STARTING FROM SCRATCH...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

The post read, "To build something from nothing is exhausting".

It's "starting from scratch." Frequently also, are direct questions . "I want to start my own project. What must I do?' This is not a 'Do it yourself manual". Its my experience of setting up child and youth care programme in South Africa.

 I  have started up three projects from scratch. One faith-based. One had nothing but an enthusiastic group of ladies who wanted to do good. The third had some sort of "Head-start". The last two had some sort of committee and a so-called "Founder".

The head-start one was in a semi-rural village about 27 kilometres from the nearest town. In 2007 an approach was made by someone in my church. "Come see. Maybe you can start something. There is a building . It was built by  the government as a Hospice with dormitories, but never used. African people care for their own." 

The drive through the village was the first of a series of new experiences for me. It was a long and narrow, East to West  The streets were loaded with children of all ages... just hanging around . And it was in school term!!

The building was the next surprise and not easily accessible for community and especially not for children - a loooong walk. The building however was gem. Government had spent ZAR 4.5 m on it. In 2007, that was a lot of South African Rands. It was fenced, a so-called Community Hall and dormitories stood empty.

 First thought. "This is a Residential Children's Home". There was a Home-based Care Worker (HBCW) Project with a learner staff of 15 HBCWs The hall was used as their training venue and they reported to the "Founder".

A mornings were spent looking and talking. Then the threads came together. The need was for a Child and Youth Care service, but using the same model as the HBCWs. "Go to  them...they can't come to you." A community-based model of Child and Youth Care  existed in the best practice model of the National Association of Child and Youth Care Workers (NACCW) called "Isibindi", The building would be a training and gathering venue for case-studies and all that goes with the methodology of child and youth care work. including administration.

 From the concept, comes the .. "from Scratch "work. But it has to start with just that. A very clear written concept...the concept document. There was a set of requirements to be followed from the "I have an idea, an intention to start a project moment" to "up and running". .. Here's the exhausting part. It is laborious
* Existing Founder and Board to agree in writing.
* If there is no existing structure it is good to have a "Steering Committee" drawn from the community to be served.
* Notice of intent together with the concept document to the District Office of the Department of Social Development. The local office to give the intention a nod and to be kept informed and involved throughout.
* A community profile and a needs survey to give evidence that the proposed service, in it's concept, will indeed serve the real and tangible needs of the community. Statistics statistics statistics.
* Application to the holding body of any model that is to be used.In this case the NACCW. Otherwise written evidence that networks and partnerships with best practice models are possible.
*A business plan. This shows staffing structure,  administration systems the estimated cost and the plan to have these costs in some way covered. Can be a possible grant from the State.
* in the case of this being an independent non-profit organisation, a constitution which is compliant with the NPO Act 
* A funding proposal ... A request justifying funding. In this instance the request went to  the NACCW which was working in partnership with US AID.
* Request to the Provincial Department of Social Development to launch. They have to recognise the project and approve it.
* Receipt of the final agreement to go ahead from the Provincial Offices of the Department of Social Development. In this instance they said that it would be regarded as a "Pilot project"

The procedure was not a straight line and didn't go at all easily. It took OVER TWO YEARS!! Even then there was more to do. A tripartite contract had to be signed. The founding NPO, the NACCW who employed the staff and the funder.

In 2010 the learner staff were employed and given fixed term contracts. 15 on contract and 15 additional unpaid volunteers. 

A two year training programme was launched. I was the trainer and the "co-ordinator of the Isibindi project. The agreement was that I would after 2 years,"hand over" the project to the community, being the founding NPO and its' Board. Which happened. We were reaching about 500 children a year and providing professional services.
 Today, already qualified staff, registered with the South African Council for Social Service Professions (SACSSP) would have to be employed.

Now we must talk of the growth and development programmes. Model social service programmes in the community can seldom remain static. As you go along other needs are discovered. It could be a service of provision...feeding, clothing ,blankets in Winter. You see?  It never stops. Exhaustive and exhausting. The Isibindi Project had what were called "Add-ons". These then, expanded the community-based concept to make for more holistc care. The first is the Safe-Park. The idea was that children would come after school, weekends and in the holidays to a safe place where there was informal and formal play and activities. Considering  the long East to West lay- out of the village it became apparent that to be accessible there was a need for one at each end of the village. Not one...But TWO!!
 Process starts again . This time with the addition of having to get Tribal land. Application with supportive documentation, needs surveys and profiles needed..again!

