Child and Youth Care: Professionalism, Development, Ethics, Law, and Advocacy

Awareness of profession

 
1.Awareness of profession
a.Find five info seminars/workshops that contribute to professionalism in Child and Youth Care.  Provide a link and a brief description (1 – 2 lines) for each.
b.Find five activities/workshops/conferences in Canada that build awareness/knowledge for youth in care.  Provide a link and a brief description (1 – 2 lines) for each.
2.Professional development
a.Personal repertoire- 100 items that define your personal beliefs, values, and attitudes which make who you are.
b.You are working as an outreach worker for an LGBTQ2s+ program and have a client who is a 17-year-old trans male. The purpose of your role has been providing in-home supports for him so he can live with his family. He reached out to you and shared his parents have kicked out of his home. Find supports and resources to meet his current needs.  Where would he go? How would you advocate for him?  What and how is he going to access services?
i.list and describe five local services that will support best practice and support children and youth who are marginally housed and/or homeless.  How do they support members of the LGBQT2S+ community specifically?  Add this to your portfolio of resources
ii.What are your responsibilities when the parents ask for updates?
3.Personal development and self-care
a.Describe and reflect how you currently incorporate wellness into your life today. Include how you manage stress and maintain balance with emotional, mental, spirituality, physical-
i.You may use the medicine wheel- this will help learners see where they are unbalanced- acknowledge the areas of strength and include goals to balance yourself using the medicine wheel as guidance
b.Develop an annotated bibliography on a topic of interest within Child and Youth Care-
i.identify a topic, describe why you picked it, and include three annotated references
4.Professional ethics
a.Read the professional ethics
i.https://www.acycp.org/images/pdfs/ethics_and_practices_ACYCP_v2-1.pdf
ii.https://www.cycaa.com/about-us/code-of-ethics/

iii.You are a youth worker supporting a young woman transitioning to adulthood.  Your role is to support her to access resources in the community, specifically those that relate to employment and education.  You are also to connect her to services that will support her after she turns 18.  

You have suspicions that she has been using drugs and alcohol lately, as she has not been meeting appointment times with you, or any other professional as mandated by child and family services.  This morning when you arrived to pick her up an older man was leaving her apartment.  When you texted her that you had arrived, she said that she was no longer interested in meeting with you and wanted you to leave.  

You know that if this continues, she will lose her status and funding for supports and there is a case conference this afternoon where you will be asked to provide updates to her team, including her case worker.

iv.What is the ethical response? What principles and standards of ethics will you use? What are the potential implications if you do nothing? What are the concerns if you do something?
5.Awareness of law and regulation
a. You are a youth worker employed by an organization that supports youth in conflict with the law.  You have been working closely with Sebastian for over six months.  You visit him when he is in CYOC, and support him when is in the community.  

Sebastian is heavily involved in a gang.  While he does not disclose to you the details of his criminal activities, you are aware of the many charges of violence that have brought him to the criminal justice system.  Further, Sebastian is well known to your other youth clients as a ring leader and someone to fear.

Last night Sebastian called you after hours as he was under arrest and going to be appearing in youth court the next morning for bail.  He was hoping that you would be able to support him in court by providing information to the court about his work with you and your opinions about him.

i. Using the Core Competencies as your guide, what would you decide to do for Sebastian?  What other legislation would be important to know more about, before making an informed decision?  How would you communicate your decision to him?
6.Advocacy
a.Describe a time when you advocated for someone? What did you do? Was there something you would have done differently? If so share. What was the outcome? Was it a successful outcome? What did you learn from the experience?