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.







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