Introduction to Indigenous Child and Youth Care Practice

Overview

Course description

This course examines ways of engaging in meaningful, reciprocal relationships with Indigenous communities. It focuses on bridging Indigenous epistemologies with Western child and youth care practice. Importance is placed on developing positive and effective child and youth care practice that supports healing, wellness, and resilience.

Course content

Child and youth care practitioners support Indigenous children, youth, families, and communities in culturally safe ways.
Colonization of Indigenous peoples has significant implications for Indigenous children, families, and communities.
Effective Indigenous child and youth care practice is grounded in Indigenous Knowledge.
Learning from Elders, other practitioners, and community members provides insight into roles, responsibilities, and context for practice.
Effective documentation has a clear purpose, and intention. Practitioners conduct themselves in a legal, culturally safe and ethical manner.
Cultural awareness, self-awareness, contextual factors, choice of language and openness to reflection are integral to effective Indigenous child and youth care practice and ongoing personal and professional development.

Learning activities

Lecture
Group work
Student presentations
Guest speakers
Audio-visual presentations

All methods of instruction apply to in class, hybrid and/or online modes of learning.

Means of assessment

This course will conform to the Douglas College Evaluation Policy regarding the number and weighting of evaluations.

Written assignments
Group presentations
Self-assessment
Classroom activity participation
Other

This is a letter-graded course.

Instructors may use a student’s record of attendance and/or level of active participation as part of the student’s graded performance. Expectations and grade calculations regarding class attendance and participation will be clearly defined in the instructor's course outline.

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

Describe a range of perspectives on the meaning of ‘caring for children and youth’ within the field of Indigenous child and youth care.
Describe and apply the various components of Indigenous child and youth care practice.
Demonstrate awareness of personal values and filters, preconceptions, and biases (through written and oral work).
Develop plans to address the needs of Indigenous children, youth, families, and communities.
Describe the five competencies of professional Child and Youth Care practice and how they align with Indigenous ways of knowing.

Textbook materials

Textbooks and materials are to be purchased by students. A list of required textbooks and materials is provided for students at the beginning of the semester.

Requisites

Prerequisites

This course is restricted to Child and Youth Care students. Students from other programs who are interested should contact cyc@douglascollege.ca.

Students in the CYC program are required to maintain a minimum grade of 60% (C) in all CYC courses in order to progress in the program.

Corequisites

None

Equivalencies

None

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

January 2027 (Current)

Course Transfers to Other Institutions

Below are current transfer agreements from Douglas College to other institutions for the current course guidelines only. For a full list of transfer details and archived courses, please see the BC Transfer Guide.

Institution	Transfer details for CYCC 1142
Simon Fraser University (SFU)	No credit
Trinity Western University (TWU)	TWU GENS 1XX (3)
University of British Columbia - Vancouver (UBCV)	No credit
University of the Fraser Valley (UFV)	UFV CYC 202 (3)
University of Victoria (UVIC)	UVIC IS 1XX (1.5)
Vancouver Island University (VIU)	VIU CYC 2nd (3)