Ppt module 7 empowering & supporting the rights of yp v 7.12.2012

Module 7
Empowering and
Supporting the
Rights of Young
People
CHCCHILD404B
Support the rights and safety of young people
CHCYTH504A
Support young people to take collective action
1 (c) Copyright CTA CHCCHILD404B/CHCYTH504A, MODULE 7 Version 1 Date: 07/12/2012

Empowering and Supporting the Rights
of Young People
 This module will help you to work within
legislative constraints to ensure that the young
people you work with are kept safe and
protected.
 It will also help you enable young people to
participate in the decision-making that affect
their lives, particularly where your role as a
youth worker is to support groups of young
people in taking action to meet their needs or
responding to community issues.
2

Main Thinking for this Module
 Young people have rights
 They have a right to be safe and happy and be
loved
 They have a right to have a say about their life
and to be supported in their growth towards
autonomy and to learn how to make a difference
in their own life and the lives of others.
3

When Young People are not Safe
 What happens when children and young
people are hurt and not provided a
secure environment?
 They can learn that they are powerless
 They can learn that they are not worth
much
 They can learn that they are alone
 Our mandate as youth workers is to do
all we can to help make the world
around a young person a happy,
healthy and safe one....without this
foundation – present as well as future life
can be sad.
4

Our childhood...so very important for
life long patterns...
5

Not a Child...Not an Adult...
Teenagers are moving towards
adulthood...its a time that is incredibly
important...
We need some of the protection of
childhood and some of the freedoms of
adulthood.
6

Where things can go wrong for
Teenagers...
 Some teenagers are not given boundaries or
supports and find themselves floundering and
get hurt as a result.
 Some teenagers are kept in a ‘child’ prison, not
given training or opportunity to learn that they
can make a difference.
 The middle ground...of support and
empowerment and clear reasonable
boundaries...gets kids ready to handle adult
responsibilities.
7

Too much... too quick
 What happens in adulthood when young
people are given too much responsibility for
their own lives too quickly?
 Being made to grow up either through parents
pushing a child, just not being around or worse
being childish themselves....means that when that
young person is an adult they can feel ‘over
responsible’ for others and get burned out...or feel
‘overwhelmed’ by responsibility...
 Sometimes they see saw between both of these
positions.
8

Not enough and too slow?
 What happens when young people are not
allowed to experiment, grow or have any control
over their lives? DISCUSS
 In adulthood people who have not been allowed
to find their feet, may be fearful and anxious
about their abilities and life itself. They may
blame others and the world for the way they are
and the situations they face and may not be able
to take responsibility well.
 The other option is to become angry and
rebellious, suspicious or anti-social.
9

Youth Workers
• We are not parents or substitute parents but we
are key adults in the lives of young people. We
have the opportunity to add what might be
missing.
• Key ingredients for strong development:
• Empowerment to grow into adult maturity
• Protection
• Lets talk more
about protection first.
10

Implement work practices which support the
protection of children and young people
Its important that we work under the law and comply
with any of the following that is in place:
 Restraining orders
 Supervision and custody orders
 Legislation
Lawful instructions may be received from:
 Licensing authorities
 Organisation supervisor
 Courts of law
 Police
1.1 Comply with lawful instructions, regulations, duty of care and boundaries of practice in all work activities
11

Our work as youth workers needs always to be with child-
focused work practices. These include:
 Client self-determination (where appropriate – depending on
age and stage of Young Persons development)
 Appropriate use of language considering the age and
developmental stage of the child/young person
 Surroundings appropriate for a child or young person
 Child and/or young person-directed communication
We are informed about these through legislation and
policies of our organisation and codes of practice from
our professional associations.
1.2 Routinely employ child-focused work practices to uphold the rights of children and young peoples to
participate in decision-making where it is age appropriate
12

Implement Work Practices which support the
Protection of Children and Young People
We need to gather information about the
child or young person according to
their age and stage as well. For
example:
 Observation
 Consultation with appropriate persons
including child or young person, or
guardian/parent
 Consulting documentation and records
held by the organisation or from third party
1.3 Employ communication and information gathering techniques with children
and young people in accordance with current recognised good practice
13

Implement Work Practices which Support the
Protection of Children and Young People
 We have to be sure of our role and
make decisions and take actions
within our work role and in
accordance with legislative
requirements.
 Its important that we keep our skills
and knowledge up to date and
ensure we get good supervision.
1.4 Ensure decisions and actions taken are within own level of
responsibility, work role and legislative requirements
1.5 Maintain own knowledge and skills as required to work effectively
and participate in practice supervision processes
14

