Leadership Skills with Groups in Child and Youth Care Organizations

The following global ideas guide the design and delivery of this course:

• Child and youth care practitioners facilitate and participate in groups. Understanding how their life experiences and temperaments influence their leadership style will aid them in adapting to the professional group facilitation role.
• Each child and youth care practitioner develops a personal leadership style through practice, experience and feedback.
• Many core leadership skills and processes in group work are transferable from one group context to another.
• Leadership and participation in task-groups require an understanding of decision-making processes and decision-making authority within organizations.  Child and youth care workers will work in a variety of task-groups with various levels of decision-making and with various levels of authority to make decisions.  Practice and feedback will enhance skill development.
• Task-groups are an important vehicle for organizational development.  Task-groups play a significant role in planning, implementing, maintaining and evaluating organizational development and change.
• Task-groups become more effective and efficient when they clearly define their function in decision-making, from information sharing through to shared or complete responsibility for the final decision, and employ group processes appropriate to this function. Task-groups which do not clearly identify the level of decision-making on particular issues often become frustrated and ineffective in the organization.
• Child and youth care organizations use organizational evaluation and development processes.  Many organizations are required to seek professional accreditation in order to receive program funding.  Accreditation tasks are completed by task-groups reporting on the organizational processes, procedures and programs of their agency.
• Giving and receiving effective feedback is a central skill in effective group participation and leadership.
• Each child and youth care practitioner will plan, implement and evaluate many task-group sessions in their career.  Practice in the development of these skills will increase their comfort level, confidence and ability as a task-group member and leader.