Tribal chief,  NACCW and US AID agreed. Ole, Halala. The Safe Park and other related add- ons required contracted learners be especially trained as add-on specialities. Such as Toy Library, Disability, Girl child protection, Adolescent Development Programmes and eventually Early Childhood Development. 

Back to that Facebook post. To build something from nothing is exhausting". You have to deal with all kinds of politics (with a small "p).  In this project, ..a list:
*Rivalry and tensions between the Home Base Care Workers  and the child and youth care workers. ( commonly found).
*Founders and Board needing to assert authority over a field they were not familiar with.
*Tribal authority interest for accolades.
* Government feet-dragging, delays and bureaucratic controls.

But there we go. "to build something from nothing is exhausting.

But worth it.

WAS IT ETHICAL?WHATE WOULD YOU DO?...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

SCENARIO 1
"You had better know  this", she said. It was the child and youth care worker from one of the group homes. "Samangele and Lindo (not their real names) are not just sexually active. They go on a rave looking for a good time and having sex with boys in sort of sex parties"
"How do you know?" 
"When she was at school, I found Lino's diary. I read  it. She writes all bout it". 
"Diaries are private".
"But these girls are in my care.You and I have to deal with it as professionals. We must plan interventions. They are at risk."

 The mind raced.  

Sure there was work to do with the two girls. Sure our having knowledge came from reading Lino's otherwise private journalised diary. How can they be carefronted on a professional child and youth care worker's prying? 

Dilemma.

Question is. Did  the child and youth care worker do the right thing? Was it ethical? What would you do?

SCENARIO 2
 The child  and youth care worker stumbled upon a young person pouring out his heart to another child and youth care worker in the programme. That night the child and youth care worker called him to one side.The young person explained the sharing to be based on a connection he did not have with her, as his primary care worker."I am your Primary child and youth care worker", she said. "You are a young person in my focus group. The first one you come to if you have a problem is me. I am responsible for helping you. If you have a problem you come to me...not just anyone else in the programme. I'll decide if you need to tell the social worker or anyone else."

Dilemma.

Question is. Did  the child and youth care worker do the right thing? Was it ethical? What would you do?

SCENARIO 3.
Partricia was 10 and intellectually challenged. She was in, what was then called a "special class" in a mainstream school. The school was constantly contacting the management of the facility to report that teachers were experiencing challenges with her behaviour. Her impulsivity was of concern. It seemed as if living residentially with older girls in the same dormitory setting she became or, was made, sexually aware beyond her age. It was when she was found pulling boys behind the girls toilet and revealing herself that the school said they couldn't manage her.

 The multi-disciplinary team met, which included the chairperson of the Child Care Committee and who was a counselling sexologist. Decision was to refer Patricia to to the sexologist for assessment.  

At the next meeting of the Child Care Committee, the sexologist said that the Patricia must be put onto contraceptives. 
"But she's only 10 and she hasn't menstruated. She's      
pre-menstrual. Can we do this? 
"I recommend it", she said. "She could menstruate at any time and you have to prevent an early pregnancy. The mother is not able to make a rational decision. It's up to you".

 It went back to the multi-disciplinary team.
"Put her on contraception. The injection". 

Management put a premenstrual 10 year old girl on contraception.

Question is. Was it ethical? What would you do

SCENARIO 4
They were a resident married couple. Only the male was employed as a child and youth care worker. Gossip and unsubstantiated rumours circulated among the young people in the facility that his wife had allegedly seduced one of the boys. 

 The husband as a staff member went to a social service professional employed by the facility, a qualified Counsellor and Marriage Guidance Counsellor and asked for counselling supervision. Who agreed. The child and youth care worker went for weekly counselling. 

In another forum in the programme the boy spoke of his confused state and confirmed the rumours. He said he had consented. 

At the time the boy concerned was a few months under the age of consent. This made the wife legally liable for alleged statutory rape. The Counsellor felt trapped between the  confidentiality of a 'client' and the alleged breach of the law by an unemployed adult resident, which would have led to the removal of service of the couple and so then the loss of employment of an innocent child and youth care worker.

 The Counsellor's decision was to remain silent.

Dilemma   

Question is. Was it ethical? What would you do?

