Child and Youth Care Practice

For this assignment, you will have an opportunity to reflect upon a chosen practice dilemma that you might encounter in professional CYC practice, from a relational perspective. In preparing to start your assignment, read the following practice scenarios You are employed as a Child and Youth Care Worker with a rural non-profit agency that delivers a psycho-educational program for children who have witnessed abuse at home. You co-facilitate a ten-week group experience for children and youth aged 12-14 covering topics such as feelings, families, choices, anger, abuse, and boundaries. Your co-facilitator is named Chris. The group you are currently co-facilitating has 6 participants. There are 4 females and two males in the group, and they are all aged 14. Each of the young people in your group has witnessed different types of abuse at home, including physical violence, emotional and verbal abuse. As the group has progressed each of the young people has shared vivid accounts of their experiences, and it is clear that they have developed strong therapeutic relationships with each other, your co-facilitator and yourself. The ten-week program has come to an end. The end of group is celebrated with a graduation ceremony. Each group participant receives a certificate and a small memento of their group experience. As the final group draws to a close, one of the group participants, Pat runs up to you in tears and hugs you. She expresses how much she has gotten out of the group, how much she will miss you, and how much she values the relationship between you both. She holds on to you for several moments. Two years pass by and you are a Child and Youth Care Worker at a different agency in the same location. You log onto your Facebook account one morning and you notice that you have received a message from Pat asking you to become her friend. Opening her message reveals her entire profile page. You notice her status feed that reads: I hate my parents ¨C why won¡¯t they stop fighting ¡­ In discussing your response to your chosen scenario, here are some questions you should address: What is the nature of the dilemma that is captured in the practice scenario? How do professional competencies, codes of ethics, and problem-solving models help you to respond to this dilemma? How is your impression of the practice scenario affected by adopting a relational perspective? Do you recognize any of the relational dialectics or challenges you read about in the course readings about relationships in practice (e.g., see Gharabaghi, 2008)? Which ones? How would you propose to respond to the scenario in a way that reflects professional standards and the relational perspective? Organize and write up your reflections on these questions in a paper of 1250-1500 words (5-6 typed, double-spaced pages, plus references). In your final paper, you are expected to cite at least four course readings and/or discussions, and at least two additional relevant articles, chapters, or credible websites.