level workers and bottom heavy staffing structures, You don't have to be a brain surgeon to get that it's cheaper! No wonder social media spawns comment, "I'm a graduate and I'm unemployed".

We even see advertisements where no qualification requirement is stipulated. 

Now for a big one. Advertisements have been copied and posted on social media where no salary or salary range is advertised. Social media comment, "What's the salary?" Phone calls and Whatsapp queries, "Do you know what salary range they offer?" Rightly or wrongly, the suspicions among child and youth care workers are always that the employer does not want, or is too embarrassed to publically commit to salary.

Then we see employers advertisements which do not stipulate the requirement that the child and youth care worker be registered as such with the South African Council for Social Service Professions. (SACSSP). The law has required that a child and youth care worker be registered since 2013. This makes it an offence for an employer to employ an unregistered child and youth care worker....and an offence for a person to be employed as a child and youth care worker without registration What does this omission in the advertisements for employment say about the mindset of the employer around the recognition and status of the profession?  There is a call to take legal action against such employment practice

Recruitment procedures give the advertisement a place in hiring and contracting a new employee. It can't be taken lightly by employers, The advertisement is a point of referral for the letter of employment . It can be used s evidence if there is some kind of dispute.  Again, the advertisement for the employment of a child and youth care professional has to be given the consideration and the respect that is deserved by any social service professional.. By any professional for that matter.

Of course we exist. The issue is,  employers have set out, advertisements reproduced in the social media,that can and have, left child and youth care workers with the impression that they can be exploited. Some say blatantly, "We are exploited"

Of course we exist.... we exist as professional social service professional. We exist with qualifications, registration and an invaluable practice to reclaim the lives of children and young people. We exist to nation build......and it all starts at the very beginning.

CAVEAT to employers.... The employment advertisement is the beginning. ..... you are the beginning.  











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GANG WARFARE....CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

On Thursday this week, our social media featured pictures and comment about a gang related shooting of a Mannenburg mother in the Cape Flats. From what I could gather, it was a drive-by revenge shooting for the loss of a gang's member. Celeste left two young boys, 3 and 5 years old. 

Gang rivalry (warfare) is no excuse for this. ( Fancy boys vs Hard Living). People live in fear of violence, guns and being caught innocently in crossfire. The call is to bring in the police "gang squad". The parents of gang members came in for flack. "It's not your children if you support them in their wrongdoing or are proud of their actions."Some comment said, "It's a disaster". "It's the end times!" The community expresses it's outrage in protest, road closures, tyre burning and blame. "Enough is enough - the police are failing us....our children die in the crossfire, ( and they do!) , We live in fear.

The Minister of Police responds. Large numbers of riot squad police and visual policing moved into the area. 

My experience - -  group violence can and frequently does, escalate when there is a police presence. There seems to be certain satisfaction among gang-like groups of youth if they experience themselves as having the power as a few, to mobilise uniformed forces. There are some social media stories circulating that some police persons are fearful of confronting gang members and some, it is said, are bought out with threats of violence against their families 

It's doubtful whether either the protest or the police strategies are the solution. They may be pouring petrol on the fire. We have to find a way of addressing the disease and not the symptoms.

What attempts are made to do this, and by whom?

 Some church groups. There was a  national TV news item which featured a church group giving full "rock styled" sets of musical instruments and sound equipment to a school in the flats.
The banners read. "Join Bands, Not Gangs". It was intended as preventative and life changing. I wondered if this endeavour in a school was preaching to the converted, a cheque book exercise, without getting hands dirty..... and getting high profile media exposure as a pay-off.

Dr Shernaaz Carelse at the Western Cape mini Conference this month, spoke of having come from "one of our projects in the Cape Flats". It must be assumed then, that the Social Work Department of the University of the Western Cape is undertaking "on the  ground" work in gang areas. Social workers are involved in the mess of gangs and gang membership, or with the parents and community. No publicity, just quietly getting on with it. No high public profiling ..... typical of Social Service professional practice. 

Dr Carelse immediately then said that child and youth care workers belong in the work with gangs. Dr Carelse and I are in sync. Child and youth care workers belong in gang work.