SCENARIO 5
There they were. Two boys sitting on the office block steps at 07.00 hours. Dejected and angry. A backpack between them. The Manager, a registered Social Service Professional and a child and youth care worker went to the office early that morning and there they were. He knew them well. They had been placed in the residential facility and had been there for about 4 years. The decision of the multi-disciplinary team to return them to the parents on extended leave had not been taken lightly. Their relationship with the parents was solid and positive... So what was this?

The boys said that on the previous day their primary child and youth care worker come for a home visit ... a three monthly review. She came again at 6.00am that morning and told them they were going back

The child and youth care worker had left them on the stairs for the Manager to find and readmit them then went to her unit to sort out her group. She later said that it was in the boy's best interest. She couldn't take the struggle for food in the household.

 The incident was reported to the facilities Management Board together with the Facility Manager's intention to report the incident to the South African Council for Social Service Professions. The Board refused to allow the report saying that such action could result in the loss of employment for the child and youth care worker, her lively-hood and her source of income.

The Facility Manager followed the instruction

Question is. Was it ethical? What would you do?








  

BLACK LIVES MATTER...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

The world knows that South Africa had a long history of legally, statutorily imposed discrimination based on race. As White people in South Africa we were fed propaganda and strictly silenced media. In Germany in the 1970's  the students at the Heidelberg University knew more than I did about separate education, it's impact and its educational inhumanity in the lives of children. All manner of racially loaded justifications were used to prove White superiority and show that Black people were in need of lesser, unequal  levels of employment, education, income, opportunity. It was all blatant racialism.

Then in 1994 comes the first democratic election and with it the principles of social and racial equality... a non-racial South Africa. We are now 26 years down the track, into a new millennium. Yet the the colonial mind-set, world view  seems to me still to have a life. 

In 1997 the St Goodenough Children's Home was allowed, and did, move from a Whites only to a racially mixed programme population. At  one and the same time, the dormitory setting changed to a group home setting. The buildings and grounds became a school for post apartheid returning refugees. The media was very interested. It was a good story. A TV magazine programme showed me with my hand on the shoulder of a Black boy child welcoming him into a group home.

The telephone. I answered. "St Goodenough". 
"We are going to kill you".
"Pardon".
"We are going to kill you.You sold us out. When I saw you on TV with your arm around the shoulder of that Black guy, I was so angry. The old Boys say we will kill you."
"What's your name?"
"You don't have to know".
 "Thanks for the warning

In 2017, 20 years later I met with an old Boy of that time at the local supermarket. He was at the cashier. I was well behind in the queue. I was shouted at  by him, in public by a now a grown man with wife and children. " We have not forgotten. We often still talk about it...The f*** up you made of St Goodenough. You sold us White guys out to Blacks." 

We. at St Goodenough clearly didn't get it right in the mind-set/ world view of the young people in our care despite the fact that we had the combined brains of a Transformation Committee, transitional preparation for all parties including the then resident young people and the old Boys. Their White privilege racial thinking lives on. 

What I'm getting at is that aspects of colonial racial inequality still lingers on in the corners of some White people's minds. I'm am hugely concerned that the Black children and young people in our programmes may even now experience themselves stereotyped as racially inferior and that they don't really matter.

 There have been highly profiled social media incidents of teacher to Black child/young person racism. Equally, young person to young person racism. I cant'say that I have seen the same social media profiling in the child and youth care system. 

My question is "What needs to be done practically, professionally to break down any form of mind-set or world view in the lives of the young Black people in our direct professional care that they fit prejudicial stereotypes of the past and are racially lesser beings. But that there is only one race in the world and that is the human race and that they are equal members of it. That Black lives matter.
Getting it right.

Are we still talking about transformation? "Black kids get the better beds" "White kids get the better beds". I have even now heard both. You have to be White to get anywhere in this place!" "You have to be Black to get anywhere in this place".

Now to child and youth care practice. It starts with us (as always). Maybe it starts with the systemic approach driving our practice..let's start there.

In the apartheid era, Prof Norman Powell risked his job to break the sanctions and come to South Africa. He brought with him an analogy of an attitude toward race that he called  the "cookie cutter" child and youth care approach. The cookie cutter approach sets out to cut (mould) all young people into the same shape. He told the story of a Mexican young person in care complaining about this approach. "There's nothing in this place which resonates with me as a Mexican" Norman Powell completely understood.  As an expert in negotiation with hostage takers for the release of hostages, he encountered the cookie cutter approach among the police in the Hostage Squad.  Thing is that the cookie cutter shape in South African Child and Youth Care produces child and youth care workers educated and trained in a White, Eurocentric, North American practice shape. He made the point that in the cookie cutter approach Black young people find it necessary to play for White in order to get anywhere. In playing for colonial White, Black African young people and children are forced to negate their Black Africaness as if Black lives don't matter. We talk of a mix each with their own Black or White identity, indigenous thinking and culture but the cookie cutter in our practice reinforces the view that 'White is right".