 Confidentiality is important for children and young
people. They need to be able to develop trust with a
youth worker.
 Where confidentiality has limits is of course when the
child or young person is not safe and in the case of
smaller children when you believe it is in the child’s best
interest that their parents or guardians are fully aware of
what is happening for them.
 It’s always best practice to get a young persons
permission about telling their secrets.
1.6 Maintain confidentiality as appropriate
1.7 Provide an appropriate response as determined by organisation procedures, legal and work role
obligations
15

Identify Indicators ofAbuse andAct
Appropriately
When we think a child or YP is in danger or has been or
is being hurt then we need to implement child protection
procedures.
These may be outlined by the following:
 The specific job role we have
 Organisation procedures
 Interagency agreements
 Legislation within jurisdictions (we need to check our
responsibilities with respect to the State Legislation on Child
Safety)
2.1 Identify children and young people at risk of harm by routinely implementing child protection procedures
when appropriate
2.2 Respond to disclosure in accordance with accepted standards ,techniques, and legislative obligations
16

Appropriately
 If we feel that something untoward is happening, the way
we gather that information is important
 We need to write down observations, exactly what a
child or YP has said
 We need to be careful that we don’t use leading
questions. For example:
“Garry are you saying that you are frightened to go home? Why
is that mate?” (Good information gathering)
“Garry it sounds like you are frightened to go home, is that
because your father is hurting you or sexually abusing you?”
(Not good practice)
2.3 Gather information about the child and young persons behaviour in order to identify uncharacteristic
behaviour or other indicators which may indicate abuse
17

Appropriately
• There are some young people who are more vulnerable
to abuse than others. These may include:
 Children/YP with disabilities
 Children/YP from families with AOD and or Mental Health
issues
 Children/YP from families with financial burdens, including
overcrowding
 Children/YP /families in remote locations – stressors from not
being easily able to meet all needs due to isolation, cost and
distance can impact.
• This is not to say that a child or YP WILL be abused but
we need to be aware of those who are more vulnerable.
2.4 Monitor the circumstances of children who are identified as highly vulnerable to abuse
18

Appropriately
What are some of those indicators of abuse?
 Withdrawal/isolation
 Sadness
 Agitation
 Sexualised behaviours
 Hyper vigilance
 Aggression
 Language indicating risk ‘its not worth it’, ‘I’m a nobody’ etc.
 Lack of emotion
 Inappropriate sensitivities/phobic responses
 Physical marks
 Disclosure
2.5 Identify indicators of abuse and report indications of possible risk of harm
19

Appropriately
 To help the young person it is
important that we record all
information
 This recording may be through
photographs, records/notes, or
through audio recording
 With smaller children their
drawings can be useful as
supplementary evidence
2.6 Accurately record relevant specific and general circumstances
surrounding risk of harm in accordance with organisation procedures,
ethics and legal requirements
20

Appropriately
 Check your States requirements for mandatory reporting
 You may need to report to a supervisor, you may need to
report directly to your Child Protection agency
 Whatever you do, do it quickly.
 Work collaboratively with relevant agencies
 If you can put in as many protective measures around
the young person and let supervisors or Child Safety
know what you have put in place
2.7 Promptly report risk of harm indicators in accordance with statutory and organisation procedures
2.8 Work collaboratively with relevant agencies to ensure the report has maximum effectiveness of report
21

Apply Ethical Practices and Safeguard the
Rights and Interests of Children and Young
People
 We need to be very sensible in our practices.
 Have all young people got safe transport to and from any
community activities?
 Do you have permission to give a young person a ride
home on your own? Is it wise? What do the policies and
procedures say about this?
 We need to ensure we don’t expose children and young
people in our care to video content that is upsetting,
violent or frightening. We need to STICK to ratings and
ages etc. DISCUSS other examples
3.1 Protect the rights of children and young people in the provision of services
22

People
 There are plenty of grey areas
that we may come across that
may alarm us.
 We need to seek supervision
support for issues of ethical
concern in practice with
children and young people.
3.2 Identify and seek supervision support for issues of ethical
concern in practice with children and young people
23

