my roles concerning child support

my roles concerning child support

Introduction

The focus of this paper is on the challenges facing children from different countries. The article will try to analyze through various theoretical practices the problems children are likely to encounter while growing. As a practitioner, this paper will enable me to reflect on my roles concerning child support. Besides, this article will look at ways of resolving challenges facing children. The forms include identification of their ecological system, social location awareness, hearing indigenous perspective, as well as self-reflecting and self-caring regularly.

Ecological System

BC Housing Kids Club offers child support services provided by South Vancouver Neighborhood House (SVNH). The club is committed to serving a vulnerable group of children. Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory gives me a better understanding of child connection. Many of them are from countries with political instability such as Syria, Peru, Sudan, Thailand, Vietnam, among others. Children often have different ways of doing things due to differences in ethnic groups and race. For instance, all Muslim children at the club are required to wear hijab.besides, and they are forbidden to consume meat unless it is halal meat. When planning a snack and activities for children, my supervisor and I have to consider that the programs are culturally sensitive. Therefore, the critical events of the calendar are taken care of, including Christmas. On the other hand, we also consider that some of the children do not celebrate such religious celebrations.

Besides, children tend to play in groups that are similar to their ethnicity. I often see cultured Muslim children playing altogether and second-generation immigrant children playing with local children. As practitioners, we are part of Kids Club’s children’s ecological system, and we

have the ability to support children embracing diversity and inclusion.

Not only does the microsystem significantly influence the children but also the mesosystem and exosystem. I notice a couple of children that have strong tempers, which usually correlates with their parents’ involvement. Some family that struggles with financial issues tends to be more neglectful with their children because they prioritize their family income. In reality, this does not mean the parents are irresponsible, but the only constraint to their budget. Internally, children are influenced to be hot-tempered due to lack of parental attention. Other factors that contribute to this kind of behavior is the lack of proper disciplinary measures since some parents are unlikely to punish their kids. For instance, at the club, we have a certain girl who often has episodes of breakdown that makes her peers avoid her presence. My supervisor has been trying to help this girl, but she needs much more time and effort that my supervisor cannot provide. We have limited resource at the club which hinders as from delivering one on one care. She could not be a fit for the kids club program as my supervisor’s beliefs. I also did not know how to approach the first time I saw her temper when I had just arrived at the club. Eventually, one day, we had a significant improvement towards relationship building, and I came to realize that the girl was adorable and accommodating. She just needed to know that someone was there for her to show her love and compassion. Later on, whenever she is at the club, she always hugs me before she leaves. Recently, her breakdown and temper are more stabilized, and she is showing real improvement. I believe she also wants to get better and improve her relationship with friends.

Social Location

The intention of being aware of our social location is to create a place of double comfort. The kind of support that demonstrates that one is critically informed, as well as one, does not need to act underprivileged. (Henron, 2005). For instance, the Kids Club aims to create a culturally sensitive environment for children to learn life skills and connect with friends. To achieve such a goal, we are flexible with our program, and we hear children’s voices and opinions. Some children have diet restrictions due to religious beliefs or allergies. My supervisor often asks children to bring food wrappers home to consult with their parents if they are allowed to eat specific ingredients. Besides, we respect children’s practices and diet preferences. For example, we have some families that struggle with their social, economic status. Therefore, when we have extra food made from the program, children are more than welcome to carry home and share with their families. We try to help the families with the resources at all costs.

Advocating Children’s Right.

The club provides a platform for advocating for the rights of children, especially those with special needs. As a practitioner, I am more than motivated to work closely with special needs children. I understand from the child and youth care code of ethics that I am obligated as a practitioner to treat children fair and equal. However, I believe I only understood it half until I have direct interactions with autism kids. Autism children behave in different ways, and they respond to things differently. For instance, we have a six years old girl at kids club who have been struggling with autism. She gets upset and lets out her emotions when she loses in games or any competition. I usually empathize with the girl, and I try to help her in every way I can as much she resents my assistance most of the time. A few times later, I often get impatient and give her some space. What I should do as a professional is to remind myself that she struggles with autism consistently. Also, sometimes she needs help explaining that it is okay to lose and make mistakes, and it is an excellent opportunity for us to learn from it.

I even understand that such kinds of children need to see and feel that their decisions are respected just like any other child. Most importantly, as a practitioner, I should not foresee people’s diagnoses and label before knowing them in person. For instance, we have a particular boy who has also been struggling with autism. He is in grade 8, but the symptoms are more severe. Also, he is used to non-verbal communication, disconnected from people, seemingly unresponsive, and indifferent to human interactions. He just started coming to the kids club, yet he never had interactions with other children before. However, children did not have any inappropriate reactions and questions to him. I have come to realize that my role is to make the children understand what entails autism to accept each other.

Furthermore, I have learned that I am required to make an understanding from the perspective of the indigenous group. SVNH hosts various workshops, such as homelessness intervention to support the neighborhood. I feel privileged to attend the workshop and hear the opinions of an indigenous elder speaking for homelessness issues. Most of the topics addressed include lack of shelters, inadequate social amenities, poor healthcare services, and inconsistency supports for Indigenous people. Indigenous people are forced to repeatedly open up to practitioners when they are transitioning in and out of programs. However, this has been a challenge for people that are in hostile conditions and have PTSD. More urgently, there is an average of 3 to 5 years of the waiting list for addiction and mental health services. The Indigenous need immediate services available for chronic patients and access to permanent fundings. At the club, I have interacted with two girls from the indigenous group. The girls’ mother suffers from addiction challenges that, at one point, her older daughter and son received MCFD services. Her youngest girl, who is under her care, is being spoiled by her because she lacks parenting skills and supports. Later on, when the older daughter comes home, she feels awkward because she is missing a sense of belonging aftercare. I genuinely believe that practitioners have roles in decolonizing the practice.

Self Care and Self Reflect

As practitioners, we are always being reminded to self-reflect and improve on our unbiased practices. We are also always emphasizing self-care so that we can provide quality care to clients. At the beginning of my practicum, I once failed to report immediately when a child disclosed personal information. It could be possible harassment, which needs an alert as soon as possible. Even though the incident turned out to be a minor misunderstanding, I still believed that I had made a mistake. As a student, I knew better, so I started to self-reflect regularly and consulted my preceptor for improvement. Also, working with children has made us learn to take care of ourselves as practitioners, both physically and mentally. The practicum is an after-school program that allows me to interact with kids through games such as soccer and chess. Sometimes I got flue while interacting with sick children. I later learned that taking care of myself is vital.

To Remind Future Self

All the learnings from experiences are beneficial not only in my professional life but also in my personal life. For my future self, I would especially want to remind myself to understand a person by defining his or her ecological system and its’ influences. I would also tell myself to advocate for the less empowered group and listen to their voices (Heron, 2005). Most importantly, I would remind myself of self-care and self-love. This journey has been incredible, and I want my future self to remember this moment.

Conclusion

In summary, working with children has stimulated development and growth, both personally and professionally. Besides, I have learned how to get to know children and understand their personality, character, and behaviors. Most importantly, children are likely to suffer from different conditions based on their social status, race, and ethnic groups. Besides, the practicum has enabled me to embrace a sense of self-respect and self-care. Lastly, there’s a need for me to self-reflect on the future and try to determine what I would do to bring more change and impact on society.