 So now to ourselves.

Working in Tswana country, the North West Province in South Africa adjoining Botswana  (The Land of the Tswana), I tried for three years to get learner child and youth care workers to talk of being Tswana, being real (genuine), honest and outspoken about being Tswana....what it means when relating to parents and, adults, significant others, authority figures, children and young people. I got this response every time. "Whatever is European is our way"( cookie cutter). It took three years of trust building and relationship building for those child and youth care learners to be comfortable enough to say,"This is the way it is". Then usually, "Don't tell anyone, they may think that we are primitive".!!! 

Looking at ourselves then, Black lives matter. Are we trapped into silence or adopting the "If you want to get anywhere , then you must... " approach. 

 I have a fear that Black lives won't matter until  Child and Youth Care in South African breaks out of the White, Eurocentric, Colonial, North American cookie cutter and documents ,writes and publishes Black South African indigenous praxis. When it is allowed that indigenous practice determines indigenous child and youth care theories, and when indigenous Black African theories determine indigenous practice.

It must be done because:

Black lives matter. 


  

WHAT RATIOS, WHAT HOURS?...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

The question was "What is the most effective young person/child ratio to child and youth care worker and working hours to optimise child care services without abusing or burning them out ?" 

The intention to protect child and youth care workers and so to  ensure more efficient and effective care for children without crippling the professional is to be praised.

The response however, is sure to  be emotionally loaded in any organisation where caring is its core business. There is no 'one off, pat' answer.

In 1982/3 the apartheid government instructed that an enquiry be undertaken and these same issues be assessed in the Children's Homes. The deMeyer Commission Report was tabled and circularised. The report made very unambiguous recommendations

In the first instance it read that dormitory- styled Children's Homes should have no more than 60 children in total. It resulted in the 200 - 300 bed facilities for white children being closed. The "small is beautiful" concept in child and youth care work took root. Some Children's Homes with large campuses and many buildings experienced problems as the Department of Welfare reduced the placements. The grounds and the buildings could not be maintained with the reduced income from government per-capita (heads on beds) funding. 

The ratio of child and youth care workers to young people, it read , should be 1/8 and 1/4 for the more troubled and or difficult to manage young people. 

The deMeyer Commission Report (1982/1983) raised considerable anger in the child care sector which catered for the apartheid Black, Indian or "Coloured" children particularly as they were financed by separate apartheid state departments. Certainly in 1994?1995 those recommendations were no where near being implemented in the so called "Black" children's facilities. This was made very clear to the new democratic government in the massive criticism and concern made by the President Nelson Mandela 'Cabinet Enquiry into Places of Safety and Detention'. Ratios were anywhere up to 1/50 !! Requiring that security guards be employed, some with dogs and some in towers with guns.

In the so,called "White" sector following deMeyer there was a gradual emergence toward Village and Group Home settings where the smaller numbers were accommodated more appropriately and staff ratios changed. In the then Transvaal Province, the Department became comfortable with 1/12 or 1/13 for less troubling children, moving closer to normalisation and the deMeyer Report recommendations.

 In 1995/6/7, young people were no longer, by law to be in prisons. The trickle down, no, the more like a flood of less manageable young people were taken into the child and youth care system. It meant that staff ratios took something of a bump as the released young people were placed in dormitory systems as in Places of Safety and what became known as Child and Youth Care Centres. Children's Homes became regarded more as short term Treatment Centres requiring reduced staff ratios. There was though, a core of residential child and youth care staff on 24/7 duty. The changes sped up the education and training of child and youth care workers.

Child and youth care practice became more professionally "treatment" orientated. With exceptions, in the Children's Homes, 1/12 or 1/15 became more of a norm. 

The 1997, transformation of the Child and Youth Care System in South Africa. provided regulation (and later legal) norms and standards. A requirement was, and is, nationally and locally in-house, that there be a 'continuum"and "continuity of care" in a range from "most restrictive, least empowering" to "least restrictive, most empowering" A continuum at levels from adoptions and foster care to what was then called Child and Youth Care Centres for young people in trouble with the law...awaiting trial or sentenced young people.  It means that child and youth care worker to young people ratios are to fit the level of manageabilty and intensity of practical, effective intervention that the young person needs.

