An Analytical Overview: Child and Youth Care Competencies

In the Child and Youth Care (CYC) field, it is important to be aware, understanding, and involved with the domains outlined by the Association for Child and Youth Care Practice; that being, Professionalism, Cultural and Human Diversity, Relationship and Communication, Developmental Practice Methods, and Applied Human Development (Mattingly, Stuart, & VanderVen, 2010, p. 9). By being aware, understanding, and involved in each domain of competencies, practitioners begin to understand themselves and others. Competencies help to develop the practitioner’s knowledge, contexts of practice, context of self, relationships, the milieu, organizational system, and culture (Mattingly, Stuart, & VanderVen, 2010, pp. 26-29). Ultimately, this helps to create a curriculum that facilitates learning, for both the practitioner and the young person(s) inside and outside the workplace (Mattingly, Stuart, & VanderVen, 2010, p. 29). Furthermore, as the 298 competencies are re-evaluated and developed over time, through the on-going process of being active in the CYC field, the practitioner will become more successful in their milieu. This paper aims to create an awareness of the importance of engaging in competencies outlined by the Association of Child and Youth Practice. It is important to note this paper is subjective in nature and follows research that could be argued as outdated or of westernized culture. Moreover, due to the lack of diversity in research, that being, quality over quantity, it could be argued that not all aspects of practitioner’s competencies are outlined. To further understand this paper, families refer to caregivers, not necessarily being blood-related, of young persons that are within the primary environment. Young persons in this paper refers to children and youth, and is used in place of “client”, due to client indicating there is power over them