WHY WE LEAD.....SOUTH AFRICAN CHILD AND YOUTH CARE

A telephonic comment made this week was that South Africa is regarded by many countries in the world as a leader of some aspects of child and youth care work ...That's good news for a change !!

Why so ?? It's worth some thought, some talk

The registration of child and youth care workers in South Africa puts us ahead of many countries world wide. It's interesting that much of the noise we made about  non-recognition as professionals is still being made on international social media by many other countries.

OK, we do still complain about non recognition because of the disparity of salaries. But registration as professionals is a statutory requirement to practice. It is a legal requirement that we adhere to a professional code and policy of ethics and conduct that  guarantees the protection of our clients. The accreditation of our qualifications by a Professional Board and Council is a field leader.We get requests from Africa, Canada, South America  and from the East for our regulatory framework and information into the process we followed.

An invitation has been extended to the Registrar of the South African Council for Social Services Professions (SACSSP) to attend an international conference in Europe. This raised a comment that it is important for the international community to know about South Africa's regulatory system. It appears that we may be unique in having field specific Professional Boards for all the social service professions and occupations with a single integrated co-ordinating Council. Right now it could well put us even further ahead here. Right now there is social work, child and youth care work, with community development, early childhood development and care workers coming down the track. Youth development work could well be hovering in peripheral vision.

Conceptual thinking within the social services professions could well put us further ahead in the leadership stakes Thinking such as  Integrated Case Management, and specialised child and youth care auxiliary work.

Another leadership feature in South Africa are the rigorous checks and balances in place to ensure.....Yes... GUARANTEE  that our qualifications meet international standards. What I like about this ( although it can be very time consuming) is that it's not just our qualification exit levels that are  interrogated. Content, learning materials, didactics (methodology), facilitators guides, learner guides,and workplace relevance .....all carefully evaluated and interrogated against minimum quality norms and standards. Again, together with a number of other regulatory bodies, the Professional Boards and the South African Council plays a seminal role.

Way back, in the days of the Basic Qualification in Child and Youth Care  (BQCC) at level 2 or 3, child and youth care workers who immigrated to the United Kingdom in particular were accepted and employed  on the strength of their qualification. We have grown considerably since then.

Let's get away from the SACSSP for a moment.

South Africa leads because of it has great leaders, nationally and internationally.I'm afraid to list them lest I offend someone through an unintentional omission. Still, for me, Brian Gannon stands out. His pioneering work in, for example, founding the National Association  of Child and Youth Care Workers(NACCW) in South Africa, his contribution to CYC-discussion network, his publications and his international status is of undeniable significance.
The  NACCW has spawned many significant leaders over the years...43 years to be exact. From this leadership came our registration as a profession after 25 years of active struggle.From this leadership and within teams was born our internationally acclaimed and unique South African models of child and youth care work...... The whole transformed South African system of child and youth care, our continuum of care from prevention to detention, our early models of excellence in residential care, group foster care , the Isibindi Project model of community based care, the Safe Park model with all it's add-on programmes.  Have I left any out? probably !

Then, our own internationally recognised NACCW South African Journal Child and Youth Care Work , our contribution in editorial teams to international journals and e-journals like CYC-Net e-journal, Relational Child and Youth Care Work . This gives us international credibility and puts us in the international spotlight.

Our Conferences. South Africa hosted a Federation of Child Educators Conference ..an international conference. Even so, international leaders in the child and youth care field make a point of attending and contributing to our NACCW Bi-annual Conferences, Next year 2019, the Conference will couple also with CYC-Net International.

Le me say....it's not just little old me trying to make out a case for our leadership in the child and youth care field. Comment on social media, messages, and comment in various media and global web-sites confirm thinking around our leadership in various aspects of the child and youth care field. 
Only recently there was a comment on this blog-site that If only we had leadership such as you have. We would be much better off.
It was an East Asian country I think....not sure.

Yes, we do have shortfalls....the struggle continues, ..it really does.
Yes despite all African and international leads,we don't seem in our own country to experience the rewards of our recognition....especially in the issue of salaries. Remember a prophet is seldom recognised in his own hometown. But we continue our struggle with a certain pride, dignity and passion.

And that's another accolade. South African child and youth care workers are recognised internationally as persistent, diligent ,hard working and we put the the best interests of the country's children  first.

That is why we lead.



