CYC Podcast

Sammy speaks with Sheldon who works at the Ontario Provincial Advocates office for Children and youth. Sheldon is a team member of Our Voice Our Turn. This project goal is to elevate the voices of young people within the child welfare system. Sheldon talks about a recent update about the project and the impact the project has had on the Ontario welfare system. Sheldon also talks about a new release from the Ontario Ministry of Child and Youth Services and the changes that have been made. 

My real life book report: 

http://www.provincialadvocate.on.ca/documents/en/ylc/YLC_REPORT_ENG.pdf

If you are a child/youth what would like to be on the show or if you have an idea of what you think we should talk about please email me at yourrighttospeak@gmail.com 

This week I am posting a very long episode it is about an hour and forty-five minutes. It is a recording of a panel discussion, which took place at the National Association of Child Care Workers (NACCW) conference in Cape Town, South Africa in June & July 2015, about CYC professionalization in the USA and Canada. There were four panelists and a moderator. The moderator was Zeni Thumbadoo and in order of speaking the panelists were Kelly Shaw, Wolfgang Vachon, Heather Modlin, and James Freeman. The panelists give a brief introduction to themselves in the podcast.

I encourage you to post this podcast on your preferred form of social media or otherwise promote it. We’d like to get to 1000 listens a month, right now we are averaging a little over 900 between the two sites, any help you can give would be appreciated.

On this episode we talk with Dr. Kim Snow, a professor at Ryerson University in the Child and Youth Care program. Dr. Snow explains the sigma that children and youth in the care system face and the importance for young people to have a sense of belonging. She also brings up the importance of how language is used and the impacts it has in children and youth.

If you have any suggestions on what topics we should talk about on the show, if you would like to be on the show, or if you are a child/youth who would like to express their views please email Sammy at yourrighttospeak@gmail.com  

We are continuing to upload some of the presentations from the 20th biennial South African National Association of Child Care Workers conference that took place in June of 2015.

This episode is a presentation by Monika Sandvik-Nylund. Sandvik-Nylund is a senior advisor with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), her portfolio focuses on specifically children. In her presentation she gives a clear overview of what the UNHCR does, some of the challenges facing refugee children and then discusses the South African Isibinidi program as a possible model for working with children in refugee situations.

For those not familiar with Isibinidi I posted a video about the program on CYCpodcast.org in the July 2015 podcast (episode 57).

Ontario Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth Irwin Elman talks about child/youth rights and advocacy. He discusses how child rights can coexist with culture, how adults can elevate the voices of children up to age 11, the importance of using activate listening when advocating with children and youth, and what “advocacy” means to the Provincial Advocate. 

This episode marks the inaugural Your Right To Speak podcast by Sammy D’Agostino. Know Your Rights will be posted the second Wednesday of each month.

I recently attended the South African National Association of Child Care Workers’ 20^th Biennial Conference, celebrating 40 years of NACCW. Over the coming months CYC Podcast will be posting different presentations from this conference. This month’s podcast will be a talk by Dr. Thom Garfat on the Characteristics of Child and Youth Care (CYC). It is an informative and succinct introduction to some key characteristics of CYC.

You can read more about these characteristics by going to:

http://cycnetpress.cyc-net.org/samples/CYCiP.pdf

 

I have historically posted videos during the July podcast. Below you can find some videos with a focus on South Africa. This country has a tremendous amount to teach the rest of the world about CYC practice. I encourage you to check out the NACCW website at http://www.naccw.org.za. In particular look at the Isibindi project, a paradigm changing approach to child and youth care.

 

Two videos on Isibindi

The Path of Courage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MriK1u_ij_w (12 Min.)

The Isibindi Project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1D2DUFbzhc (25 Min)

An animated video about the Code of Ethics in child care work in South Africa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hteI4StqlKY (10 Min.)

Finally, here is a panel discussion that was presented on the last day of the conference. There are 5 panelists (including Thom Garfat). There is about an hour of video before the presentation. Skip to 58:00 minutes, the panel starts then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i_BBUZ8qiY (90 Min.)

Starting in August 2015 CYC Podcast will be starting a new segment on the second Wednesday of each month. The show, called “Your Right To Speak”, will focus on child and youth rights and will be hosted by Sammy D’Agostino. Today’s podcast is a short introduction to Sammy. In the interview Sammy talks about his work on youth rights and why he thinks this is an important topic to discuss. To see a little of his work check out this short public service announcement he made about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbvIpIeO4fU

Jaymie Mitchell talks about her thesis “Breaking the Silence: Child and youth care practitioners’ reflections on the organizational silence that surrounds deficit-based language being used in the residential milieu”. Drawing on her own 15 years of experience as a practitioner and her research findings she talks about the impact of language, trauma in organizations, and some thoughts on how to shift the way we talk.

You can now subscribe to CYC Podcast from iTunes. Receive every episode directly to your iTunes library.

This podcast is a conversation with Erika van der Grinten about her research into restraints in residential care. She discusses the rationale for restraints, the impact of restraints on young people and caregivers, and offers some suggestions for how to minimize negative impacts.

A reminder that we have become CYC podcast. Currently both CYC Podcast and C2Y podcast are functioning, but they will not be indefinitely. I encourage you to start following us through www.cycpodcast.org, or subscribe on iTunes.

Over the next month I will be featuring a series of interviews with recent graduates of the Humber College Bachelor of Child and Youth Care program. These students will be discussing their theses. This episode is with Kelly Capewell. She looks at peer relationships in residential care and specifically the impact on treatment outcomes. She discusses some very interesting findings regarding how staff perceives peer relationships.