Brian Gannon told me that in 1989, Dr Barnado's Homes, a type of young person's residential consortium, closed the doors of all it's residential facilities. It was part of a UK national move to de-institionalise child and youth care by closing residential facilities. Brian Gannon quoted figures saying that Barnado's was reaching about 400 young people. They moved their programmes into the streets. .....there they reached about 4000 young people. Success was measured by an annual count of the percentage of the young people entering the Criminal justice system through the district courts. I seem to remember him saying that in one East of London districts, the number dropped from +40% of all cases to 17%.

I cannot but help thinking of Amy Biehl. In the South African apartheid era, at the age of 25 while delivering bread to families in Guguletto, she was brutally murdered by two youth. Her body was dumped into a culvert. Her parents came from the USA for her funeral. In the midst of pain and loss and distress the Biehls recognised a need among township youth, which, if it could be met in a constructive way, would contribute to the reduction of violence and crime. They had built and resourced Youth Centres in Guguletto and other townships. The main off the street attraction was, among other programmes, the boxing clubs. They opened Bakeries to provide employment and easily accessed bread... Biehls Bakeries. Disasters are signs of social need, and so, social  service.
Like Barnado"s and the Biehl's.

Gang warfare is a sign of need. A sign of a need for intervention and Social Services We say as child and youth care workers that we work in the lifespace of young people . We say we have a unique approach. This is where we are needed. We must take our programmes into the streets. We must apply what we know, apply our skills and self where the need is now calling for us... in the streets where there are young people in the grip of gangs. It's not for me to spell out tasks, our professionality and our track record in South Africa speaks for itself. Enough to say that child and youth care workers will approach the roots of the need for young people to join gangs. Irirangi Make is a restorative justice worker among indigenous people. In social media she says, "We are not dealing with just the individual, the incident that brings a person here ( the justice system) we look at it from whanau. Whanau is a multi-layered, flexible physical, social, family, extended family and spiritual  perspective. This is EXACTLY where child and youth care workers in South Africa have considerable experience and knowledge in practice. An integrated case management, multi-disciplinary team approach is indicated. In this setting, child and youth care workers will contribute invaluably and practically to the reclaiming of young people in gangs.  Barnado's  and the Biehls did it. Child and youth care workers know how to reframe and redirect a-social and anti-social behaviours toward the more appropriate , pro-social, less damaging,   

Child and youth care workers know the adrenaline rush in young people...the "Let's make a movie "stuff....They know adventure seeking and risk taking as a developmental need, they know connection and belonging, the insignia, the regalia, fear, power, oppression, issues of self esteem, control , manipulation, poverty, parenting, issues of skin colour, identity and support in the management of anger and change.

It's time.   Child and youth care work has to put it's money where its mouth is. We have to do outreach work. We have to take our programmes into the streets.

    





    

WRITE -UP OR WRITE OFF....CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

doctorate in Social


At the Western Cape mini conference on the 2nd October 2018, Dr Shernaaz Carelse of the University of the Western Cape stressed the need for child and youth care workers to WRITE. Dr Carelse is well positioned to encourage us to write and to publish. She was a child and youth care worker in residential setting, now with a doctorate in social work. She knows well, as do I, that we, in South Africa have a lot to say.....and that's just what we do.  SAY it!  We are a nation of oral communicators. We are avid and animated story tellers, We don't write - very sad. YET, we all know the story..."If it's not recorded, .....it didn't happen".

If we don't publish we run the risk of being regarded as a lesser profession in the social service professional sector. 

Prof Adrian Van Breda is the editor of the journal South African Journal of Social Work and Social Development published by University of Johannesburg and Unisa Press. In a message to me he said " Would be good to have child and youth care literature". There is another Social Work Journal published at Stellenbosch in South Africa, Social Work/ Maatskaplikewerk. ...good thinking to publish in more than one language and to publish digitally

Of course we have a South African child and youth care journal! And ... it has international recognition . The NACCW published quarterly CHILD & YOUTH CARE WORK. I live in the bushveld.  Postal deliveries are slow, to no go. So the most recent I have is Quarter 1, 2018. The editorial apart, there are 6 articles in the journal of which, 3 are contributed by South Africans. The others are gleaned from non South African writers or journals. Interesting that one of these is a research report form a Phd student from Hamburg on research she did in Cape Town Childrens' Homes.

