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.







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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