Course Description
This course provides opportunities for students to work alongside young people and practitioners in the community and engage in experiential learning. Students will actively observe, participate in, and recognize the Child and Youth Care role and its position within a complex system of social care, in order to both contribute to and learn from the community.
Course Content
- Child and youth care practicum is an opportunity to engage with a wide range of CYC perspectives, models, and theories from diverse worldviews and traditions that inform CYC practice.
- Child and youth care practicum is an opportunity to learn by engaging with individuals, groups, families, and communities and developing an awareness of individual and collective social locations.
- Child and youth care practicum is an opportunity to apply a variety of communication skills and practice strategies required to work respectfully and empathetically within diverse CYC contexts.
- Child and youth care practicum is an opportunity for students to reflect critically on their practice. These reflections are grounded in an understanding and awareness of systems of power and privilege, as they manifest in marginalization, structural inequity and colonialism, and contextualize CYC practice within an intersectional framework that responds to calls for decolonization.
- Child and youth care practicum is an opportunity to demonstrate a professional CYC orientation that integrates CYC theories, perspectives and values to attend to the wellness of young people and families across diverse contexts. This CYC professional orientation is grounded in a critical understanding and awareness of the history of the profession, the relational self, and ethical, cultural, and legal CYC frameworks.
This course's content and learning outcomes are guided by the Child & Youth Care Education Consortium of British Columbia, the North American Competencies for Child & Youth Work Practitioners, and the Child & Youth Care Educational Accreditation Board of Canada.
Students pursuing the Indigenous Pathway (IPATH) are required to complete CYCC 1240: Practicum at an Indigenous organization or at a program that primarily serves Indigenous young people and/or families.
Learning Activities
In this course, students engage in a variety of learning activities including: seminar, with guided, small group discussion, course instructor and supervisor guidance, and practicum placement in a CYC community setting.
Means of Assessment
Assessment will be based on course objectives and will be carried out in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. Typical means of evaluation would include a combination of:
- Practice Reports
- Reflective Essays
- Activity Plans
- Professional Development Plans
- Seminar Discussions
- Self-Evaluations
- Competency Assessments
Learning Outcomes
Appropriate to the context of the Child and Youth Care (CYC) setting, upon the successful completion of the practicum course the student should be able to:
- Define and describe the role and scope of practice of the CYC practitioner.
- Recognize the importance of ethical values in practice, in accordance with the Child and Youth Care Association of British Columbia Code of Ethics.
- In collaboration with site supervisor and course instructor, identify, develop, and assess professional learning goals.
- Connect and engage with young people with the intention to develop professional and therapeutic relationships in CYC practice.
- Plan, facilitate, and evaluate an individual or group therapeutic activity, appropriate to CYC contexts and settings.
- Identify, connect, and reflect upon CYC-related theories, values, and approaches as they intersect with practices and processes at CYC settings.
- Gain an awareness of and articulate one's social position as expressed through one's personal values, biases, assumptions, and beliefs in CYC practice.
- In collaboration with site supervisor and course instructor, determine professional ways to ask for and receive feedback.
Textbook Materials
Textbooks and materials are to be purchased by students. A list of required textbooks and materials will be provided for students at the beginning of the semester.