Staff Experiences of Stress and Coping in a Residential Treatment Facility for Youth

Working in social services tends to be very stressful for workers. Caregivers are asked to work long hours, complete paperwork and administrative tasks and are responsible for the care and wellbeing of others. Eleven female Childcare Workers were interviewed to determine what causes them stress at work and how they cope. Stress was caused by: long hours, no breaks, low wages, unpaid work, poor communication, consistency and training, high expectations of staff, temper tantrums, abuse, and anxiety about meeting resident’s needs. Workers would like more support from their managersand reported a lack of effective teamwork. Many reported not coping well with the stressors of this job and most reported that they take their work stress home with them.

Cultivating Positive Youth Development through Latin American Street Soccer Programming

Youth disconnected from their families and communities lack critical community supports, placing them at higher risk of establishing unhealthy behaviors that can lead to poor outcomes, including involvement in juvenile justice systems. They need assistance to develop essential life skills and family and community connections. Engaging youth and families, otherwise marginalized by society, in innovative, affordable and effective ways is a global challenge. This paper summarizes the history of the Latin American launched global street soccer movement to promote inclusion and positive development of youth living in vulnerable situations. It explores the power and potential of street soccer’s holistic and inclusive programming approach as a vehicle for individual transformation and community engagement. And it examines the evolving integration of the Latin American street soccer methodology in working with youth and families with complex needs, particularly as experienced by the nonprofit service organization Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. (YAP).

Erratum to Mann-Feder, V. (2020). Experiential Teaching and Learning in Child and Youth Care Work: An Integrative Approach to Graduate Education. Journal of Child and Youth Care Work, 26. https://doi.org/10.5195/jcycw.2020.5

In the article “Experiential teaching and learning in Child and Youth Care Work: An integrative approach to graduate education” (DOI 10.5195/jcycw.2020.5), co-authors were omitted. The authors are Varda R. Mann-Feder, Elizabeth Fast, Stephanie Hovington, and Patti Ranahan. The online version has been updated to reflect this change.

Perceptions of Mentors and Mentees in School-based Cross-Age Peer Mentoring in a Low-income Rural Community

Cross-age peer mentoring programs are not always effective, and some researchers have questioned the effectiveness of this model. In this article, we use evaluation data to describe a project that has been going for twenty years. The project enrolls high school students as mentors to struggling elementary school students. The article reviews the current literature and details the perceptions of mentors and mentees regarding relational and academic benefits and disappointments. Both mentors and mentees report that the project gave them purpose, motivation, and a sense of belonging in the school and community. They also describe frustrations and regrets. Some findings echo previous studies; however, by presenting a twenty-year retrospective, and including mentor and mentee voices, the article provides a unique contribution to the field. The article provides an appendix with resources and recommendations for effective practices to those seeking to implement such a program.

Experiential Teaching and Learning in Child and Youth Care Work:

The Graduate Diploma in Youth Work is in its fifth year at Concordia University in Montreal. In a department committed to experiential teaching and the training of practitioners, a large focus of the program is to immerse students in experiences that prepare them for engaging in reflexive and theoretically informed approaches to practice. The purpose of this article will be to illustrate our program model through four learning activities that are representative of our unique approach to youth worker education. An additional focus will be the ways in which our model and these activities align with the Association for Child and Youth Care Practice competencies. A model of integrative youth work education was developed in 2015 by Ranahan, Blanchet-Cohen and Mann-Feder to form the basis for an advanced Graduate Diploma in youth work in Montreal, Quebec (Concordia University, n.d.). The purpose of this article is to share four structured experiential learning activities that illustrate this model. Prior to describing the activities, an overview of our approach to integrative youth work will be provided, along with a discussion of how it aligns with the competencies for practice developed by the Association for Child and Youth Care Practice (ACYCP) (Association for Child and Youth Care Practice, 2010).

Strategic Activity Planning for Emotionally Disturbed Children and Adolescents

Strategically planned activity components for residential treatment program directly reduced the amount of negative acting out which must be managed in the cottage environment. Sequentially guided creative tasks can provide a supportive central core for treatment goal implementation. Organized activities serve to measure progress towards individual and peer relationship objectives. Specific step-by-step strategies and projects are recommended for use within the therapeutic milieu for emotionally disturbed children and adolescents.

Beyond the Rhetoric

Culturally effective practice remains elusive within child welfare agencies. Recognizing the hierarchical nature of becoming culturally competent, this article presents specific strategies that enhance cultural effectiveness at the individual, interprofessional, middle management, and upper management levels. The approaches evolve from a five-stage model of change: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. Becoming culturally competent requires a clear assessment of where the individual practitioner and agency are on the change continuum. The article also explores barriers to culturally competent practice, with a focus on multilevel strategies that work within child welfare agencies.