We have in South Africa, members on the editorial teams of at least two international e-journals Relational Child and Youth Care Practice (published quarterly) and  CYC-on line published by CYC-net (monthly).

There are many opportunities and space for us, as South African child and youth care to contribute writing for editorial teams to consider for publication. 

We can create space and opportunities for ourselves. How about a monthly newsletter for a NACCW Region, or for your organisation.? We can always make our Annual General Report booklets into a something worthwhile with our child and youth care contributions. Write in the social media, tell the success stories, in-house research outcomes,...even just a literature review is a helpful piece of writing.

As child and youth care workers we must write!

I have a few thoughts for talk .......better....a few thoughts for writing.

Writing is like prayer, You have to do it, to learn how to do it.

Composers of music, I am told, often get, or hear a melody in their heads. In these odd, often inopportune moments, they have to grab something to scribble it down. As an aspiring learner writer, that happens to me. Thoughts, ideas, words come and I have to write them down, then and there, otherwise they go as fast as they came. Frequently a line, a phrase, or even a whole page gets scribbled on a piece of scrap paper at odd times.....mainly when I'm standing somewhere. I seldom write sitting down. We all have our idiosyncrasies.

Roald Dahl had a wooden garden wendy house. At a certain time every morning he would go there, wrap his legs in a blanket and write for a few hours. He disciplined himself to write every day. 

Googling seems to feature as part of writing. As does reading. Apart from the information bit, reading develops for us a lexicon, a compendium, a vocabulary, a bank of words and style which later flow from the unconscious.

Where can we, as child and youth care workers draw ideas for our writing?

Simply, from what we do, our programmes, our creative interventions, our "Aha" moments or our internal struggles with the tensions between theory and practice. Our South African praxis.     I can never tire of saying ....our value to the world is in our South African, our indigenous way of doing things. If its not recorded,....it never happened.

Now we get to the actual writing part. There are short courses offered on writing for publication. I hope that soon child and youth care workers in South Africa will have to gather Continuing Professional Development points ( CPD points) for continued annual registration as professionals. A course for CPD points for writing for publication in child and youth care work is enticing.

Pointer 1 . Decide clearly for whom you are writing. Who is your target readership? Academics? First time, setting-out child and youth care workers? The international world of child and youth are? Who?. Be very sure of this. Obviously, the target readership determines style and language. This blog is called Child and Youth Care TALK. The idea is to have a conversation with busy child and youth care workers. A quick,easy read.

Pointer 2. Decide on your message. A single main message is ideal. Some supporting sub-messages, some narratives and examples  support the message... then sometimes they become the message!   I had a High School teacher who always said of us as pupils, "You remember the story but you forget the POINT !" 

Pointer 3. Plan, at least roughly. A point by point draft outline. Then you can expand on the points to make an article.

Pointer 4. Find a suitable title....something that will grab the attention of your target readership.

Pointer 5. Then write,!!! -  editing can come later. Don't worry too much about correctness. If you don't see it when you edit, the editorial team will help you out. The South African Council for Social Services Professions, for example have advertised for a language expert to edit writing before it's published. Most editorial teams tweek material before it goes into print .

Pointer 5.Write, write write, frequently. ....then is begins to flow.

Pointer 6 Think about picture stories, videos  books and blogs. 

Again, if we can think, if we experience ....and we do,....then we can write. As South African child and youth care workers we are known to be fearless, outspoken, colourful, creative, child-centered hardworking and unique. At very least we can tell of what we do. With our special qualities captured in print, we should not and cannot be demeaned as a profession.