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STAND AND PROTECT...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

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There was a recent call on social media for a National Day of Prayer for the children of South Africa. It called for a 12 noon moment of prayer . The reason?... the horrifying number of child rapes coupled with child killings in this country. A web-site question at that time was entitled " Is it true that a child is raped every 6 minutes in South Africa?" The argument was that statistics reported cases didn't reflect the actual figures because of a culture, silence and unreporting. The upsurge of child rape incidences in South Africa IS horrifying. Made more so by the coupling of child rape with child killings, which of course hit the headlines.


My blog of 25th June 2012 was entitled, "Child Rape....so now for the Safe Village" It quotes an editorial comment on the "horrifying" numbers of child rape cases......2012 !!! It quotes the African saying "It takes a village to raise a child. Then goes on to say, "Our villages are rotten to the core". The blog makes out a case for the opposite. Our villages are not rotten to the core.  Current community outrage has taken to the streets. Generally with the demand that the police to do more.

The blog makes out a case for the "Safe Village". Nothing has changed since 2012. It's worse , Surely, the time is NOW. As professional child and youth care workers we have a responsibility not just to advocate, but to ACT.

The Isibindi community-based professional child care project has done much toward child protection. It has an add-on Child Protection Programme. The Isibindi Safe Park provides 65 square meters of after school safety and early professional intervention. It is adulted with child and youth care professionals. Now let's take some of those principles and apply them to the village, the safe settlement, the safe street, the safe apartment, the safe neighbourhood.

In the social media this week appeared a quote by Jane Austin. "Every man is surrounded by a neighbourhood of voluntary spies". further comment continues."Knowing your neighbours is one of the best methods of crime prevention as they know your sounds, lights, movement and can inform your security company when anything seems wrong. I can't afford a security company, but we have a community volunteer service called "Nieghbourhood Watch.

At one time , three houses up, a neighbour trained herself to read the signs that are sometimes drawn on the pavement or roadside outside a house to mark you, your house ,your vulnerability and risks for robbers. For one who IS vulnerable, this was re-assuring.

That's it!! It has to do with learning to read the signs of child vulnerability, And this is where the professional child and youth care worker is ideally positioned We are trained to do exactly that.... read the signs.We are trained to design safe environments We know what to do to ensure a safe environment and to follow-up.

During the struggle against apartheid, Street Committees played an important role. The Street Committee Chairperson lead the watch. People were sensitised to quickly spot any possible erosion of dignity or rights affecting the people living in the street, neighbourhood, demarcated area. I saw this system at work in an urban informal settlement in Johannesburg much to the benefit of the children living there. Street Committees were a force to be reckoned with !!

In 1996 forward the Department of Welfare launched a child protection initiative called "Circles of Care". Posters were erected everywhere in the more vulnerable areas of Johannesburg . There was one outside my house in the urban slum area in which I lived and worked. It was designed to mobilise people to organise themselves to keep watch. There was a telephone number to call as an alert if there was suspicion of a child protection need. I can't remember when that campaign came to an end.

At about that time also the concept of Project Management funding was introduced through regulation by Minister Geraldine Fraser Moleketsi. The funding model insisted that per-capita be replaced by funding on the strength of funding proposals from the agency that showed that it was providing not only residential services, but also, and essentially, outreach programmes for prevention and early intervention as well as partnerships and networking with community based initiatives. Residential service programmes all knew that they would not be funded UNLESS they were contributing actively to the care and safety of children in the surrounding neighbouhood. ....And I am not talking about lecturing to children in schools.

It's time!!. 2012 is long gone and our child rape and child killing incidences have escalated. We appear to have a child protection crisis exacerbated by violent child violations ....even death.

Not a serious comment ! Pity we cant fence the square meters of a village., A serious comment we can establish demarcated boundaries within which professional child and youth care workers can set up a Safe Village Model. It will mean that we empower respected and responsible adults within it. By far... the village is NOT rotten to the core.

I have sat for at least half a day at a time in local well clinics packed with young mothers, waiting for a child to be examined. Large numbers of primary care givers, guardians and grandmothers sit there. some organisations and initiatives use the opportunity of having a captive bored group of mothering women. Breast feeding, pap smears, contraception, avoidance of abortion ..... nothing on child protection. Nothing on reading the signs or signals that identify a possible initiator or risk, or what how to respond for the protection of any child in the neighbourhood.

