goodenoughcaring.com is an arena for the discussion of issues of interest to parents, foster parents, residential child care workers, counsellors, youth support workers, social workers, teachers, mentors, social pedagogues, educateurs and to young people who are, and adults who have been, in care. If you are interested in, or involved in the care,upbringing and education of children and young people or in the nurturing of children and young people who are unable to live with their own families goodenoughcaring.com is a site for you. The website welcomes thoughtful views - personal, practical or theoretical - about the care of children and young people. If you want to comment about child care or about goodenoughcaring.com then e mail charlessharpe@dsl.pipex.com
The goodenoughcaring.com site is archived at the British Library.
The goodenoughcaring journal is an online publication which invites anyone wishing to publish papers and articles about parenting, nurture, child care work and related fields or those wishing to write about their child care experiences to submit as e mail attachments papers or articles for publication to the editors at charlessharpe@dsl.pipex.com. The members of the editorial group are Evelyn Daniel, Siobain Degregorio, Jane Kenny, Ariola Vishnja and Charles Sharpe. The current edition at www.goodenoughcaring.com/JournalIndex.aspx was published online on 15th June, 2009. The next edition will be published on December 15th, 2009.
NEWS and OPINION
Forthcoming events
Imminent
7-12 July, 2009, The IFCO (International Foster Care Organisations) Conference in Dublin.
Quite soon
4-5 September, 2009, The 3rd VIG (Video Interaction Guidance) International Research Conference, Dalhousie Building, University of Dundee. The keynote speakers are Jane Barlow, Ilona Boniwell, Maria V. Doria, Peter Fonagy, Marije Eliens, Ruben Fukkinkguben Fukkink, Mariska Klein Velderman, Una McCluskey, Nelleka Polderman, Emese Nagy, and Katerina Silhanova, (formerly Beaufortova). For bookings go to : https://www.buyat.dundee.ac.uk/events/eventdetails.asp?compid=1&eventid=39
7-8 September, 2009, after the VIG conference an introductory training course on Video Interaction Guidance will be held in Dundee. For information about the conference and/or the training contact Sandra Deuchars on Tel. 01382 381419 or at
http://www.cpdeducation.co.uk/veroc
Not so far away
11 November, 2009, The CCHN (Child Care History Network) Conference The Place of Ethics in the History of Child Care at the Planned Environment Therapy Trust at Toddington, Gloucestershire.
The goodenoughcaring Journal no.5 is now online
It's June 15th, 2009 and the 5th issue of the goodenoughcaring Journal is now online at http://www.goodenoughcaring.com. In this bumper issue there are more articles to read than ever before and we hope that there will be much to interest all our readers. The text of Leon Fulcher's workshop is accessed as a pdf document and so for the first time we have illustrations and diagrams in the Journal. This may be a small step for all you technocrats out there but it's a mighty one for us at goodenoughcaring !
Athlene Derry , a senior residential child care worker from London gives an account of the difficulties to be overcome when helping looked after children keep up with their schooling.
Douglas Cameron , a residential child care worker in the south east of England writes about his transition from community based outreach work with young adults to working with young people in a children's home.
Claudette Brown the team leader of the London Borough of Barnet's learning mentoring scheme explains the role of learning mentor.
John Stein , the cognitive behavioural therapist and author of Residential Treatment of Adolescents and Children: Issues, Principles, and Techniques and former director of residential treatment programmes for both adults and children in Pennsylvania and Louisiana looks at the uncertain status of child care workers by considering the difficulties encountered in agreeing a name for their profession.
Dr. Keith J. White, the Director of Mill Grove and the author of The Growth of Love will pursue the theme of the place of love in the therapeutic care of children and young people from a Christian standpoint.
Joel Kanter, a social worker near Washington, DC, the Editor in Chief of the online journal, Beyond the Couch , (at www.beyondthecouch.org) and the editor of "Face to Face with Children: The Life and Work of Clare Winnicott" (see www.clarewinnicott.net) writes about the influence of Clare Winnicott on therapeutic work with children and young people.
Simon Hammond, a PhD researcher at the University of East Anglia considers the way technology may help Life Story Work with children and young people who are being looked after in care.
