Child and Youth Advocacy
posted: Feb 17, 06:30 PM
You would think after all these years of working with at-risk youth I would have come to terms with society’s attitude towards youth who do not conform. Fortunately, I haven’t!
On October 26, 2006 Bernard Richard was appointed by the government of New Brunswick, Canada to serve as their Child and Youth Advocate. Children and youth need advocates in our society. When Mr. Richard was required to investigate the experience of certain young people within the system, however, Family Services was not overly anxious to permit him to do his job.
I subscribe to CYC-NET and find their news updates helpful in keeping current on the state of child and youth care around the world. One of the most recent updates deals with the topic of strip searching youth in care, specifically in closed facilities. A closed facility is one where the youth are locked in at all times.
At first reading you may think “what is Gemini’s problem with strip searching youth who’s behaviour necessitates them being kept under close supervision?” My problem is this, some of these children and youth have experienced significant physical and sexual abuse in their short lives, strip searching adds insult to pre-existing injury. Additionally, there is an obvious lack of resources and supports to facilitate these youth receiving the necessary therapy and life skills which may allow them to leave the emotional scars of their abuse behind and adopt new, more effective behaviours.
The links which I have attached make interesting reading. In the 21st century it is reprehensible that we are reading a report which could well be describing the situation in a 19th century orphanage. We associate such neglect and abuse with historical accounts of what children experienced before we as a society “knew better”.
Children and adolescents with behaviour are rarely just created in a vacuum. Their behaviour is usually a symptom of their experiences and how they have survived in this world.