The principles in the National system apply also in any one Child and Youth Care facility. Staff ratios and levels of care  are to vary according to the need levels of the children and young people. A few. in my experience, even in the Children's Homes needed an allocation of 1/2,especially children with challenges, disability, severely traumatised, disabled, suicidal,... the list continues. Others were fine with 1/8 and in some instances, the less troubled, troubling young people 1/12. Toddlers needed about 1/5.

A "one size fits all"approach in any aspects of a programme is a concern. It is said that Child  and Youth Care must meet the developmental needs of "This child" and not " These" or "Those" children. It must be individualised. It complicates things but it is a measure of the quality of Child and Youth Care services and professional practice. This impacts on child and youth care worker/children ratios especially at critical times in the day/programme.

Child and Youth Care in the move to professionalisation shifted toward having child and youth care workers in shifts. The law determines that employees work a 40 hour week. I found that if there  was a "live in" system, it had to be carefully augmented (supported) by 'live out"shift workers. this allowed for more fairness on the live-n staff who were not then 24/7. TOIL or 'time of in lieu" was used when longer hours were worked and if called out when "on call". 

Scheduling has to include time off to be taken which allows a fair distribution of weekends off.

The complications of scheduling, fairness and hours of duty are clear. There appears to be a few configurations for shifts. The 12 hour shift 4 days on, 3 days off alternate weeks day and night shift. The child and youth care workers complain that the 12 hour shift ( 06.00 to 18.00hrs) fatigued them to a point where they can't give of their best throughout. 8 hour shifts appear to be favoured. Then there is always debate as to whether a child and youth care worker can sleep when on a night shift. An awake child and youth care worker can probably manage say, 30 young people with the live-in member on call when he/she is not days off. 

Staff patterns to meet the Conditions of Employment Act and the differing levels of need of young people in any one setting requires increased funding creative scheduling and operational Child and Youth Care planning  

The organisation/facility has a duty, and responsibility to do this in the best interests of the child with due regard for the professional effectiveness of the child and youth care worker.

I want to say that it is a juggling act of sorts but a juggling act in which we have to keep all the different coloured balls in the air. The best intention is rewarded through carefully thought out and considerate planning. It's a challenge worth the effort.

  

FOOD, AND MEALS...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Child and youth care workers, food and meal's. Who eats what when, where? Who provides what, to whom, how? Every question word in the dictionary!

So it was in the queries and responses to a recent question and the responses in a social media child and youth care Facebook group.

"Should child and youth care workers be "fed" meals by the organisation  they work for?"

Discussion around issues of food, meals and feeding has shown to start vigourous discussion at any time.

In assembling a procedure manual for a short term residential facility, I thought it would be fairly straight forward. A matter of "this is what we do here".  Not to be so...sure there was a thread of standard operational procedure for meals, mealtime and child and youth care workers employed there, but the debate around what was, what is and what should be raved on for an hour and a half. I had to put an end to it. The page was marked "unresolved...to be further discussed". 

 The unresolved issues were the tensions and thinking arising from policy, professionalism, salaries, supervision       ( monitoring) young people at meals, menu's, the serving of food, portions, meal-time rules, wasted food, routine, chores and more... "Unresolved...to be discussed".

I left them with a guideline. In putting together your policy and procedure ask these questions. "What are the children and young people learning about the world which underlies what you do. Is what you do giving the young people messages that demonstrate an ideal world.the world as we want it to be especially in the status and relationship between children,  adults and food? Also does what you do measure up to the principles of child and youth care practice? These form a safe, good and required measure of sound practice. Are they tangibly experienced by young people in food, meals and child and youth care workers (adults)?

Reminder, the principles of child and youth care practice in South Africa, are: accountability, empowerment, participation, family centered, continuum of care, integration, continuity of care, normalisation, effective and efficient, permanency planning, African renaissance.

At first glance it seems asif only a few of these practice principles apply to meals, food and child and youth care workers, but in various ways each has implication. Some are primary and obvious, others less obvious but not the less important.