John Fallowfield , a trainee social worker with the London Borough of Richmond, who is studying for a Master's degree in social work at Royal Holloway University describes how an understanding of attachment theory has influenced his thinking about his work.
Dr. Leon Fulcher, provides the text of a workshop he is presenting Promoting Developmental Outcomes for Looked After Children and Young People at the IFCO (International Foster Care Organisations) Conference in Dublin from 7-12 July, 2009. This text is available as a pdf document *. Leon is an International Child and Youth Care Consultant ; the Chairperson of the Board of Governors for the International Child and Youth Care Network and as the Co-ordinator of the Learning Zone Network at www.cyc-net.org he develops on-line education and training for Foster Carers and Youth Care Workers.
*Leon Fulcher has suggested that when considering the text of Assets for Kids readers should envisage a 16 years old young person - someone with a large extended family on both mother's and father's side - with a history of placements in residential institutions and kinship care. The extended family network had not been identified by social service agencies, nor had they been invited to be involved because of gang affiliations. Psychiatric assessment for the adult Court confirmed the young person as being Unfit to Stand Trial as an adult because of Mental Incapacity with Borderline Subnormality.
This Key Assets for Kids recording with 18-Week Summary Profiles offers a story about the 4-5 months of a young person's life as he transitioned from residential supervision in a secure Youth Justice facility to an intensive foster care placement using a Team Parenting approach. The placement was organised through a High and Complex Needs Unit (a cross-Ministerial body that brings together Health, Education, Child Welfare and Youth Justice services) to manage community-based placements under Youth Court supervision.
Lorea Boneke a student on the master of Social Work course at Brunel University considers the relationship between a 'looked after' child's resilience and their experience of adult attachment figures.
Alison Poltock , the Director of London's East End Film Festival reviews Helena Trestikova's documentary film, Rene which follows the disrupted life of Rene, as he leaves the Czech care system.
Charles Sharpe reviews Mark Smith's recently published book Rethinking Residential Child Care: Positive Perspectives .
As ever we do hope that you will think about providing us with an article about your work, your thoughts,and your learning about childhood, parenting, caring and the development of children.
On sale now : Love Is Enough : sincerity and professionalism in the care and education of children and young people
A few copies of the goodenoughcaring book , Love Is Enough : sincerity and professionalism in the care and education of children and young people edited by Charles Sharpe, Evelyn Daniel, Siobain Degregorio, Jane Kenny and Ariola Vishnja and published by Abbeyhill Press remain. To purchase a copy from the UK send a cheque for £11.95 made payable to goodenoughcaring to 5 Orchard Waye, Totnes, Devon TQ9 5PN together with the address to which you would like the book to be sent. This includes the postage cost making this a bargain ! Purchasers from outside of the UK may have to pay additional postage charges. If you prefer to do these things electronically it is available for purchase through Amazon. The ISBN is 978-0-9560438-0-1. The book will be of interest to those with a professional interest in the lives of children, to students of child care and to parents immersed in the process of bringing up children. The authors offer an exciting variety of literary styles to illustrate and analyse their experiences of childhood, parenting and love.
goodenoughcaring.com website is edited by Charles Sharpe. I am a child care consultant. I provide support to child care organisations in the United Kingdom and Europe engaged in looking after emotionally troubled children and young people. My services include project development, management supervision, team development and staff training. I have been involved in the care and education of children and young people as a practitioner, manager, teacher, trainer and lecturer. I am a psychodynamic counsellor and therapist.
I am known to be vociferous about the lack of depth in training provided for those who work with emotionally troubled youngsters. In Writings at goodenoughcaring.com you will find articles, papers, a recommended reading list, and training documents I have written about child development and about the care of children and young people who have experienced disrupted childhoods. Most of these have been written and devised for different courses I have run. I hope they have general interest and are helpful towards the professional development of those who work with children and young people. My blog goodenoughlife can be found at http://goodenoughcaring.blogspot.com/
Useful Links
National Children's Bureau http://www.ncb.org.uk
Scottish Institute of Residential Child Care http://www.sircc.strath.ac.uk