Opportunities And Challenges : Child And Youth Care

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Opportunities and Challenges: Child and Youth Care Practice in a School-Based Setting
The establishment of child and youth care work within educational settings does present important opportunities for the CYC practitioner, as well as significant challenges for consideration. Upon critical reflection, several questions are raised in where I must consider the possible advantages and areas of concern, and to further examine my purpose and place when working within such an environment. 1) What is my role within this environment, and how might I as a CYC practitioner be situated within the context of the organization? 2) What are some of the possible barriers or limitations I may encounter, and how might these impede upon effective interventions in addressing and providing for the needs of the youth I would be working with? 3) How might I establish and define my role as distinguished from that of others, and how might I be perceived by other professionals in the school? 4) What is entailed when working within an interdisciplinary team, and what would be my place within this specific context? These questions address particular issues as I consider carefully the possible implications of working within such an environment, and to become increasingly aware of what is entailed with regards to several components of school-based child and youth care practice.
As Sapin (2009) indicates, the presence of a child and youth care practitioner as a member of the staff provides for an opportunity in “accessing young people who may not have taken part in youth work activities” otherwise (p. 32). As this would imply, school-based CYC practice has the potential to provide for the needs of youth within schools in a unique way, where these needs may no...

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.... As Garabaghi (2011) notes, in regards to operating within teams, the issue of confidentiality may become problematic within a team context. Although there may be “a clear understanding that the relationship between practitioner and child ought to be governed by confidentiality, there is also an understanding that information about children needs to be shared amongst those who might also be engaged with that child” (p. 84). Thus, this may create an ethical dilemma in where I must consider what the implications are in regards to maintaining confidentiality while also not compromising best practices, and in turn, the well-being of the youth in question. What are the criteria that would guide me in ensuring I maintain ethical standards in such a situation? As such, the concern for me is what information I would be able to divulge, and how much without breaching trust.

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