August 2007

Editorial : Child and Youth Care Practice - the Extremes

By Merle Allsopp

This volume of Child and Youth Care Work carries both inspiring and worrying articles on practice in the field. The first, an account of child and youth care work being done in the context of municipal evictions demonstrates how community-based child and youth care workers responded professionally in the context of a man-made crisis. Faced with almost 50 families and their belongings being dumped on an open stretch of land in the middle of the harshest of South African winters, child and youth care workers did more than just help out. They did child and youth care work.

Lucky Jacob tells a sad story of heartlessness in the authorities that reminds us of days gone by. It leaves one with a sense of "How could this be happening in a democratic South Africa?" But a relieving chord throughout the tale of despair is the continued presence of the child and youth care workers. The lifespace in this instance is the open veld, demarcated only by heaps of belongings, but read the story and you will see lifespace work being done right there in the bitter, dusty cold of a miserable Northern Cape landscape. One can rightfully be proud to be a part of a profession like this!

The second brings us face-to-face with the shadow side of our profession. Student placement supervisor Tholekele Zulu from DUT writes an honest account of her experience of supervising child and youth care work students. She points to unethical practice being witnessed by students during their placements in child and youth care centers - frighteningly, almost as if it were normal. And so from feeling inspired by the actions of some colleagues, one feels disheartened and ashamed of being part of a professional that disregards its ethics so repeatedly. This article points to a deeper crisis, and that is the standard of service delivery within the residential care sector. Pockets of excellence in residential care demonstrate that even within the very trying, poorly-resourced context within which residential care operates, good, child-centered programs flourish and grow. So excuses for unethical practice just do not wash. It is my opinion that we face something of a crisis in residential care in our country, one that our sector must tackle if we are to commit to professionalizing child and youth care work.

Child Participation - A Moment of Joy

This issue also carries an account of how young people in child and youth care programs across the country were mobilized to participate in the public hearings on the Children's Amendment Bill, following their chewing over the Bill at the NACCW Youth Conference'07. In a first-ever venture of child participation of this magnitude in our sector, xx young people told parliamentarians of their circumstances, and their suggestions for ensuring that other children are offered better lives through legislative provision. Child and youth care workers from across the country drove long hours through the night to take the young people to the hearings, fighting to be sure the children's voices were heard - all of this organized at the last minute when the schedule of hearings became available!

The quality of the young people's input into these proceedings cannot be questioned. We salute all the children who so enthusiastically spoke out on behalf of their peers - and the child and youth care workers so committed to facilitating this process.

Looking back over the last few months at the NACCW Youth Conference and the hearings, it is evident that child participation has reached a whole new level within our sector in this short time - and it feels so right!