May 2007

Editorial : Celebrating International Child and Youth Care Worker's Day

By Merle Allsopp

The first week of May is International Child and Youth Care Worker's Week. Some child and youth care programs here and abroad will have celebrated this occasion recently, using it as an opportunity to recognize child and youth care workers and express appreciation for the very distinct and exacting work that they do.

In the context of this being the month that we especially celebrate child and youth care workers, it is rather ironic that the last week of this month will see the release of the research on the 'Demarcation of Social Services' sponsored by the Department of Social Development and managed by the South African Council for Social Service Professions. Effectively a survey of opinion, the findings of this endeavour will tell us as child and youth care workers whether we exist or not!

This is not a new experience for child and youth care workers - this being defined by popular opinion of others outside the field. The international child and youth care literature from time to time refers to similar situations arising in other countries - with concomitant protests and expressions of outrage being recorded by affected child and youth care worker fraternities.

The outcome of the research and the implications of this outcome may mean that we as the South African child and youth care field have to rework our strategies and approach to achieving recognition for our field. For we have reason to be concerned about the implications, not only of the research, but about the conditions which gave rise to the research. Why question the existence of the profession in the first place? We have an established Professional Board, and consulted-upon draft regulations which will allow child and youth care workers the dignity and affirmation that comes with registration. If we question the existence of the profession, we question the validity of people who identify as child and youth care workers, and we question the existence of the Professional Board. More than anything else, we cast doubt on the contributions made to at-risk children and families by of some of our most active and helpful social service professionals in the country.

But as I worry about hidden agendas that may be operating in our country in relation to broadening the range of social service professions beyond social work, I think too about something Thom Garfat wrote a while back - on the dangers of letting others define us, and avoiding hooking too deeply into the views that others have of our profession. I am reminded that as child and youth care workers we must remain steadfast in our certainty of the value of our unique profession and what we have to offer young people.

And reading through the material in this month's issue strengthens my certainty, and once again makes me proud to be a child care worker. Nicholas Long's article on the role of kindness brings to mind so many child and youth care work stories that reflect the deepest compassion, and demonstrate powerful acts of kindness. I am proud to be part of a profession that talks about how to maximize something so essential to humankind as kindness.

And reading on, I am moved beyond words by this month's story of child and youth care work from Isibindi Far North, where the team of child and youth care workers actually physically dug a grave for a child who would otherwise have been cremated. I am profoundly humbled to belong to a profession where people care so for children that they are prepared to care way into the afterlife.

And I know that a profession like this is not only worth celebrating, but is worth fighting for - for the sake of that late six year old girl so care-fully laid to rest - and so many other children in our country.