antonia hendrick - school of occupational therapy and social work | faculty of health sciences -...
TRANSCRIPT
Community Child Protection Practice:
How Workers can use a Child Rights,
Community Development Theoretical
Framework in their Practice
Dr Antonia Hendrick (Curtin University - WA)
Dr Susan Young (University of Western Australia)
Acknowledgement
The Traditional owners of this land.
Pullman Melbourne on the Park respectfully acknowledges that it is located on the traditional lands of the Kulin Nation.
For the Boonerwrung, Djajawurrung, Taungurong, Wathaurung and the Woi Wurrung, the five language groups of the Kulin Nation, Melbourne has always been an important meeting place for events of political, social, and cultural significance.
To acknowledge
People from whose works this
presentation draws
Who am I?
Presentation outline
Practitioner ‘good practice’ in the field of community child protection
Potential solutions to policy/practice challenges in this field
Theoretical/practice frameworks for community child protection
Developing networks or communities of practice in community child protection
Practitioner ‘good practice’ in the field of
community child protection
We might ask: What is good practice?
When and where do we see it?
How do we know?
Who is involved?
Why is ‘good practice’ so important?
What are your ‘good practice’ experiences – what is
working well?
‘Good Practice' stories
How do we encourage women to share
their stories of DV?
Go fishing. Teach the art of cake decorating.
How do we hear about what women
want for their children?
Get in Hair stylists
Potential solutions to policy/practice
challenges in this field
Recognising the many challenges,
tensions and difficulties:
How are you working with these and
what are your solutions?
Common to many ‘solution’
storiesInclude:
Understanding how communities work
Listening carefully, listen again and sometimes ‘you just need to shutup!’
See possibilities
Demonstrate trustworthiness & respect
Honour cultural traditions
See strengths, skills, abilities
Others.
Not necessarily new skills needed just different application
Theoretical/practice frameworks for
community child protection
Western Australian Policy Context
Signs of Safety (2008)
Key Elements for Child Rights
Practice
Western Australian Policy Context
Signs of Safety (2008)
3 principles:
working relationships
thinking critically, fostering
a stance of inquiry
landing grand aspirations
in everyday practice(WA Government, 2011, p. 13)
Andrew Turnell’s assessment and planning protocol devised when
working with New Zealand Child Youth and Family practitioners (WA Government, 2011, p. 15)
Child protection and community
development
Programme Approach Developmental Approach
Focus on the programme Focus on the citizens, children and adults
Agenda set by programme designers, driven centrally Agenda set by citizens, children and adults and driven by
them
Aim: programme objectives (e.g. better parenting, improved
health etc)
Aim: self-reliance and self-sustainability
Starts where programme designers think the people should
be
Starts from where the children and adults are at
Grand overall plan Small steps, by step
Time: determined by the programme funding, usually time
and resource limited
Time: long term and on-going
Agency workers coordinate activities Genuine cooperative partnerships with agency workers
Outcome oriented Process oriented
Targeted, selective involvement Public, expansive involvement
Good practice: Key elements
for child rights practice Key Elements Description Theoretical perspective Practice implications
Child centred
(All mentioned Articles)
Seeking, listening to and acting
on the child’s definition of his/her
daily life
Children as competent agents
Resilience
Human/child rights
Human dignity
Accepting the competence of the child
Working directly with children as agents in their
own right
Including children as partners in the work
The importance of intersubjective recognition
Contextual
(Articles 7, 8, 9)
Situatedness (time, place,
history, culture)
Social constructivism
Symbolic interaction
Using local and specific designs generated from
the local context rather than programmes
designed elsewhere
Assisting families and children to design their
solutions
Collective action
(All Articles)
The whole is more than the sum
of its parts
The whole has greater longevity
Distributed leadership
Power
Community development
Participative democracy
Social justice
Engaging in equal partnerships,
Learning the practice of ‘together’ and ‘alongside’
Assisting in developing local leadership
Reciprocity
Articles 7, 9, 18, 19)
The family as theorist
Shared responsibility
Trustworthiness
Learning
Anti-oppression
Cross-cultural
Working with diversity
Listening to the experience of the family
Developing equal partnerships
Family Capital
(Articles 7, 8, 9, 12)
Family knowledge, history,
capability, contacts
Social capital
Social networks
Strengths
Systems
Family definition
Considering the potential of 3rd generation
practices to inform the work
Accepting family expertise
Developing networks or communities of
practice in community child protection
Different:
Perspectives (personal/professional)
Organisational imperatives
Regions
Same:
Aim - child protection, child rights
Elements needed in practice
In conclusion
What’s working – good practice
Policy/practice challenges – solutions
Child Rights, Community Development Theoretical Framework in their Practice
Developing & building communities of practice in child protection
“‘Where knowledge is gathered wisdom should follow’
It’s not just about what we know, it’s about what we do with it.”
Young, McKenzie, Omre, Schjelderup & Walker (2014)
References
Government of Western Australia, Department for Child Protection
(2011). The Signs of Safety: Child Protection Practice Framework.
Second Edition.
Ife, J. (2010). Human rights from below: Achieving rights through
community development. Port Melbourne, Victoria: Cambridge
University Press.
Young, Susan, McKenzie, Margaret, Omre, Cecilie, Schjelderup, Liv,
& Walker, Shayne. (2014). What can we do to bring the sparkle back
into this child’s eyes? Child Rights /Community Development
Principles: Key elements for a strengths based child protection practice.
Child Care in Practice, 20(1), 135-154.
We value your questions & comments…
Dr Antonia Hendrick
School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work
Curtin University, Western Australia
Dr Susan Young
Social Work and Social Policy
School of Population Health
University of Western Australia