     



  

CAN WE CRY?....CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

A social media post with pics  told that a young boy stabbed a teacher to death. A follow-up post showed a pic of the boy. It said that the youngster died of epilepsy. I wept. I wept for the boy. I wept for the teacher. I wept for the the whole horrendous situation. I wept at the comments which said, mainly, "If this is true, then he deserved it." "Revenge is sweet". I couldn't help it. The tears just came. 

It was much the same when a news report told of a driver of a bus which overturned. Nine people died in that incident. The driver was found hiding in the back of a truck. He was arrested and taken into custody.
 I seem to live my life a moment away from tears. But, I said to myself, "This is OK, I'm in the privacy of my own home."

I was once visiting at a hospital when a patient died. The nurse drew the curtains around the bed, went into the glass enclosed duty room and sobbed. She was comforted by the other nurses.We could all see. I thought "professionally you don't do that" - at least she did try to make it private.

Is it OK for professionals to cry. Is it OK for us, as professional child and youth care workers, to cry?" 

I have cried on a few occasions. .....once openly sobbed.

We ran, what we called disciplinary enquiries" for young persons, especially the older ones if the incident warranted it. The idea was to mirror for them what would happen in the workplace ....an experience in a safe microcosm of  life in the big world out there. 

The boy, near on 18, didn't come back after a weekend at his parent's house. He was 5 days late! I the course of the whole thing of "why?" It struck me that he had no experience of anyone caring enough about him for him to understand that ANYONE would worry about him and his wellbeing......as did his child and youth care worker. I excused myself. Said there would be a 5 minute break; went out onto the verandah and cried.

A boy's family of 3, got killed in a car accident. He acted out at school which threatened expulsion. At our enquiry, he said, "I don't care, What do I have to live for?"......I cried. That "nothing to lose, don't care "...was just so sad,...scary and so very dangerous.

We stopped having "disciplinary enquiries". Instead we held "incident discussion meetings"which changed the tone and the nature of what we did.....more in line with restorative justice and restitution. I was sure that those big guys would experience any tears as weakness and an inability to provide FIRST for their needs.

When we were to leave the Children's Home for another work appointment the community of children were given 6 months notice. A Psychologist helped with the termination process It was all carefully, professionally and strategically planned . Two days before we were due t leave, 3 girls cut their wrists that night. When I reported. the next day at the final Board Meeting.... I openly broke down !!!! I was SO embarrassed! Professionals JUST DON'T DO THAT !!!! .. or do we?

Are we allowed to cry as professional child and youth care workers? We developed a protocol. Yes, but in private. And yet,,,, I saw times when tears seemed to add something to a moment of caring,...... not that often, I must however say. 

Then again, I saw what I called "unfortunate tears", moments of anger, frustration, disappointment. Often when child and youth care workers experienced the organisation ( or me!), as not providing enough support after difficult experiences.These tears seem to talk of the caring community, the therapeutic milieu and personal supportive supervision. I was fortunate in having really good intra-personal supervision. On a contract basis with a Board member. I received excellent supportive personal supervision from a psychologist and the from a past Director of a Place of Safety. This, believe me, helps ....no... it is essential when living a life close to tears as we do as child and youth care professionals.

We all know that tears are healthy, it's just that we are not expected to let our personal emotions interfere with our first responsibility.This is REALLY DIFFICULT ...We have to sort out our sympathy from our empathy. But, if you must, if you can, cry in supervision, ..and rather not in a glass enclosed duty room

LEGALISED MARIJUANA.....CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

No sweat to find a theme for this weeks blog!  There was a blaze of social media posts and comments on the recent Constitutional Court ruling that legalised marijuana (cannabis, dagga, weed) for household use....."weed is legal in South Africa."....."Holy smoke!" "weedsellers are now florists".......the plants can now be grown domestically...from what I could gather from the social media posts, 12 plants can be grown. Domestic use quantity for smoking can be carried privately. 

Judge Raymond Zondo's Constitutional Court ruling went like this;

Some extracts: 
" The personal use of dagga is not a criminal offence."

"The right to privacy is not confined to a home or private dwelling. It will not be an offence for an adult person to use or be in possession of cannabis in a private place " (my italics).

"This judgement does not specify how many grams of cannabis can a person use or have in private.".........(the legislature will have to consider a quantity that  does not constitute undue harm) my brackets.