School teachers and early childhood education practitioners are also critical role players in the Safe Village. Then too can be empowered by child and youth care workers to read signs ans signals. But also for example,to act by ensuring that children are accompanied in groups when they walk home. A walking "Lift club" Ensuring checks on transportation. Bottom line.... we really need child and youth care workers in schools and ECD Centres. One way of doing this is for them to Partner with the nearest residential Child and Youth Care Centre. This worked well for me when I managed an ECD in a high risk area. But then as I explained Residential Facilities were required to lend out workers for this type of preventive work

Then for the whole model, itself. The apartheid time Street Committee could be adapted because it worked and it works. Again, child and youth care workers are ideally positioned to offer 24 hr 24/7 support services. Residential facilities can provide drop-in services, Ambo-styled learning and empowerment services to community members, safe houses.... or at least safe house support, help-lines, reporting services within a multi-disciplinary team, easy access to police services, 

It can't be THAT difficult to design an empowered, supported SAFE VILLAGE. Therapeutic and protective environments is what we do. SO WE MUST DO IT.

We have as a knowledge founded and skills based profession ACT NATIONALLY NOW.

START, STOP, GO !....CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

You will by now be aware, social media posts often provide subject for these blog talks.This week it was a potent comment asking if Managers should be held accountable and be sanctioned with "consequences" when children and young people stay in child and youth care centres for 5 years and longer. Then, if not the Manager.....who ??? 

Good question.

And.... a question one would think should not have to be asked in 2018.

The transformation of the child and youth care system in South Africa  has had a long history. In 1995, South Africa signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In 1996, The South African policy for the  transformation of the child and youth care system was published in a book we called "the green bible", and implemented. The Transformation "bible"is congruent with the UN Convention and lists 17 Principles against which the work of  child and youth care centres came to be assessed. The most relevant to the problem of prolonged stay in institutional care are these; Normalisation, continuity of care, continuum of care. The Children's Act at that time was amended to contain a statutory  period of stay of 2 years, Thereafter any  further stay had to be well argued before the Child Commissioner. It was the parents who were declared "unfit". So it was the social workers task to show movement and give reason for an extended stay. Some of this has changed, but the principle of "shortest possible stay" remains. In concept, "movement" of the child underpinned the transformation policy and the South African system, and still does. The principles and the system hold good.

The whole of the transformed system is based on the idea of the child being in the "least restrictive, most empowering" life style.

In the macro system .....just a reminder of the range of broad categories.... Prevention, Early Intervention, Statutory. In the statutory continuum, there is ....remain with parent under supervision of a social worker ( and now possibly a child care worker)  foster care, adoption, place of safety, children's home, and what we now call child and youth care centres. (of old, ..places of detention).

But at a micro level, the concept of "least restrictive, most empowering" was applied to any residential service. Individualisation of programme and environment design was intended to provide children and young people the opportunity to move along a less restrictive continuum of care WITHIN the facility too. In this way they are supported, prepared, made ready, to move out (exit) to the more empowering life spaces in the macro system at the same time as any reunification, permanency plan work is done.

The social media post implied that this was not happening as it should for all young people. That some are getting stuck. Blame is being tossed around. Some say the Managers are to blame, some say the Commissioners,some say lack of resources, some say reunification services, some say lack of effort, some say once the child is in care the problem has gone away.

Because prolonged institutional stay is regarded as having negative effects for a young person transitioning into adulthood and because it is not in line with the major charters that mandate child and youth care, .. I thought that prolonging stay in a residential setting is an ethical issue .I still think this.

Then I wondered about the numbers or percentages of children placed in care where circumstances realistically made it impossible for them to be moved, in any way, out of a group residential programme as intended in our system. The best homework I could do was a statistical profile of children and young people in residential services recently conducted by the Department of Social Development in the Eastern Cape Province. The profile was done to get statistics on the children in residential services, to establish needs and their potential for some exit plan on the principles of the continuum and continuity of care. 1300 children were profiled. Of which, 112 had severe behaviour disorders,82 were abandoned, 38 were orphaned. 150 were in temporary care in places of safety of which 10 had severe behavioural disorders and 50 had stayed longer than 12 months with no plan.. ( the legal period of stay being 6 months). Taking these statistics and computing roughly, it would appear asif  3-5% of children coming into residential services require permanent alternative care in the Eastern Cape. From way back there lurked in the back of my mind that there were 2-3% of children coming into residential care in South Africa who would for various reasons not be be reunited, find kinship care, or some other form of placement. Also, there is a clear need for children's homes to take on a role of a treatment centre for some children , if not most. The reasons were, and still are the unmanageability of some children outside of professional care. Some have no support systems that can be traced (the so-called true orphan). some are too old for foster placement or adoption. They are legitimately somehow, stuck in the system. These children have their rights and hopefully their needs, met in what is frequently called "alternative care". SOS Childrens Villages were established and geared to provide such a service.