 In both of my appointments to Children's Homes the same policy around children, young people and meals applied. I was included in these practices as the Director. "What's good for the goose is good for the gander". Both residential facilities had live-in child and youth care workers and centralised kitchens. Both had a staff dining-room separate from the children and young people. There was a thing called "Dining-room Duty" for child and youth care workers on a  roster basis. In one, that person sat on a pedestal so that the children and young people could be observed. Both facilities were in receipt of food donated from local retail stores. In both, the staff got the best of the donated food on the grounds " The children don't eat that !". I inherited a system of different food, different separate dining spaces. sometimes different meal-times. Question. What are children learning about the adult/child world and adult/child relationships? 

The unfairness of different quality food and menu with child and youth care workers getting the better deal was obvious..  We all will eat the same. "what's good for the goose is good for the gander". 

Next stage. The dining space and seating re-arranged to ensure that in the mix, siblings sat together to ensure that families ate meals together at one table.

Next Stage. Child and youth care workers sit at the table where, as far as possible,a family group could be seated with as many of the child and youth care worker's focus group as possible. All had the same foo but it was dished up on plates in the kitchen and young people lined up, took a plate and went to the table. They took it in turns to clear the table. This initiated Step Three.

Step Three: The facility bought, or had donated, serving dishes. Children and young people were helped by the child and youth care worker to dish up until they could do it for  themselves. (normalisation and empowerment). This resulted sometimes in there being a wider choice at the table.as the seating at the tables with the child and youth care worker had a cultural mix. ( appropriateness)


The whole system was constantly discussed at the  Children's Representative Forum and the Child and Youth Care Workers Forum to smooth out any hiccups. (Efficient and effective). 

At the second facility, as said, it was still using the 'everything separate' model. Over time, steps toward change followed the same journey when in a dormitory, common dining-room setting. In a few years, though the dormitory setting moved into a group home setting...houses in the community. The group home setting allowed that meals, food and child and youth care worker take yet further steps toward living out the principles of child and youth care practice and a better life for all world view. A world driven by values of justice, co-operation, sharing,and social equality.With the child and youth care worker, children and young people budgeted against a set budget, constructed shopping lists and purchased the food monthly and top-ups as and when. It now required that the menu be broken up into ingredients, quantities and the handling of money. They helped with food preparation.                                                                                                 The child and youth care worker supported the young people to move from co-dependency to independence. (continuity of care)

The issues of professionality, the issues of who? what?, when?, where?, how?... faded,  .

  

CHILDREN'S REPRESENTATIVE FORUMS...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

"We are scared at night". She could not have been older than 11. Small, blonde and the junior member of the Children's Representative Forum. "At night we put dolls and teddy-bears on the window-sill to make people think that there is someone there" The window was situated above a lean-to roof. They were right. It was an easy entry.

'It's a matter of safety. Children come here to be protected and to feel safe.The window must be fitted with bars immediately." says I.
"We are waiting for an external funder"
"Not good enough. Safety and protection first".

As the independent chairperson of the Children's Representative Forum (CRF) at that facility, by invitation, I was removed by it's Board of Management and a Board Member appointed to replace me. I was not "developmental".

This was not the first time a small child in a CRF had spoken out on a facility's  services which quite rightly needed to be changed. I'm not saying they were making demands. I'm saying that they drew attention honestly and justifiably to their rights and to principles foundational to Child and Youth Care practice. Issues like disregard of culture, not enough hot water, unacceptable discipline (punishment)...always issues of food.

The child's voice must be heard. Put coldly, the client must be heard. And again, the service recipient must be heard...Ha! The children and young people must be heard.

The question in social media was, "Does your facility/ programme have a Children's Representative Forum?" .. No replies or comments were made.

Firstly, it is a regulatory, standard  practice requirement in the same way as a facility or programme will have a child and youth care worker's forum.

Experience in undertaking Quality Assurance (QA) in 43 Child and Youth Care organisations showed a huge number of facilities without either, or without a Children's Representative Forum.

I frequently quote Thom Garfat"s doctoral thesis. If not an exact quote he says in essence "An intervention is only as effective as it is experienced as effective". It means obviously that we have to hear what the children and young people are experiencing. And to do so maturely and professionally 

The regulated requirement for Children's Representative Forums in the programmes or facilities is the first in a much wider system in which the voice of children and young people is to be heard. 

 The National Association of Child and Youth Care Workers has a governance system designed to hear the voice of child and youth care workers. South Africa has 9 Provinces each with a Provincial Representative Executive Committee (REC). Some provinces are very large geographically, so "regional committees" are formed liaising with and  represented on the Provincial REC. The chairperson of each Provincial REC forms the National Executive which is the management body for the membership Association and which advises on child and youth care worker issues in the country. It all starts with the child and youth care workers forums in the facilities.

