Jen's Place - Youth Services Alliston

Newsletters

How often do we say, write, think or diagnose a youth as ‘manipulative’. Why is it a negative and why does it cover an array of behaviours we do not like?

Jenn and I had the opportunity to be involved in a number of meetings this month that has demonstrated that there are some positive changes in Residential Care coming along. Residential programs themselves must look to change or to collapse.

I was recently made aware of a book by Linda Kavelin Popov called ‘The Virtues Project. Simple Ways to Create a Culture of Character’. The Virtues Project identifies five strategies of the Virtues Project to utilize.

The philosopher John Dewey identified that the deepest urge in human nature is the desire to be important. I, like many many people assumed that to achieve his feeling, we must become professionals. However, I recently read a parable that I felt I should share that puts that opinion into perspective.

One of the more popular theories in adolescent resiliency is the ‘40 Developmental Assets’. These are concrete, common sense, positive experiences & qualities essential to raising successful young people. They have the power during critical adolescent years to influence choices young people make and help them become caring, responsible adults.

Are CYW’s altruistic? Altruism is defined as the selfless concern for welfare of others. It is the opposite of selfishness. Well CYW’s may be generous, which is the pure intention of looking out for the common good and giving from the heart without being rewarded in return. So then are we generous, are we altruistic?

Review of book "Healing Spaces" written by Mike Burns. I came across a section in the introduction that really made me think about how institutionalized a group home can become with the different staff personalities that encompass the environment.

For the youth that we work with, we want more than anything for them to have a sense of stability, to stay in one place for more than a short time. But why is that? What does ‘stability’ provide us with? And how do we achieve it?

In the field of Child and Youth Work, there is always the emphasis on ‘life skills’. You see, with Life Skills, there is the element of being able to have the knowledge and skill of being able to physically and emotionally function in areas such as independence, personal safety, decision-making & social skills. However, there is also a domain identified as ‘Character Building’ that so many of our kids have challenges with, as it is an area that is definitely taught, usually without much formality, early in life.

As the end of the school term approaches, we have reflected back on the successes of the students and the progress of the program. Each student has been successful in acquiring their own individual Independent Learning Centre courses where they are working diligently toward credits.

In a Discussion paper written by S. Hymel from the University of British Columbia, the paper discusses how to help students who are suffering persistent and/or serious discipline problems at school.

When children and youth come into care or when they change placements, there is the unfortunate opportunity to neglect the child’s emotional needs regarding grief and loss. When we understand the grieving process, we can empathize with the child, and respond in a way that may meet his or her needs much more therapeutically.

When we describe the youth we work with and their behaviours, we must comply with a certain framework and guidelines in order to ensure accuracy and fairness.

September will mark our third year anniversary of operation and boy oh boy has it been a great time. We have created the program we never would have dreamed of. We have been successful in taking a theory and not only making it a practice but also making it successful.

As our current population of residents is growing older, thus moving closer to the age of 18 and independence, we have been looking at the most important factors of skill building for this population.

We have just returned from our third annual Child and Youth Care conference that was held by the OACYC in Sudbury. As usual, we have come back all motivated and ready to implement all of the new information and new idea’s that we learned

As CYW’s, we are consistently looking for new therapeutic activities.So here are a few guidelines when considering a therapeutic activity for an individual or a group of kids.

2007 April Newsletter

27 Victoria St East, Suite 207, Alliston, Ontario L9R 1T9
• Tel: 705-250-2233 • Fax: 705-250-3344 • E-mail: [email protected]

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