People
 Our professional boundaries are important.
 How much do we tell of our own personal lives?
 Do we tell our clients where we live, who our relatives
are?
 Do we touch/hug our clients?
 Are we alone with our clients?
 Sharing a tent with our young client?
 DISCUSS
3.3 Develop ethical practices for implementing professional boundaries consistent with child protection legislation in
relevant jurisdiction
3.4 Recognise indicators for potential ethical concerns when working with children and young people
24

People
 Unfortunately sometimes we may
observe other workers taking risks
with professional boundaries and
even doing things that are very
wrong
 In these cases…report to your
supervisor immediately.
3.5 Respond to unethical behaviour of others by reporting to the
appropriate person
25

Required Knowledge for Safety Issues
 Statutory and policy requirements relating to job role
 Applied knowledge of relevant child protection agencies
and purpose
 Role and processes of workers as advocates for children
and young peoples rights
 Ethical obligations as stated in relevant codes of practice,
licensing, accreditation registration to professional bodies,
service agreements and as defined by job specification
 Ethical approaches that incorporate the conventions on
the rights of the child, and human rights
26

Required knowledge for Safety Issues
 Responsibilities to clearly define worker and client role
and responsibility in regard to ethical conduct and
professional relationship boundaries
 State/territory requirements and processes for notifying
and reporting suspected abuse
 Child protection system, including reporting protocols,
responses to reporting and interagency policies
 Organisation guidelines and policies for responding to
risks of harm to children and young people
 Duty of care responsibilities when supporting the rights
and safety of children and young people
27

 Recording procedures appropriate to job role
 Common risks to child safety and common risks and
dynamics particular to young people including, violence,
self-harm, abuse types, Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD)
use/misuse and health issues
 Indicators of the different types and dynamics of abuse
including as they apply to age, gender, disability, culture
and sexuality
 Different types of abuse (e.g. emotional, psychological,
physical, sexual, neglect and domestic violence)
28

Overview of legal system as it pertains to the job role
Outline of common legal issues when working with
children and young people including:
 abuse in all forms
 domestic and family violence
 neglect
 exploitation
 family members with AOD issues
 family members with mental health concerns
 systems abuse
 refugee status and children who have experienced torture or trauma
 family law issues
 duty of care obligations
29

Required Skills
 Respond appropriately to disclosure
 Provide an appropriate response to indications of risk of
harm
 Apply indicators of abuse to make judgments about risks
of harm
30

Required skills
• Work with the specific needs of children and young
people of vulnerable populations including those
with:
parents/carers with a mental illness, AOD misuse, in
prison, or a disability or health concerns
experiences of torture and trauma related to refugee
status
31

Required skills
• Follow procedures and instructions
• Apply principles of ethical decision-making
• Maintain professional boundaries in work with children
and young people
• Provide required reports and records, including effective
use of relevant information technology in line with work
health and safety (WHS) guidelines
32

Required skills
• Use child focused work practices including:
 communication skills
 awareness and sensitivity to children and young
person's needs
 inclusiveness of children and young people in
participatory decision-making process
 making special allowances to meet needs of children
and young people
 ways of engaging children and young people
 observance and presence of children and young
people as primary clients
33

Required skills
 Distinguish between legal and ethical problems
 Work within a legal and ethical framework:
 apply problem solving skills that will require
negotiation skills to resolve problems of a difficult
nature within organisation protocols
 Demonstrate fair, prompt and consistent performance of
duties with all children
 Undertake advocacy for young people and children's
rights according to the Declaration on Rights of the child
34

Lets go on to empowerment...
• Helping young people to develop an ‘internal locus of
control’
DISCUSS: What is internal and external locus of control?
Watch Internal Locus of Control on pbworks:
Nick Vujicic - no arms, no legs, no worries!
35

What does Community Development
have to do with it?
 Community development principles have to do with
participation and consultation.
 This is a very different approach to the old ways of
working within a community, within a business or
organisation and with young people...
 50 years ago....the powerful, the older, the bosses, made
the decisions on behalf of those who had no control, who
were younger or subordinate. There was NO
consultation, no involvement...
 Things have changed for better or for worse...
36

Power to the people!
• DISCUSS: the changing power balance in society...
• Children and teenagers in school...not respectful? Think
they have a right to say or do what they want or to
control the classroom...what is that about?
• The age of Litigation...you are not going to push ME
around!
• Children divorcing parents
• Unions controlling business
Can we go back to the ‘good old days’?
• Where is the balance?
37

