ROADTRIP!

 This past weekend, myself and a few of my classmates (Josiah, Lexi and Damon) went to a Foster Care Appreciation/Conferences for Broken Arrow. The conference was held at the Fern Resort in Orillia with special guest Jack Phelan, the “guru” of Child and Youth Care. Attending the conference was a great learning opportunity for myself. At the conference, I got to work in small groups of foster parents, teachers and staff from Broken Arrow to discuss questions and share experiences that we have encounter. Overall, I learned a lot about Broken Arrow as an agency and what they do. I learned a lot about the foster care treatment from listening to the stories that were shared by different foster parents. During the conferences, I got to listen to Jack Phelan share his experience, theory and perspectives on working in the CYW field. After the conference, I had a chance to meet with many more great individuals who are dedicated to working with children and youth in our profession that had many great stories to tell. 

Jack Phelan: Jack Phelan is a Professor at MacEwan University in Edmonton Alberta. He is known as the “guru” of Child and Youth Work and has over forty years of experience in the CYW Profession. Jack was an amazing guest speaker and through this presentation you could see how passionate he is about his work. Jack is very intelligent person and is very eager to share his experiences and listen to others experience.

Jack led group discussion by asking each group to discuss a question that he provided, questions included “Accepting care and concern from the foster family is difficult for the child. Why is this?,” “ How can you figure out how much affection is too much for the child to handle. Any examples?” and “Describe some of the things you do to create an emotionally safe environment?” In our small everyone had a chance to answer the question by sharing a personal story, experiences or their thoughts. After each group had a chance to discuss the question Jack would bring us back together and answer the question by sharing his techniques and perspective.

Foster Parents:  I felt that the foster parents at the conference were very educational to my learning and were very genuinely caring people. Through listening to them talk and share their experiences in group discussion I was able to learn more about their role as a foster parent and really appreciate the work that they do. Many of them were very open and honest when sharing their story and were open to letting us ask them questions. It was interesting to learn about the different children and youth that they have worked with and some of the techniques they have used that worked or didn’t work. I found that the foster parents that I worked with didn’t just see me as a kid and treated me as a professional in the field. They asked me questions about working in a group home and seemed very interested in my experiences.

David Connelly: David Connelly is a Professor in the Child and Youth Care program at Seneca College in Toronto. I had a chance to work with David in our small groups and found his stories and experience inspirational. When talking I could tell how passionate David is as a Child and Youth Worker. After the conference, David talked with myself and my fellow classmates and took it upon himself to introduce us to some people at the conferences. David took us to meet Jack, where we all had a chance to talk about our personal experience in the field and hear more of their inspiring words of wisdom. The words that David shared throughout the day were very empowering for myself someone starting out in the field.

Shelley Oakman: Shelley Oakman is Social Worker/Senior Case Manager and owns her own company called Tuskers Case Management Services. Tuskers is an agency that is linked with Broken Arrow that deals a lot with the paper work and placing the child. Tuskers is “Children Aid” for the Aboriginal and First Nations culture. Shelley works very closely with Andy Leggett from Broken Arrow. Shelley is responsible for finding and interviewing potential foster care families when placing a child or youth, and as part of Shelley’s job is to flies with the children to Ontario. When working in our small groups I had a chance to work with Shelley as well. Shelley was able to share her experience in the field and gave us a better understanding of exactly what Truckers and Broken Arrow are looking for in their foster parents.

Overall, I had an amazing time at the Broken Arrow Foster Care Appreciation in Orillia. I would love to send out a great Thanks to Broken Arrow and Andy Leggett for inviting us and hosting us at this event. The learning was incredible and was a very good learning opportunity. I feel that I can take a lot of the inspirational words, stories and perspectives of everyone at the conferences and apply it to my work as a Child and Youth Worker. The individuals that I meant at the conferences were genuinely kind hearted people that truly care about children and youth and improving their lives.  I really feel that we need more Child and Youth Workers like David, Jack, Shelley and Andy in our field. At the end of the day I really felt like this career is where I am meant to be and want to be. I am proud to call myself a Child and Youth Worker.