CYC Podcast

In this broad reaching conversation Dr. Kiaras Gharabaghi discusses theories and practices in child and youth care. He touches on relational practice, caring, education of CYCs, engagement, and self, among other topics. This conversation comes out of the recently published book With Children and Youth: Emerging Theories and Practices in Child and Youth Care.

Dr. Gharabaghi is co-editor of Journal of Child and Youth Services, has a monthly column in CYC-Online, regularly contributes to Relational Child and Youth Care Practice, has written or edited five books, and is an Associate Professor in the school of Child and Youth Care at Ryerson University in Toronto.

In this conversation, Phil Coady discusses relationships with young people & their families, boundaries, working in residential care, and maintaining contact long after people have “emancipated”. It is a wonderful and enlightening exploration of what relational practice is, in contemporary residential care.

Phil Coady works in residential care. He has recently completed a practitioner research study regarding boundaries in residential care with children and youth. He lives and works in Musselburgh, Scotland (just outside of Edinburgh).

This podcast is a do-over. In April of 2014 I had a wonderful conversation with Dr. Mary Stone Hanley. Unfortunately, the sound quality made it difficult to hear. Mary contacted me several months ago and asked about re-doing the interview, which I thought was a great idea, this podcast is a new conversation based upon the same topics as the first one. In the podcast Dr. Hanley discusses arts as a social justice practice, culturally relevant arts education, and the value of arts to children and youth.

Dr. Hanley is a performer, poet, educator, playwright and artivist. She is the author of numerous articles and co-editor of a new book. For more information about Dr. Hanley please visit Hanley Arts at MaryStoneHanley.com.

Author and illustrator Kevin Pyle talks about his book (co-authored with Scott Cunningham) Bad For You: Exposing The War On Fun! A very brief introduction explains the book. “This is the history of stuff that is supposed to be bad for you. To find out why most of it isn’t, keep reading.” During this interview Kevin discusses the long history of trying to stop young people from doing things they enjoy. Dangerous things like reading, playing, and thinking, among others. To learn more about Kevin Pyle and the book go to BadForYouBook.com/.

This interview with Heather Sago and Aurrora De Monte explores being an advocate for, being an advocate against, and being an advocate with. What is the role of adults in advocating? How does one advocate when to do so puts one’s own career at risk? What are the consequences of not advocating? How does one advocate? Heather and Aurrora are the founders of the CYC Advocacy Project and both teach in the Child and Youth Work program at sir Sandford Fleming College in Peterborough, Ontario.

This podcast is posted at the end of a year with a great deal of discussion about violence: violence against women, violence from police, violence towards police, torture, and war. A common factor in all these cases is that men have been responsible for most of this violence. We’ve long been aware that males are the most frequent perpetuators of violence. We also know that violence is not inevitable. Today we are discussing how to support young male children grow into emotionally healthy men.

This podcast is with a return guest, Dr. Siegi Schuler (you can listen to his last interview, on adolescents who sexual offend, from November 2013). Dr. Schuler is a Ph.D and registered clinical Social Worker. He has a particular focus and interest in men’s emotional health and well-being (from adolescence to adulthood), addressing such areas as childhood trauma, sexual violence, mental health, chemical dependency and pornography addictions, relationship and intimacy concerns, father-son/daughter –dynamics, and fathering. You can learn more about Dr Schuler at http://www.drschulercounselling.com/

This podcast returns listeners to the voices of young people who have direct experience in the youth social service system. Julian is a young man who went into Children’s Aid during his adolescence. His time in care coincided with his coming out process. Julian speaks about the support, and lack thereof, he received from those around him. He offers suggestions on how to help young people coming out and makes several recommendation for ways to improve the system for young lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) children and youth in care.

Julian is a former trainer with Connect to Youth a program that delivers workshops to service providers. All the trainers are young people with direct experience in the youth social service system. Julian was instrumental in developing our workshops for supporting LGBTQ youth in care, which we continue to deliver at Children’s Aid Societies.

This is part two of a special two-part discussion examining the topic of death. In this second episode Dr. Mary Vachon talks about the death of children. She discusses about how to work with children who are dying, how to support caregivers whose children are dying, and suggestions on caring for ourselves as we work in this very difficult area.

Dr. Vachon is a Registered Nurse/Ph. D. psychotherapist in private practice with a focus on death and dying. She has been working in this area since the late 1960s and has published over 170 scientific articles and book chapters in the areas of bereavement, occupational stress in health care professionals, dealing with life-threatening illnesses, and spirituality; among other related topics.

In a special two-part discussion over the September and October episodes, C2YPodcast will be examining the topic of death with Dr. Mary Vachon. This first episode will deal with the death of a caregiver. Dr. Vachon offers suggestions on preparing a young person for the death of a parent, what responses one might see after the death, and how to support the child/youth/young adult as they grow up without that parent. 

Dr. Vachon is a Registered Nurse/Ph. D. psychotherapist in private practice with a focus on death and dying. She has been working in this area since the late 1960s and has published over 170 scientific articles and book chapters in the areas of bereavement, occupational stress in health care professionals, dealing with life-threatening illnesses, and spirituality; among other related topics.

16,000 children are in care in Scotland. What works for their care and what doesn’t? John Paul Fitzpatrick discusses the results of his research looking at young people in care under “home supervision”. He discusses efficacious processes for supporting young people, educational outcomes for young people in care, and models of youth participation. Mr. Fitzpatrick is the Knowledge Exchange Lead of the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children, and is an Associate Dean at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

During the interview Mr. Fitzpatrick mentions a program that successfully uses youth participation. The program is called Who Cares Scotland, here is the website: http://www.whocaresscotland.org.