If the estimated calculations are somewhere near accurate, then it was legitimate to ask the question about prolonged stays in residential institutions. We certainly cant blame the system. As always South Africa leads the way with policy, statute and system. We often have issues with implementation.

In about 1996 the Department of Social Development (Dept of Welfare as it was then known) instituted a project called "Operation GO !"  Project GO teams were established. Mainly social workers in the Department, District, Provincial and National together with the facility social worker, Manager and the child care worker who was the child's "focus" worker. The purpose was to look at the status of the exit and permanency plan as the period of stay neared the two year mark. Plans were made for after-care, safety-net, and family support. Given logistic and resource shortages and heavy case loads, it often happened that the facility provided these services in the community. One could say that even then we had developed something close to the Integrated Case Management model. Certainly a Multi-disciplinary team approach. In Gauteng , and for a few years, Operation Go! worked very well. Then for some reason it stopped. In some provinces I have heard say that it didn't work that well. It would have floundered if the allocation of tasks didn't include the child's primary worker. and permit the support of the facility or if there was some form of professional territorialism.

I see hope in the Provincial undertaking to profile children in residential services, Though I was told that this was mooted in 2005.!! It seems to be a good start for the re-introduction of some form of Operation Go! This time round with Integrated Case Management, guaranteed effort-filled post residential care and support, professional transitioning for children, young people and families or community care givers. Isibindi is a very good programme to allow that young people get the professional support they need in a non-statutory non-residential setting.....and we didn't have the benefit of that resource in 1996.!! 

Then who will be to blame?  The full team !!

LET'S GO !

PETROL ON THE FIRE ???..CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Prof Nick Smiar at his "Ethics Seminar"was quoted as saying "Don't put petrol on the fire!" I thought that it had to do with the way we, as professional child and youth care workers were tackling our current unacceptable situation. I was corrected. He was referring to possible counter-aggression if caught in the stress cycle. Still, the thought came to me. Are we using counter-aggressive tactics as a reaction? "Putting petrol on the fire"?

If poorly serviced, unheeded, unheard, it has become a South African pattern of thought that we are now left only with taking to the streets, with memoranda for parliamentary ministers.

Maybe we do need a change of tactic. 

One of the problems we have is that we look inward then put it all "out there" in the social media (and in this blogsite) seemingly preaching to the converted. We may be contemplating our own navels, then addressing the same whatsapp group.... the navel gazing community of child and youth care workers.

Attention grabbing this week was a facebook call for child and youth care workers to use all the social media....whatsapp, facebook, twitter....and more, to "market" ourselves. The argument was that government and the other recognised structures in the field have not done this.
Obviously,We don't need convincing of our own value to children and the nation. A massive campaign has to be launched to create NATIONAL AWARENESS around what child and youth care is, and what child and youth care workers do, the value we add to social change social justice and a better life for all. 

So how now?

My first thought was that we have nothing to market unless our professional practice is branded by its excellent professional service to children and young people without in any way being "staged".  Our clients (includes families) must become our "word of mouth" publicity. Our professional registration is not just a number. It is a guarantee that our practice is not just some kind of superficial caring, that it is ethical and free from any malpractice. The children and their families have to experience it as such. They are our strongest marketing message in any of our settings but especially, it seems, when we practice directly in the public eye. Community-based work, family preservation, prevention programmes, follow-up and drop-in services put our practice on public display. 

Its tempting to use the children and parents themselves then, as a strategic marketing initiative. I remember two painful experiences At a conference/seminar in a packed auditorium, a group of girls each gave testimony to the quality if service they were experiencing in a residential "home". The problem was that they were obviously schooled, rehearsed and presenting a carefully staged performance ..Two questions from the audience and the pretence could not be sustained. Half the group openly cried. I hope they got supportive counselling.

In my workplace one morning I looked out of my window to see a small herd of strangers being accompanied through the grounds and into the dormitories. The boys in care had not been in any way consulted. I knew nothing of the arrangement. My outrage was that resident children and young persons were used, put on show,to promote the child and youth care service invaded in their private spaces. No! No! 

Two awareness ah-ha moments impressed. 