What's good about this judgement? Some say that the drug dealers who sell dagga, sell other stuff as well. What they are reputed to do is to introduce young people to harder drugs until a young person gets hooked. Then they kick in with the demand to pay. The dealers are accused of using dagga among young persons as a "gateway"  to the harder stuff. By legalising dagga for domestic use, they say, it could be possible that the dealer is left out.

In terms of the Constitutional Court ruling. it's still illegal to deal. It all depends on how much is being carried. The police have to make a decision.

BUT THEN:   I heard this twice from different sources. An Anti-drug action group said that legislation won't close down the drug houses. They said that the police have a monthly target figure for the arrest of persons in possession. The police they said, would not allow the drug houses to close They will still be protected to ensure that their arrest targets can be met. In fact, they argued, more street corner arrests for possession are likely.....their comment..." Moe people in jail....more children denied parents".??

The big argument in support,
Dagga is less harmful to health than alcohol or cigarettes. It is said to have beneficial health benefits, properties that fight or reduce the growth of cancer cells, is safer in the lungs and slows down the onset and process of Parkinsons and Alzheimer's. There appears some evidence to support this.

What are the negatives for young people?
Alcohol and cigarettes have an age restriction for purchase. It's 18 years. One our leaders in South African child and youth care posted a pic of the dagga plant on facebook with the comment: "for your own home only and not under 18". I queried whether he got the age restriction for purchase of dagga from the Constitutional Court ruling. His reply was "No, that came from my desk". I searched the judgement for an age restriction on the sale of dagga and couldn't  find one......only "for adult use". 

I'm not sure what it means for children age 13/14 to buy dagga. Presumably they will smoke it. My experience in a residential care facility was that the boys, when high acted out in a state of euphoria coupled with the loss of fear . A sense of being indestructible.... "if I jump off the roof.... I will fly!" .. type of thing. It's not called  "giggle weed" for nothing. Also there was a belief that physical prowess is improved. I don't know if that is so.
I have this possibly unfounded view that it's not wise or clever for a 13/14 year old to smoke weed, especially at school.
What do we really know about children and marijuana?
Little. As an illegal substance our researchers say that research has been slowed down or made almost impossible. Some research in the USA States in which it is legalised, show scanty evidence of any negative effects on fetal development of the baby in-utero. One research exposed the brain cells of mice and then living human brain cells to marijuana. They found evidence of a negative effect on aspects of neurological development which could affect cognitive functioning and problem solving into adulthood.
What if children smoke it? One statistic I found said that an estimated 61% of children in South Africa had tried it by the age 14....even if just as an experiment.
  Only recently a father spoke about his son who started out on marijuana at age 14. Graduated to nyope (wonga) and whose acting out was a risk to himself, property and others. So some social media comment is that with the legalisation of dagga will come a mindset that the marijuana mixes, like nyope are now legal.

Another concern is the effect that smoking marijuana may have on driving and so on motor vehicle accidents as this could well have an effect on children as passengers or pedestrians. The American states reported a nil effect. Alcohol related accidents ..yes, but the effect of alcohol and marijuana use when driving increaded the accident rate significantly.

Social Service Professionals are putting out different but strongly worded messages about the legalisation of dagga in South Africa. Some want the field to protest, to publish position statements. They want South Africa to know about the number of cannabis related cases to whom they have to provide interventive services. 
Some say that we now don't have to feel like criminals when we recreate or take marijuana based medication.

Right now, it all sounds somewhat dis-jointed!

JUGGLERS, AND FIRE-EATERS...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Child and youth care workers this week, posted on social media ...."We are"....We aren't", 'We hope ", "We don't". Messages of confusion.

The moment in which we live and work is rather like a juggling act 
with all the balls in the air.
Let us try to catch a few.