Work within a Community Development
Framework
In youth work today we need to be able to:
 Talk about these key principles of community
development in our practice
 These are the need to work ‘with’ people not doing
things ‘for’ people on their behalf without consulting
them
 It is the capacity to involve all the relevant people,
groups and organisations to solve their own problems
(build capacity)
 It is about empowerment.
1.1 Articulate key principles, process and goals of community development practice
1.2 Use effective community development processes
38

Framework
We need to understand that we have a diverse
community and the need to be able to effectively
work with very different people. This means
learning about and from them.
1.3 Work effectively with diversity in the community39

Framework
• While youth workers need to take a community
development approach in their work; it doesn’t mean that
they will not address individual issues that arise and
work within duty of care requirements.
• It is the way that we work with young people that is key
• Do we try to do it all for them? make decisions for them?
solve dilemmas for them or do we take a strengths
based approach, an empowerment approach?
• It is important that we realise this is critical for the youth
age bracket…to help them grow towards adulthood and
maturity.
1.4 Address individual issues arising within community development work and respond within duty of care
requirements
40

Group Work
 A lot of our work as youth workers
will be working with groups both
informal and formal.
 It is easy to take a ‘lead’ in these
cases.
 Groups need leaders, but it takes
away individuals and groups own
capacity to self regulate, set
goals, take action and make
decisions if a charismatic ‘leader’
does it all for them!
1.5 Work with young people in formal and informal groups
41

Encourage and Support Young People
to Develop and use Networks
Young people can have a lot of different issues which
have connections into wider society.
These can include:
 Income concerns including financial hardship
 Unemployment, Education and Training (may be disengaged)
 Confidence and self-esteem issues
 Participation
 Accommodation
 Health including mental health issues
 Acceptanceisolation
 Spiritual
 Rights and social justice
2.1 Identify and note young people's issues, needs or interests in community issues
42

Encourage and support young people
to develop and use networks
 While you may work with a young person on their
own personal issues, it is a great opportunity to
encourage them to identify the commonality of their
issues, needs and interests with other young people.
 This does a couple of things…
 It helps the young person realise they are not ‘weird’
or alone.
 It can also assist the young person understand that
there is strength in numbers – not just for personal
debriefing but also in making a difference together.
2.2 Encourage and support young people to identify the commonality of their issues, needs and interests
43

Encourage and support young people
to develop and use networks
 Take the time to discuss possibilities for
responding to those needs and interests. See if
you can provide structured or unstructured
opportunities for Young People with similar
interests or needs.
 These might include:
 Structured - formal training courses,
conferences, seminars, provision of readings,
and/or audio visual media
 Unstructured - gatherings, discussions
2.3 Discuss possibilities for responding to those needs and interests
2.4 Provide structured or unstructured opportunities for young people with similar interests or needs44

Encourage and support Young People
to Develop and use Networks
• Seeing the big picture and how issues are related is a great
part of growing up. It helps individuals recognise relationships
between what looks like unrelated things. Loneliness and drug
use….Vandalism and no access to entertainment.
Unemployment and lack of opportunity to train or no
entrepreneurs in a community etc.
• Encourage young people to work together to take JOINT
ACTION
Review Video Clip on pbworks Mic Smith:
Discuss the empowerment model used by his mentor.
2.5 Encourage and support young people to identify relationships between their issues / interests and social structures
2.6 Encourage young people to work together to take joint action
45

Support young people to come together
to plan collective action
 It is important to support young people to move in the
direction of action; ensuring they have the necessary
skills and knowledge to work in a collective way.
 For example…teaching them about meetings
structures, minutes and secretary functions can be
really helpful.
 They may need a hand to ensure that decision making is
involving everyone and other activities are inclusive.
 This is a great learning opportunity for young people to
learn to consider other people…the outspoken and
quieter group members…all as valuable.
3.1Ensure young people have the relevant skills and knowledge to operate in a collective way, e.g. knowledge
shortfalls, meeting skills, auditing skills and knowledge
3.2 Map and monitor youth participation processes, particularly decision-making and inclusion processes of groups
46

Support, encouragement and opportunities should be
provided to young people to enable them to:
 meet and work effectively together in common interest
groups
 promote / publicise groups to enable broader youth
participation where appropriate
 express and explore their
views and identify issues of
common concern
 explore options for addressing
issues and needs collectively within existing structures
and in revised structures
47