I heard , without staging, some young people tell their own stories. They were volunteers, who had experienced programme  and transitioned into independence. "Now it's like this"."Life has changed" "Next year I qualify as a lawyer"...... Now that felt OK. On one occasion the Minister said "The President must hear this". 

The National Association for Child Care Workers (NACCW) has a story telling initiative. It is in attractive booklet form. Success stories are told. These booklets do exactly what we need to promote the child and youth care profession.
But again ... who reads these ?  Navel gazers? the wider public? government? Let's hope all of the above? There is a view that if we want to hide something...put it in print.....Pity!

Obviously the media is an awareness and marketing tool.  The comment on facebook around the "failure"of the organised structures to "market" child and youth care work may have to do with there being little or no, time-framed plan for extensive exposure in news media, magazine, journals and especially on National TV such as other social service and helping professions appear to get. If this is taken up by child and youth care workers ourselves it would have to be very carefully strategised and managed. What is once said or printed, there is no going back .The big picture and any long term thinking of the organised structures must be taken into account. We desperately need to identify credible people who can think and speak on their feet. Which reminds me, Service clubs like Rotary are always on the lookout for speakers.

I am in no way discounting the power of social media as a means of conveying our message. Notwithstanding the "hide it in text" theory, as child and youth care workers in South Africa, we don't publish enough of our unique African practice.We simply don't write enough and we have so much that should be told to the country and the world. We do great work here. The Universities used to say "Publish or Perish" I would think that they still do. Maybe as a field in South Africa, we should take up that mantra.

What has been said? A non confrontational, non counter-aggressive strategy would be to plan and operate a time-framed strategy to build awareness of the professional value of child and youth care work in the public and government. Let us make use of the full range of media at our disposal. In one of my previous blogs there was mention of interest groups, lobby groups, advocacy groups action groups and Social Action Organisations. Unfortunately usually a strategy on this scale needs some type of structure and a group of skilled persons to operate it.

The struggle continues... ever upwards 

ADVOCACY, DEMAND, CONDUCT......CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

This week's blog was sparked by a social media post, a seminar, and an e-mail letter. The e-mail; an appeal addressed to the South African Council for Social Service Professions (SACSSP) asking it to publish a weekly news letter setting out the different mandates of the Council, a Trade Union and a Professional Association.  The Facebook post was a question. Should we as child and youth care professionals join a Trade Union? The Seminar was presented by Prof Emeritus Nick Smiar on child and youth care and social work ethics.

Lets start with the Facebook Trade Union query. The overriding response was "Yes". Evocative words gave reason - "victems, "suffering, dying profession". I agreed. Join the Trade Union that you trust will serve you the best as  child and youth care workers.

Child and youth care workers are required by law to register with the SACSSP, encouraged to be a member of your professional association (NACCW), and encouraged to join a Trade Union. They each have different mandates and different ways of operating.

The urgent call for mobilisation is, without a doubt, precipitated by child and youth care labour relations experiences since last year and this year April until present. The issues have been spotlighted in my previous blogs. Here is a reminder. A six week"public servants" strike under the banner of a Trade Union that came to nothing, the so called "dry season"....no pay, no stipend. Then there is something new which I really do not understand.Workers in projects are saying that some were interviewed for employment. Some were employed and some not. Some are awaiting interviews. Suddenly they sit at home with no income and load of uncertainty. Some say they are working anyway and submitting M&E reports without pay.

 

The call is  for action now.

Facebook post; Our situation is now that we must all be, not just a profession, but all united and mobilised.

State employees in residential facilities appear to some extent organised. They have forums that report to the Department. Frustrated, they can join a Trade Union and establish a bargaining Council which would include the State employer. It's all set out very neatly in the Labour Relations Act in Section 27.

Quote:1. One or more registered Trade Unions and one or more employers associations may establish a Bargaining Council for a sector or an area. 2.(summarised) If the area or sector is one in which the State is an employer, state may be a party to the Bargaining Council.

Bargaining Councils purpose is to: conclude collective agreement, to enforce collective agreements,to prevent and resolve labour disputes, promote education and training schemes, develop for submission, policy and legislation that affect the sector.

Exactly what the sector needs. Trade Unions, it is said, are necessary for bargaining for workers rights and benefits and to regulate industrial relations. Trade Unions can make demands and call for a strike. But child and youth care workers in South Africa constantly remind each other in the social media that a prolonged national strike yielded nothing for them in the end. Because child and youth care work is categorised as an essential service there appeared to be some confusion during that period. So what does it mean when it comes to strike action?

