Symposium moderator Prof. Shlomo Romi has outlined three principles basic to the training of child and youth care workers: a) complexity and multi-disciplinarity, b) practice in non-formal settings and c) the convergence of educational (or developmental) and therapeutic goals. As Prof. Romi points out, cutting across these several dimensions is the fact that child and youth care is still a young and evolving profession, with diverse educational pathways and few agreed upon definitions of our clients, purposes, methods and unique disciplinary characteristics.
This presentation draws upon the presenter’s experiences over a career in university teaching as well as more recent involvement in studying processes of training for organizational change and quality improvement in child and youth care agencies. On the basis of this experience, a re-orientation of mission and focus for both formal education and agency training is proposed, as well as new forms of partnership between these two sectors.
Traditionally, academics educating future practitioners in child and youth care have hoped that by producing highly skilled, knowledgeable, ethical and self-reflective graduates, over time this “production” of new workers would gradually transform the cultures of government departments and private-sector agencies. Competent line-workers, after a suitable period of time, would be recognized for their potential and would gradually move into key middle management and senior executive positions bringing a renewal of the cultures of practice with them.
In agencies, on the other hand, recognizing that the majority of line-workers do not have post-secondary credentials, agency leaders have supported in-service training to equip workers to do the jobs assigned them. The focus has been largely on skill development and job-related training. Thus, both academic and agency settings have been focusing on the development of individual practitioners to the neglect of organizational change initiatives.
However, neither the academic “trickle-up” theory nor the agency-based practitioner training can ultimately create the organizational cultures required for dealing effectively with the complexities of child and youth work. First, agencies are governed and their cultures formed from the top down, as documented by Anglin (2002). There is a “flow of congruence” from the leaders and leadership team downwards through the organization to the clients. If the culture is inconsistent or dysfunctional, bringing in skilled new post-secondary educated workers, generally to lower level positions, will not change the culture. Eventually, after largely ineffective efforts to change their working context, they either conform, reluctantly, or leave the organization. Second, the minimal training that can be supported by agencies themselves tends to focus on the job readiness of individuals, and there is not the vision, appetite or resources for agency-level transformation initiatives.
However, recent research is offering a new paradigm whereby an academic institution partners with agencies on an intensive and ongoing basis to bring research-based knowledge and practice wisdom to the task of quality improvement across an entire agency or program. This approach is not about training line-workers, it is about creating principle-based organizations. The locus of training and the focus of training is the agency itself. Rather than depending on a “trickle-up” strategy, this approach brings transformative training to every staff person in the agency, whether office clerk, maintenance person, clinician, line-worker or Executive Director. Early evaluation results indicate important improvements in agency quality overall, including organizational culture and climate, line-worker attitudes and behaviors, youth perceptions of staff, reductions (in the order of 50%) in critical incidents, and in at least in one agency, similar reductions in the use of medications by the residents. Integrating theory, practice, training and research through formal academic and practice agency partnerships appears a promising direction for enhancing program development and quality for clients.