 Support, encouragement and opportunities should be
provided to young people to enable them to:
 use group processes to generate ideas, evaluate and
select strategies for taking collective action like workshops,
meetings and brainstorming sessions.
 plan the selected strategies, including actions, resources,
timelines and responsibilities required
 identify the information, skills and resources that are
already available and required to take action
 access or provide available resources and support on an
ongoing basis
Review Video clip on PB Works conversations with YP by Peter Slattery. (check out
his method of helping youth identify areas of commonality)
3.3 Support, encouragement and opportunities are provided
48

Support young people to identify and
form alliances with key stakeholders
• As we know young people on their own are a
disadvantaged group…they often have little money
or political power.
• It is really important for young people to be able to
identify other stakeholders interested in an issue or
strategy.
• After they identify likely stakeholders, get them to
identify what possible role, interest or resources
those stakeholders might have to contribute.
• Why would they help and how can they help…
4.1 Identify other stakeholders interested in the issue or strategy
4.2 Identify the interest, resources and possible roles of stakeholders
49

• Don’t leave them to it! Give them support in making
contact, providing information and negotiating
connections. They may need education on what to wear,
how to say what they want to say, formats for information
and even someone to go with them to build confidence
to start.
• Starting connections is only the first point of course. You
will need them to work out how often the contact should
be made and in what way and mechanisms to remind
them of these appointments.
4.3 Support young people in contacting, informing and negotiating alliances with stakeholders
4.4 Assist young people and stakeholders are to maintain appropriate contact and information flow
50

• Then importantly you will need to help them to provide
the appropriate acknowledgement for that support and
help.
4.5 Encourage young people to acknowledge key stakeholder support
51

Support young people to implement
their strategies or action plans
 As new projects get under way it will be important to
keep your support in place to provide information, and
support troubleshooting.
 It may be for an individual or for the whole group.
 Brainstorming, meetings or workshops can assist the
process.
5.1 Provide relevant information as required to individuals and the group to facilitate better operation of collective
networks
5.2 Provide individual or group support on an ongoing basis
5.3 Use group processes to monitor progress and adapt or further develop plans
52

Assist young people to monitor and
evaluate strategies
 Importantly a key learning for youth will be to keep a
record of their progress in making those changes or
creating a sustainable project within the community
which will not only help them but a lot of other young
people.
 The other key learning is evaluation.
 These are important in accountability and in being taken
seriously by the community at large. This will prepare
them well for the adult world.
6.1 Support groups to monitor and record progress
6.2 Assist groups to identify outcomes and consequences (intended or unintended) of their actions on an on-going
basis
6.3 Evaluate strategies and group processes
6.4 Provide reports of outcomes as appropriate to stakeholders and within the organisation
53

Assist young people to monitor and
Evaluate strategies
 Finally when there is success, partial success or just
plain hard work and effort make sure you are part of
helping youth to celebrate their achievements, their own
skills development and any social change that they have
accomplished.
 Brag about them to others. Get them to brag about each
other.
 These kinds of events and celebrations mean a great
deal to those young people who may have not been
celebrated by family or others in the past.
 Have a party, invite stakeholders and family and praise
them up.
6.5 Celebrate achievements, including personal development, skills development and social change
54

Essential Knowledge
 Issues/concerns expressed by young people in
the community or engaged with the service
 Attitudes and interest of all stakeholders and the
impact these may have on the outcomes of
collective action projects
 Work role as it applies to supporting young
people's collective action
 Power imbalances in the professional
relationship
 Relevant policies and procedures of the
organisation including values and ideologies and
how this impacts on the collective action
56

Essential Knowledge
 Ethical responsibilities when working with young
people to take collective action
 Models and tools of advocacy, community
development, self help, youth participation, and
peer education
 Theories of interpersonal communication,
dispute resolutions and principles of negotiation
 Principles and theories of group work and
structured and unstructured groups
 Documentation processes and evaluation
methods
57

Essential Skills
 Enable youth participation
 Implement community development initiatives
 Undertake social analysis
 Actively engage young people using
communication skills appropriate to specific
youth context and culture
 Apply skills in:
 awareness raising with young people
 skills building with young people
 community change
 Measure outcomes in community development
work - particularly process based outcomes
58

Ppt module 7 empowering & supporting the rights of yp v 7.12.2012

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Andere mochten auch

Andere mochten auch (16)

Ähnlich wie Ppt module 7 empowering & supporting the rights of yp v 7.12.2012

Ähnlich wie Ppt module 7 empowering & supporting the rights of yp v 7.12.2012 (20)

Ppt module 7 empowering & supporting the rights of yp v 7.12.2012