Strictly speaking, employees in a job categorised as an essential service cannot strike. But this is in direct contradiction to the         South Africa Constitutional right to strike. So, terms and conditions have been established which, if properly applied, allows strike action. Through collective bargaining with the employer and  the strike declared legitimate, a strike may proceed if a minimum service agreement (MSA) is struck.This will include agreement as to the minimum numbers needed to provide a minimum level of service.

The professional association does "work toward" the "material circumstances" of the professionals. Its objects determine its modus operandi. It does not demand, bargain or call for collective action. Key "doing words" are "liase", "disseminate information" "support". "encourage efforts to eradicate factors". This does not make the association toothless. It uses the voice of its members to do all of this. It has, in terms of its constitutional mandate to advocate but go about things differently from a Trade Union.

The SACSSP has one object within its Act that mandates it as a voice directly with State. It can "advise" the Minister. Its primary concern is Registration, Regulating Education Qualifications and Regulating Professional Conduct.....upholding Professional Ethics.

Just as there is a policy guide for social workers, so there is a SACSSP document entitled "Policy Guidelines for the Course of Conduct for Child and Youth Care Workers".(Ed. Lodge B.J, Nadasen V, 2013). It is under revision and due for distribution this year. Section D2 deals with Labour Action. It sets out that child and youth care workers "shall be guided the profession's, values, ethical principles and ethical standards" 

These are some dont's :

Damage to property, threats of intimidation, harm in any manner to children young people and families, violence, neglect or abandonment of duty, (This is where the MSA come in),  bringing the profession into disrepute, defacing property, defamatory words or action.

There other forms of action and mobilisation. protest marches, work to rule, go slows. Each of these has been tried at some time or another. 

Homework shows that there is NO  existing employer's association in the non-governmental sector just for child and youth care workers which could form a bargaining council in terms of the Labour Relations Act

There is another concern. Community-based child and youth care workers across the country are disparate and have no consolidated voice. There is an organisational structure called a Lobby Group, (also known as an Advocacy Group and sometimes, a Pressure Group, or an Interest Group). Any individual or group can form a Lobby Group or Pressure Group.It must have a constitution and regulations to which its members subscribe. 

There was a social media comment which expressed surprise that child and youth care workers have not taken their unfair labour experiences to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). The social media impression is that child and youth care workers are fearful of as an individual, taking the state head-on That the stakes are loaded from the start and fear rightly or wrongly, further negative repercussions or even retaliation.!! 

I am nor really in favour of a proliferation of organisations. Other than Trade Unions however, the others are not mandated to demand publically confront or enter into public protestation or civil disobedience.  I favour the idea that there the NGO sector who employ child and youth care workers form an exclusive co-operative to tackle issues on behalf of their workers nationally. 

Trade Union membership is encouraged.

A lobby Group, however sounds enticing ....even sexy

 

MORE THAN ROCKET SCIENCE...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

It was Nelson Mandela who called us a Rainbow Nation. He was of course, right. Many colours, many cultures, one nation. We are encouraged to focus on what we have in common to recognise our shared humanity as a people. 'Tis true. We do have enough in common to say that we are all South African.. But then, it's not only race, nationalities. and our 13 different official languages that makes us diverse. Privilege, class, disadvantage, spirituality, restricted language codes, religion, education, rural, urban, tradition, values, heritage, gender, gender attitudes, child rearing practices, and more........all that is embraced in the word CULTURE.  We are a fascinating, complex people.

Put all of this into a child and youth care programme together with the additional complexity of the behaviour patterns of children and youth  in care, and we get  a sense of the intricacy of child and youth care practice. More than rocket science!!! Now we know for sure why we are a"profession". ..not child minders, nor nannies. nor domestic workers. It is about time that the powers that be, and the other social service professions recognise this too.

In this blog I thought to look at some of the inevitable complex patterns or phases of human experience that merge at any one moment in the daily life of children and youth in car and to parallel that with phases of child and youth care workers development to explore what working in the moment means in our practice.

One of these experiences is culture shock. 