In March this year. the Department of Social Development's service level agreement( SLA) and memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Association of Child Care Workers came to an end. It was a five year agreement in which the Association was contracted to be the service provider for the training of nearly 9000 learners attached to Isibindi Projects throughout the country.
The norms and standards and the model itself was monitored, evaluated and maintained by Mentors. The Mentors were employed by the NACCW whilst the learners were contracted and paid by the Department of Social Development provincially. It was all done in  partnerships. All of these arrangements terminated on the expiry of the 5 year guaranteed period.

So, child and youth care workers in some provinces experience delay. Uncertainty and confusion go hand in hand with delay. It seems to be taking a long time. Here's a ball in the air for child and youth care workers caught in the juggling act. Where and when will it land?

Another juggling ball in the air.... The NACCW which designed and developed the Isibindi model provided the safegaurds that protected the child and youth care thinking, philosophy and practice of the model. Child and youth care workers are asking with some anxiety whether the model will somehow change. The National Department of Social Development now, in a sense, have a sort of ownership of the community-based child and youth care model. Will it's name change? Will, they ask, the approach, philosophy, the way of working, its practice, change?  For them,the ball is in the air. 

The red and the blue balls are in the air. Oops, there's a yellow one!

Child and youth care workers are worried about employment. Social media texts..."I have a degree and I'm not employed". This juggling ball could be airborne, in flight, because of a moment in our history. Just prior to the then Minister of Social Development signing the regulations that legislate the levels of professional child and youth care workers, the Professional Board for child and youth care work attempted a survey through the universities. The question was, "How many higher learning and degree graduates have we?" At that time the estimate was 600+. But where were they? Services were extensively provided by child and youth care workers with the Basic Qualification in Child Care ( at level 2 or 3) or with no qualification at all. In the promulgated regulations there is a "sunset clause", a granny clause, a catch all to give everyone a chance to register at the auxiliary level (even on the strength of a job description only). This was designed to be  inclusive and to give child and youth care workers a chance to get a qualification.
It was also understood that child and youth care workers who held posts and operated within the scope of practice of a child and youth care worker at the professional level, like supervisors, managers programme managers and senior posts, would retain their job titles and key functions. They had to know that they were secure. No-one was to be demoted. No jobs lost as a result of registration.
The thinking was and still is, that TIME would work this anomaly  out of the system.
Employers were expected to advertise and fill vacant posts with graduates when the scope of practice demanded a child and youth care worker registered at the professional level.

History is still working itself out, but has been unfairly and illegally slowed by employers who advertise senior positions and fill the posts with child and youth care workers at the auxiliary level. 
The child and youth care workers most left hanging in mid-air are those with a Diploma in Child and Youth Care Work at level six. They seem to be neither one nor the other. Advantage is taken of that. 
Statute does regulate all of this, but for as long as employers are allowed to ignore it, We remain in limbo and the juggle goes on.

The situation is not improved by the so-called "freezing "of government posts and the NGO's continue to struggle financially. (I've said that before!!!!)

Red, blue, yellow .... floating in the juggling act.
Haaai ! another just popped up! Its the black ball inscribed "salaries".....enough said.

But here's a green ball. Reach out to catch it..... The Isibindi Project can't fade out and die. It has stirred up the interest and support of the children and young persons, of the communities who benefited by it. It attracts funders because of its international status. Together with the Safe Park Model, and its add-on programmes it is rooted in South African soil. In some provinces it continues and in Kwa-Zulu Natal it is operating as Isibindi with a zulu word appended to its name. Take heart. It cannot fall and die.

And another close to hand --- Orange. There is a surge of interest for child and youth care workers to be employed in schools. This surge of interest could not have come at a better time. Possibly the Department of Education had a gestalt moment when press and the media reported a significant number of incidents involving violence, behaviour management needs, drop-outs, school rapes and a high pregnancy rate in schools.  The need for child and youth care workers in schools can no longer be a juggling act. ......reach and catch this one!

 Confusing times, but not without hope. With child and youth care established as a profession in South Africa and with the fire in our bellies, let them bring on the juggling clowns.....we know how to walk the tightrope and eat fire.

My Facebook cover pic reads
"When you are in a dark place, you sometimes tend to think that you've been buried.
PERHAPS YOU HAVE BEEN PLANTED !......BLOOM ! "