 The NACCW established a policy in which it is set out by agreement that the same structure as it is applied to allow child and youth care workers to be heard is to be formed for the children and young people in care. It follows a favourite dictum of Masud Hoghughi "What is good for the goose is good for the gander".

It means that in the facilities and programmes, the Children's Representative forums elect from among themselves, a Regional, then a Provincial and National Young People's Forum (Committee) with it's own National Chairperson.     

At every Biennial Conference of the NACCW there is a parallel Youth Conference. At a point in the programme the young people take their voices to the child and youth care worker's Conference ..Loud and clear. The system is at work, but for me, the absence or reluctance to have in-house Children's Forums is disappointing.

At one time there was a Child and Youth Care organisation in South Africa established by refugees from the Central Republic of the Congo for Congolese refugee children and young people in a high density refugee area in Johannesburg. It was community and school based and funded by the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Parallel to their Child and Youth Care organisation was a linked partner constituted to form a children and youth in programmes' Parliament with a special portfolio for refugee children. This was also funded by the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund. 

In my time associated with the Central Republic of the Congo refugee children's project, the Parliament idea never got off the ground. 

It however got me going.

A shadow Cabinet and Parliament of young people and children in care liaising and represented in Parliament made sense to me. "What is good for the goose is good for the gander"

I remember being advised, "Let's get our National young people's model working before we talk of a children in care parliament. It seems that now, through the NACCW, the young people'structure is sufficiently organised . But again, to hear the voices really close to the ground, there has to be a strong contingent of young people's voices being heard from the Children's Representative Forums in the facilities and programmes... residential, community and school based.

It starts with getting Child and Youth Care organisations to accept and set up Children's Representative Forums without the adult prejudice of children and young people seen as undeserving of social equality. Furthe, the CPR should not be limited in its agenda to in-house issues. Young people want to talk about the bigger picture, the social ills and injustices that brought them into care in the first place. "What can you do? What can be done to reduce and stop young people and children having to be placed here? More importantly "What can we as young people do?" Hear us as we speak.

It's a challenge because that's what young people developmentally are designed to do...to challenge systems and practices. They know they inherit the world we make or allow to be made.

In one of the Provinces in South Africa, I as the NACCW provincial chairperson, I had the responsibility of getting the Children's Representative Forum structure going and maintained. A start was made in the facility in which I was giving training at the time. There was no CRF there. Requested, the staff selected two young people to meet me and the Regional NACCW Mentor to form a steering committee. First meeting, trust building and explaining the purpose and to plan. Second meeting. "OK. Tell us what is good and what can be improved"...a dry run on a small scale with 2 staff-selected young people to let them get an experience of what could become an agenda. It all came tumbling out. With what the unheard heart full is, the mouth runneth over!  Third meeting...refused by the facility's management.They couldn't make the young people available for various reasons. Bottom line..the Children's Representative Forum there never got off the ground. I can't but think that as child and youth care workers and as management we may well have a fears of being evaluated by the very persons we serve. A fear of having to put the young people's needs and voice as the centre of our 'programme planning and having to fit in. After all, it's much easier and more comfortable for us to expect the young people to fit our programme than  the other way round. Perhaps we find it even more scary to have young people contributing to policy in-house, Regionally, Provincially and Nationally

I would like to to hear the voice of young people in care eventually at Parliamentary Committee level and to hear a child in care speaking to parliament. 

Let it happen in our life-time.
    

MEMORABLE MOMENTS LAUGHING...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

International Child and Youth Care Week this year, 4 - 10 May had "Making Memorable Moments" as it's theme.

And so to keep the impetus alive...

It cropped up during training in Behaviour Management. Somewhere the material required a discussion on responding to the stressful moment.  One of the stress-breakers it was suggested was laughter. For a child and youth care worker in certain situations to laugh rather than highten the stressful moment with a tense reaction. To get the young person to see the funny side. Sounds dangerous. The example scenario, however made it into a safe, in the moment stress breaker. 