I think that in South Africa we are particularly susceptible to culture shock.when coming into a child and youth care setting. There is always an an argument that after 24 years of democracy, the end of apartheid, segregation and separate development, that anything like culture shock would be a thing of the past. Unfortunately it's not so. We still have vestiges of apartheid living on. Bantustans and the group areas Act were scrapped. But still, many residential areas and regions are characterised by separation by colour. Township life, rural villages, provincial towns, urban slums, crowded apartments, informal settlements, overcrowding, shack life, still typify the residential settings from which children and young persons come into care. They come into residential facilities which are not only culturally diverse, but cut off from familiar sounds,smells, people, street life activities, stimulation,
community, local peers (including their gang maybe).

The facility itself has its own foreign culture. Deliberately structured, routined and sometimes.. regimented. You sleep alone dormitory style when you are accustomed to sharing a family bed.

I arrived early morning at a facility in a place surrounded as far as the eye could see with nothing but veld (grassland). it called itself "Juvenile Holding Centre".  Getting out of the car we heard a girl singing in one of the rooms facing the driveway. It had a wailing melody. "It's like crying" my colleague said. "It's from the heart, hurting about her situation." In Africa we know. In Africa, in every situation. in joy, in sadness and in pain, we sing. A single voice is joined by others as community embraces that moment with the other.......you belong... She sang alone.
A passing employee went to the window. "Thula...ukhona mlungu" ( Quiet! there's a White person here") I went to the barred window. "Please sing"I said. "It was good to hear you singing. You sing well". There were five adolescent girls in that room. Two of the were White.......she sang alone. Where was the child care worker to "do together"?  Where was the Rainbow Nation. Why the old stereotypes ?

At the same time child and youth care workers may be experiencing culture shock. The reality is different from the lecture room.

In my entrance into on-line child and youth care work, with my family and at what may appear to be a very simple experience of environmental change, I (we) experienced culture shock. It was an all white residential setting.so it wasn't a "racial" thing. It had to do with class. The children and young person's language was loaded with the most explicit expletives. Not infrequently directed at us> Some of which my children had never previously heard. Children went to school bare-footed, ate with their hands, drank tea from the saucer, no books, no reading, obsessed with TV soapies and lousy violent movies, short fuse  behaviours, Your mother.....your  ma....banter. "It just shouldn't be like this". After three weeks all I could think about was to load my suitcases onto my roof-rack, pack my family into the car  and go home.

It is said that there are four phases of culture shock. Honeymoon, crisis, adjustment, adaptation. I was at the crisis stage. We did eventually adapt. It took however at least two years practice with excellent supervision and mentoring before I felt confident that I was practicing therapeutically. I was going through my own phases of professional development and adjustment. ( doing for, doing to, doing with, doing together)

It is said that children placed in a facility separate from parents, whatever the circumstances, experience "death". I used to call it "a little death". Commonly, I guess, this is known as separation and loss. There is little need to say that there are well known phases of grief. The Kubla- Ross DABDA (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance). In no strict order and with no smooth transition. 

Children then, inevitably will show behaviours not necessarily characteristic of  that child.....quiet, withdrawn, low mood, defiance frustration, over servile, aggression, even violence.

It seems that what I'm saying is coming into a child and youth care programme is good medicine. But it  has a range of fairly unavoidable side-effect, mainly beyond your control. This applies to children and to the incoming child and youth care worker. This becomes very complicated because child and worker are experiencing different phases of adaptation at different levels at any one moment. This leaves the child and youth care worker with the responsibility to recognise what is happening with themselves and what is happening in the child in any given time. Meaning making. Then to provide support to the young person as a primary focus through it all.......culture shock ,separation, loss, adaptation to institutional life, group living and the issues that brought them into care in the first instance.

It was Prof Jim Anglin who said ....
Child and youth care is not rocket science. t is MORE THAN ROCKET SCIENCE.

When?  I ask, With registration as professionals, When, will this be acknowledged and fully recognised  in our Rainbow South Africa

THE SURVIVAL SCRAMBLE...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

A job description was something never given to me. A title....yes..Director. A job description ..no! The Boards of Management in each, at some point, gave me a task. "You will spend 50% of your time fundraising'. The Home, or you, as Director, will have 20 mentions a month in the media". "You, your face, will be the brand of the Home and used for marketing". Each month the Board of Management monitored this and evaluated its effectiveness. Good publicity equated to a good programme. Avoid negative press at whatever cost.

Chunks of time were spent on PR, giving talks at meetings of benefactors, writing "adetorials", making sure that the press attended functions. Existing to survive. Existing to exist.

I am sure that this is something that will resonate with Directors of child and youth care programmes in the non-government (NGO) sector throughout South Africa. Especially in our current funding crisis. It's painful to be constantly distracted from managing the core business of professional child and youth care by demands to brand, package, profile, market (sell), publicly relate... scramble for survival.

