CYC Podcast

How do child and youth care practitioners work in the virtual realm? Do relationships, boundaries and practices change when interacting with young people online? What supports are available for youth workers online? What does an intervention look like when you have only met the young person virtually?

In this podcast Aaron Garth from Ultimate Youth Worker discusses youth work in the virtual realm. To learn more about Ultimate Youth Worker you can visit their blog, their Facebook page, follow them on Twitter @Ultimate_YW, or check out their YouTube channel Ultimate Youth Worker also does webcast trainings, produces podcasts and works offline offering supervision, coaching, and training.

Mr Hershel Russell introduces different understandings of gender and how to support young people who are "gender-independent" or trans*. This interview may be particularly interesting to parents of young "gender non-conforming" children and those who work with parents. Hershel Russell is a trans-male psychotherapist, educator and activist who specializes in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender counselling. To learn more about the work that Hershel does you can visit his website at www.hersheltoronto.ca.

Wolfgang is out of Canada at the moment and so there is not a full interview this month. Instead here are a couple links for videos related to working with children or youth.

The Many Faces of Child and Youth Work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R53z9SkddFk

Kaņieris Riga Youth Centre:

http://vimeo.com/rigayoung

Jack Phelan talks about common child and youth care practices, discusses “truths” that are held by many and how to avoid what he sees as bad practices. Jack has been doing, teaching, and writing about child and youth care work for over three decades. Jack’s most recent writing focuses upon applying theory in life space situations and developing CYC program ideas that meet the complex needs of the youth and families.

How do we work with young people in a strength-based way? What does “fostering resilience” look like in practice? How does context inform the choices that young people make? Dr. Michael Ungar shares anecdotes and research to help explain what resilience theory is and discusses how to turn theory into action. Dr. Ungar is a family therapist and a professor of Social Work, at Dalhousie University. He has written 11 books, published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and is the lead researcher in an international study on resilience in youth. To learn more about Dr. Ungar’s work please visit http://www.michaelungar.com, http://cyccnetwork.org/en/ and http://resilienceresearch.org.

In this interview Dr. Tuhinul Islam discusses his research into residential childcare in Bangladesh, the first scientific research on this topic in the country. His study reveals some surprising finding regarding which residential care programs result in the “best outcomes” for children and youth who go through the care system. Dr. Tuhinul Islam talks about his work with children of sex workers, the difference between Government, NGO and faith based care systems in Bangladesh, and the role of stigma & community in residential childcare. Dr. Tuhinul Islam is the Assistant Director of Society for Social Service in Tangail, Bangladesh.

This conversation identifies “invitations” that may suggest a child or youth is considering suicide, this is followed by direction on what, and what not, to say to the young person. Wolfgang interviews Sonia McDonald, a child and youth worker (CYW) in Ontario and a certified trainer with Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) created by LivingWorks. LivingWorks was started in Canada in the mid 1970s. Since then they have helped develop and deliver suicide training in multiple continents for close to a million caregivers. For more information about ASIST see LivingWorks.net, and for training in Ontario you can email Sonia directly at soniamc@rogers.com.

Thank you to Francis Felice for help with editing and technical support.

In this podcast Sylvia Holthoff of ThemPra talks about Social Pedagogy, explaining how this approach of working across the lifespan is used in Europe. We also discuss what child and youth care practitioners outside of Europe can learn from Social Pedagogy and where there is overlap between this approach and various other ways of working with young people. For more information about Sylvia and Social Pedagogy please visit ThemPra.org.

After her son was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, Nancy Getty was herself assessed. Nancy shares what it is like to live on the autism spectrum and to raise twins who have both been diagnosed having Aspergers Syndrome. Nancy invites us into the culture of Autism and shares insights into how she sees and navigates the world. Nancy also offers specific and concrete suggestions on how to work with children and families on the autism spectrum. A rare opportunity to hear what works and what does not from one wise person’s perspective. For more information about Nancy Getty you can visit http://www.aspergerrus.com.

A special thank you to Francis Felice for help with this episode’s production.

In this interview Dr. Dana Fusco talks about workforce trends in youth work. Specifically, she critically discusses the move towards defined competencies, the credentialing of youth work, and post-secondary education youth work programs in the USA. She identifies the impetus for and benefits of these trends as well as the risks that youth work may face because of them. Dr. Fusco is the editor of “Advancing Youth Work: Current Trends, Critical Questions”. She is Associate Professor of Teacher Education, York College, City University of New York. You can learn more about her work at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Advancing-Youth-Work-Current-Trends-Critical-Questions or follow her Twitter feed “youthworkadv”.