The group was at the dining-room fully set, plates-loaded  table. Fathima started to complain loudly about the potato on her plate. "I hate potatoes. You know I hate potato. Why did you give me potato. I won't eat it. I hate potato!" With that she slammed her fist down on the side of her plate. A table knife rested on the edge of her plate with it's blade under the potato The knife became a lever, the potato a missile. It flew and landed "PLOP" right in the centre of the bowl of butter!  "PLOP".  The child and youth care worker saw the funny side of this and laughed. Not loudly, but laughed. Fathima got it , the funny side of this and laughed too, with the others at the table. The potato was removed. The meal continued amicably. 

In that particular situation, it became a memorable moment - a "do you remember when?" moment. In that moment it worked.

Laughing at obviously hightens a stress moment. Laughing at a situation is safer. Laughing with is a relationship builder and laughing together is healing, Laughing together at the right time place, space makes for memorable moments.

The potato in the butter story got me thinking about lived experiences of laughing with young people in memorable moments. It struck me that child and youth care work can be and is, a somewhat serious task ...and it is. It has though, relaxed, lighter moments, fun moments.

In my thinking over the past years, I was concerned that the serious moments were more easily remembered.

When did we laugh together?

The duvet covers on the beds were laundered once a week dormitory by dormitory. Four 'dorms',..four week intervals. Once a month the young people were to fit the duvet inner into the freshly laundered cover. It wasn't easy. Someone discovered that the best way to do it was to push the inner into the cover, then crawl into the cover to get it to the corners and flatten it out. Then, crawl backwards to get out. ALL BUMS UP! and all wriggling.They watched each other go through this and laughed together. Child and youth care worker and all....a magic memorable moment.

Portia was a deeply fundamentally religious young person. Always 'good'. ..like, no make-up, no nail polish, always dressed to be well covered and modest. No swearing, smoking, not even would she swim in the pool when there were boys in the water. What Portia experienced was that the misbehaving young people were always noticed and were given attention.(negative though it was). Child and youth care workers gave them of their time. She didn't get this. I called her a wall paper kid. You knew all the time that she was there but she didn't stand out enough to demand attention.

One day Portia decided to be noticed by the staff and occupy their attention. ..to be "naughty" as she put it. That day she emerged in short shorts, black eye liner, black nail polish and red, red lips, a less than modest blouse and dangling earrings. First she came to my house and announced her decision to be changed "From now on", she said..... I took a photograph of her. "I have to have a pic of you like this.. the new Portia". It was when she went into the main building that the girls saw the funny side of Portia's new image. It spoke to them about themselves, a mirror of who they were. They were not at all unkind. They gathered around her asking to see her nails and toenails. It started first with a giggle, which Portia joined. Then they all laughed heartily together. Child and youth care worker too. The next day Portia went back to the person we, and she best knew. But no longer a wallpaper kid. It was a good, memorable laughing moment... a "do you remember when?" moment, a "potato PLOP in the butter dish" moment.

There were fairly simple moments of shared laughter. Together watching a funny movie, games in the swimming pool like "Marco?"..."Polo!" and making dive-bombs together for a monstrous splash..lots of laughs. Spontaneous mud fights after rain and the hosing down by the child and youth care worker which followed. Fun and laughing together. Child and youth care workers too. "Now go to bath or shower".

A favourite in the boy's dormitory was to plot a deliberate attempt to pull the child care worker's strings and wait for the display. Bed time. Then one gets up to go to the toilet. ..Not unusual. Back to bed. But then comes another. Toilet, back to bed. ..and the pattern of toilet and back to bed continues one after the other. The child care worker just laughs.

It wasn't predicable, but it would happen about once a year. Again unannounced, the girls and the boys swapped clothing. Girls dressed as boys, boys dressed as girls. Boys teetered around in heels and dresses and girls in boys school uniforms each strutting around or with exaggerated mincing body language.  All laughing together. Child and youth care workers too. Good, healthy  laughing memorable moments.

Informal groups would get together, sometimes with the child and youth care worker present in the group and just talk. Sometimes they shared the funny side of otherwise serious "what happened at school" stories. The "there's this guy in the village" stories. "There was this guy I dated, he dived into the swimming pool and his costume came right down to his ankles". Memorable laughing moments all round.

It's not all a valley of tears and doesn't have to be. Young people enjoy clever, repartee, the backwards and forwards of witty, if not joking conversations. It's a child and youth care/ young people sharing laughter moment.

Sometimes a child and youth care worker can make these moments happen.Sometimes moments happen which a child and youth care worker contributes to make into a memorable laughing moment.

Its a '"PLOP" in the butter-dish moment, a "do you remember when?" memorable moment laughing.