Always, but again, especially now in South Africa as a result of the non-payment of subsidies, there is an urgency simply to exist, to survive. 

Come desperate times - come desperate measures.  

It is enticing to use the children in our programmes and their stories, their situation, for fundraising. It's a risk loaded strategy with possible ethical implications.

The children on my first appointment gave me two warnings. Don't drink more than two glasses of wine and don't trust newspaper reporters. At the time it was trendy to call children in care, "neglected, abandoned and abused. Story goes that a reporter 'had combined these labels into a single journalistically emotive word "weggooi kinders" ( throw away children) but with a possible implication on translation into "garbage children".  More than righteously indignant, they were outraged . And rightly so.
There had to be instituted a procedural condition that before publication articles were to be vetted. Not always possible, but well intentioned journalists understood. Nothing about us, without us.

Related to this was the issue of the Home's mini-bus (in South Africa called a "combi"). All the usual good branding strategies were used. Brand colour....red, brand name...the name of the the Children's Home, brand logo.... on all sides. Now tie this to the stigma of the "weggooi kinders " idea. "People stare at us like we're  monkeys in a zoo". So they gave "the finger "sign to staring  passing motorists. Not good PR at all. The next combi had to be white with no markings. Red was for goods ( and me).

The better corporates have a binding set of corporate ethics. What is morally acceptable and not morally acceptable in its operations. There are no doubt child and youth care facilities in South Africa with such a binding course of ethical conduct for fundraising, accounting and disclosure, but I have yet to see one.

Desperate times, desperate measures . Risks that ethical boundaries  become fuzzy.

Children do tug on the heartstrings and so on the wallets of most open hearted adults. This makes the children themselves an organisation's biggest fundraising asset I suppose. Especially the younger ones. In a facility that provided a residential programme for older boys many in trouble with the law we always jokingly said that we operated at a disadvantage, "Take a photo of a young child on Nelson Mandela's lap and the funds pour in. Put one of ours on his lap and his pocket will be picked.!!"
Then also, children in care can be a funder's greatest asset for the same reason. Try telling funders that if they give to children, they must leave their cameras at the office!!

There is a local facility with an educational and residential facility for physically challenged children. It regularly busses children, wheelchairs and crutches into the local shopping mall to sell raffle tickets to shoppers or to request donations in return for a lapel sticker.

Phone call from local newspaper. Journalist: " The beer festival in the city is to donate the profits made to the Children's Home. This links the name of the home to a function dedicated to drinking alcohol. How do you feel about that, and taking funds from them when many of the children you care for have had their lives disrupted by alcohol consumption?" Me: "It's guilt money. The intention is good. I have no problem using guilt money for the benefit of the children".
But the question got me thinking . Are there ethical organisational considerations in the source of our funding? I know of many organisations in the apartheid years that refused to register as NGOs as they refused to take apartheid regime money

There appear to be other ways of using children and young persons for funding. It's to use the focus target of government. When government provides large grants for social crime prevention like diversion programmes for young persons in trouble with the law, then it pays to have such a programme in the organisation. There are two types of funding. One for a project, the other for the funding of posts. (post funding). If post funding is received staff may be deployed for other child and youth care programmes or even other unattractive adult programmes and hidden in the system. The same applies to project funding, especially when the accounting systems don't cater for silo accounting with proportionate allocation. It has been my experience that when target numbers of young people are  not reached excess money is not returned to State. But then State seldom if ever applies this requirement.

Personal experience taught me that deliberate deficit budgeting in the annual business plan can be a favourite of Boards of Management to solicit funding. The threat of closure withing some kind of time frame is an emotion puller.. It's quite easy to do. If a Trust or a completely separately governed Building Fund is set up with the sole purpose of assisting the Home or Organisation, then incoming funds from external sources (other than government) may find their way into the Trust. The balance sheet of the Facility then doesn't look that good. You can't really attract funds if the place is making a profit or sitting on a big surplus.

Then again. Pay administration costs and /or rental to a church which owns the property or supports the project. Own a second business and hire it as a service provider.... the list goes on.....

Come desperate times...come desperate measures

The argument is always is that it is done in the best interests of the children using whatever means is available. Maybe it is , but it's really a pity that higher level organisational ethical thinking may get scrambled in the scramble for survival. 

It shouldn't have to be like this.