Tilly, who is 14, has started coming to your youth centre with her younger brother who is 8 years old. He is much younger than all the other young people who attend the centre, and strictly speaking, he is outside your centre's target age range. He does, however, really seem to enjoy the activities and some of the older young people like looking after him.
When you approach Tilly about it, she says her dad gets really drunk and aggro and yells at everyone, and so the kids like to get out of his way until late at night.
What would you do?
Our management is hard line - no under 12s in the centre!
ReplyDeleteFor children in these situations it is so important to maintain and strengthen the sibling links that these two children would have. Separating them as far as access to services goes only makes them more isolated and vulnerable. I wonder if the youth services could form partnerships with other services that exist for the 8 uear old and look at how they could operate?
ReplyDeleteThe benefits of Tilly,s brother attending are not only to him. Besides him being in a safer environment, it's probably respite for Tily in caring for her brother, there are also leadership and nurturing skills being learned by the other kids who have wanted to take care of him. The centre could build a few programs around leadership/ sibling relationships etc. Alternatively those stakeholders listed could brainstorm other solutions.
ReplyDeleteThis dilemma actually reflects the changing demographics of youth services and the reducing age of young people who access services. We also experience this situation at times, and agree with Kim in regards to the need for DoCS reports, and referrals etc, and agree with Kylie that there are possibilities for incidental learning to take place. However, it's not balck & white in regards to maintaining age limits.
ReplyDeleteThese trends in shifting demographics are luckily being reflected in changing funding programs, backed by solid research in relation to what helps build resilience in families & communities. For example the federally funded YouthLinx program proactively excourages working with the whole family unit. This enables youth services to work with family members who don't fit into our neat age criteria's. In this current example, we would not be aiming to make 'drop in' open to 8 yr olds all the time, but a "bring a family member" night once a week could help meet some of this need,in conjunction with referral to other programs that are structured to meet the needs of 8yr olds (we run an after school structured activity program called Kids Klub for 5 - 10 yr olds).
In addition, we would seek permission to contact the parents and attempt to engage the broader family and build some sort of trusting relationship that would facilitate addressing the already identified issues, plus further un-identified issues. This of-course is very resource intensive, and not all services will have these resources and/or flexibility; but they should!
Many other programs such as "Links to Learning" need to acknowledge this shifting demographic and reduce the age that YP can access these programs. We have lots of YP under 15 yrs who have dropped out of school (as young as 10 yrs in one case), and there are no services (that I'm aware of) that can link them back into the education system, that alone find an alternative education that can cope with the high needs/high management issues that these YP present.
An interesting dilemma that challenges the majority of funding models.
This situation has occured several times at our weekly Youth group, and subsequently I dropped the age limit from 12 to 10yrs.
ReplyDeleteIt is a difficult call, particularly from the agency's perspective, however as a Youth worker, I will put the interests of the child before the regulations of the agency, as the safety and wellbeing of the child is FAR more important than what some rule dictates.
I work in a small isolated rural town, and while there is a good community here, there is little that goes on for kids of this age, especially after hours. So I would be encouraging the two siblings to stay together for support, encouraging the leadership potentials that this situation invariably inspires amongst the other teens, looking at the possibility of getting another group for younger kids started, and referring the parental issues to collegues.
I would also try to encourage the 14 y.o. to take on a Mentor in our Life-skills and Mentoring program to help provide more support and guidance, without the constraints of work hours and access issues.
It is an issue I think we will face more and more in the coming years, particularly with the disadvantaged, and the increase of single-parent families.
G'day,
ReplyDeleteI think this issue comes up a lot. I now work in Case Management of Youth whom are homless but prior to this was at a youth centre. In both my roles I have found that this situation occurs because parents don't accept responsibility for their kids.
The drinking occuring because of bigger socio-economic problems. Continuing on with no intervention means the service is simply being used as a child-minding area rather than the real reason...outreach and acknowledgement of a larger problem.
Part of the reason I now work in Case Management is because I hate it how often issues were left unaddressed. I understand that you cannot solve a problem by jumping in the middle...but letting it ride and just saying, "oh it's all an age-limit problem" is rubbish. The issue here is the kids are trying to find a place to escape.
Address the cause and you don't have an issue. The kid won't turn up.
And the age limits are a simple issue of "funding"...we all know policy doesn't ever fit into REAL LIFE. It would be nice if it did, but often it just makes broad brush strokes over a complex often generational problem.
Don't get me wrong, health services are better now...but simple saying "Oh this is an issue of age" is not appropriate. Young people of all ages are crying out for leadership in a leaderless world of the "individual". Just look at myspace etc...
Anywayz...I've had my rant.
Check-ya's.
Laterz.
Timm.
well what about young people with their own children? they are usually allowed to bring them to services. the 8year old is still her family and why should she be excluded for bringing him, especially considering the danger isf she were to leave him at home
ReplyDeleteIn this situation I know that the brother is outside the age for the target group but child’s well-being needs to come first. He is in a safe environment and his sister can relax instead of being on edge all the time with her father’s drinking. DOC’S need to be let know about your concerns so that the right help can be put into action and while working as a team it is a win win for all the children are safe and help is there for the father because you don’t know why he drinks there is an underlining problem that counselling may help safety for all.
ReplyDeleteI work at a program where we pick up kids on a bus for the youth program. There are often numerous kids following the bus yelling "I'm 10, I'm 10". They are obviously not. It is sad to see so many younger children in need. I would let the child stay for that week but look into what programs there are for younger children and also the possibility of including a young children's program with the possibility of mentoring from the older kids. Wouldn't it be a conflict of duty of care to send him home?
ReplyDeleteYouth/Child Your targeted group may only be teenage kids but what about safety for all ages. No child deserves to ever be sent home to this kind of situation. In real life a policy written at a youth centre does not protect a youth/child that is in need of help. All people who work with youth/children are manatory reporters This means that they must report supected youth/children that are in danger to docs.The Youth Centre should also have a conselor I am sure that both the children would benfit from a few sessions. Maybe than you can than do another report to docs with relivant information on both children as docs require only relevant information
ReplyDelete