Competency, Relevance, and Empowerment: A Case for the Restructuring of Children's Programs (From Perspectives in Professional Child and Youth Care, P 105-117, 1990, James P. Anglin, et. al., ed. -- See NCJ-125552)

• NCJ Number: 125559
• Author(s): R Durkin
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 13 pages
• Sale Source: Haworth Press, Inc
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Children's programs should be restructured so as to provide social systems that vigorously support child and youth care rather than hinder it.

Abstract

Specifically, programs should be reoriented so as to promote normal growth and development, i.e., competency, particularly interpersonal competencies. Programs should be made more relevant to community, rather than institutional, living. Democratizing programs by empowering children and those who care for them will make the programs more effective and appropriate for raising and treating children and youth. Programs should be restructured so the child and youth worker are at the hub of the wheel, and experts in psychiatry, social work, and education are used in a more cost efficient and effective consultative manner. Such a structure is better suited to the generalist requirements of caring for children, where the integration of different experiences is as important as the experiences themselves. Concurrent with such a restructuring will be the upgrading of the quality of child care, by simultaneously professionalizing the field, and gaining the political power necessary to restructure children's programs. 1 note, 1 reference. (Author abstract modified)