Child and Youth Care

Introduction to Community

This course will focus on the development of a professional identity through examination of values, worldviews, and personal ethics in context of the professional ethics in education and human services. In forming strong and healthy communities, factors related to diversity, self-determination, social and economic justice, and power relations will be examined. Using the concepts of critical thinking, students will explore and reflect on historical and current perspectives and ethical decision-making. Current legal and policy trends will be discussed in relation to significant social and cultural issues.

Working in Communities

This course will focus on working with communities in a good way. Students will enhance their professional identity through examining their own values, worldviews, and ethics as well as the professional ethics of their field of study. Using the concepts of critical thinking, they will explore and reflect on community diversity, historical events and systemic oppression through a social justice lens. Current legal and policy trends, as well as political systems will also be discussed.

Understanding Indigenous Perspectives and Experiences

This course focuses on introducing students to ways of working with Indigenous peoples in respectful ways through an understanding of relevant historical events, the intergenerational grief and trauma that affects families and communities today as well as the resilience of the people. Local Indigenous values, rich cultural traditions, ways, and medicines will also be explored.

Introduction to Community

This course focuses on the development of a professional identity through examination of values, worldviews, and personal ethics in the context of the professional ethics in human services. Students will examine how factors relating to diversity, self-determination, social and economic justice, and power relations affect the formation of strong, healthy communities. Through critical thinking skills, students will explore and reflect on historical and current perspectives and ethical decision-making. Current legal and policy trends will be discussed in relation to significant social and cultural issues.

Working with Indigenous Communities

This course focuses students on developing a professional identity by examining personal ethics, Indigenous values, experiences, and worldviews. Students will develop a critical understanding of the role of diversity, self-determination, social and economic justice, and power relations in forming strong and healthy communities. Students will use critical thinking concepts to explore and reflect on historical and current perspectives when engaging in ethical decision-making. Legal, political, social and cultural connotations around self-determination for Indigenous peoples are considered.

Change and Development Lifespan

This introductory course explores how human development changes across the lifespan. Drawing on major developmental theories and the lived experience, students will investigate human development in the context of biological, physical, emotional, cognitive, contextual and cultural influences. Emphasis will be placed on major transitions from fetal development to death. The impact of ethnicity and psycho social and cultural factors will be examined.

Introduction to Professional Child and Youth Care Practice

This course provides an overview of professional child and youth care practice. Students will develop their child and youth care knowledge through an exploration of the history and substance of child and youth care, as well as an examination of the role of the reflective child and youth care practitioner within various contexts, including family, community, and institutional settings.

Introduction to Indigenous Child and Youth Care Practice

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.

Empowerment Through Activity-Based Learning in the Life-Space

This introductory course focuses on the strategic use of activities as fundamental tools in child and youth care to promote learning, personal growth, and social integration among children and youth of all abilities. Through a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical application, students will explore how structured activities can be designed and utilized to facilitate developmental goals, enhance self-awareness, and improve interpersonal skills across diverse groups. The course highlights the significance of inclusivity, creativity, and adaptability in activity planning and implementation, ensuring that all participants benefit equitably.

Relationship Building with Children and Youth

This course is designed to introduce students to the basic theories and practices of relationship-building with children and youth. The course will emphasize the development of professional helping relationships, active listening skills and empathy. From the perspectives of Child and Youth Care and Youth Justice work, students will learn ways of supporting children and youth to explore challenges and to respond to related feelings. Culture and worldview will be viewed as essential elements for understanding and responding to children and youth.

Practicum I

This practicum course provides students with the opportunity to engage with children and youth in diverse practice settings. Through an anti-colonial, anti-racist and anti-oppressive lens, students will integrate theoretical knowledge with professional practice guided by the Child and Youth Care Education Consortium of British Columbia, the North American Competencies for Child and Youth Work Practitioners, and the Child and Youth Care Educational Accreditation Board of Canada.

Practicum

This course provides opportunities for students to translate theory into practice. Students will practice skills in selected sites under supervision. Students will integrate and reflect upon their educational, personal and professional experiences in practicum and seminar.

Supporting Change in the Life-Space

This course is designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to support change and growth in the lives of young people. Students will have the opportunity to learn about and engage with various approaches to supporting change in the life-space from multiple theoretical perspectives. Building on the foundational relationship-building skills introduced in CYCC 1220, students will integrate those skills with various interventions intended to foster relationships, growth and development. Students will apply and reflect on the effectiveness and limitations of practiced interventions in promoting relationships and growth in young people leading diverse lives.

Continuum of Substance Use

In this course, students will critically explore various theoretical perspectives on substance use using an anti-racist, anti-oppressive and anti-colonial lens. Particular attention is given to applying harm reduction frameworks. Students will examine how systemic inequities—including those related to race, class, gender, and colonial histories—shape experiences of addiction and access to support. Through critical self-reflection, students will explore their own values, biases and assumptions about substance and consider how that impacts their practice with young people.

Policy, Legislation, and Practices

This course will examine the policy, legislation, and standards related to child and youth care services in British Columbia. The course will focus students on developing a professional identity by exploring personal and professional ethics, values, experiences, and worldviews. Students will analyze and reflect on historical and current perspectives in the application of policy, legislation, and standards in the lives of children, youth, and families.

Indigenous Children, Youth and Families: Understanding Legislation and Policies

This course will review the policy, legislation, and practice standards governing Indigenous child, youth, and family services, including Indigenous child welfare authorities. A review of the impacts of colonial legislative policies on the lives of Indigenous children, youth and families in B.C. will be addressed in the current context. Addressing the need for systems accountability will also be emphasized.

Working with Others in Groups

Students will have the opportunity to explore and apply the skills of group participation, design and facilitation. Models that promote empowerment, mutual aid, and self-awareness will be presented for examination and application to practice with groups.

Families: Working from an Indigenous Perspectives

In this course, students will examine Indigenous societies' pre-colonial family structures, contextualizing them within the devastating impact of imperial interventions such as the Indian Act, Residential Schools, and the Sixties Scoop. Through the lens of Indigenous worldviews, students will critically reflect on their familial backgrounds, recognizing and celebrating their families' unique gifts, strengths, and resilience. By engaging with Indigenous knowledge systems, including Elders teachings, Indigenous Storywork, and the lessons embedded within, students will gain insight into how these resources can inform the revitalization of Indigenous-focused family support systems.

Change and Development Families: Working From a Family Perspective

This course examines families through a range of theoretical perspectives, including the ecological model, family systems theory, and Indigenous and diverse and racialized lived experiences. Students begin by exploring their own family histories, using a variety of frameworks to map, analyze, and reflect on their lived experiences. Through this process, students develop preliminary skills for understanding and working with families in Child and Youth Care practice.

The course also explores the diversity of family structures, relationships, and dynamics, with a focus on how identity, culture, and family function are social constructs in the Canadian context. Students will critically examine the historical, cultural, social, and economic factors that shape and impact family life using CYC perspectives as well as anti-colonial, anti-oppressive and anti-racist lens while keep children and youth at the centre of their learning.

Mental Health in Childhood & Adolescence

This course explores the various roles of child and youth care practitioners in supporting the mental health of children and youth. Students critically examine how systemic factors such as colonization, racism, and other forms of structural inequity shape mental health experiences and access to care. The course encourages deep self-reflection on personal values, cultural identities, and positionality. Students will also gain a foundational understanding of British Columbia’s mental health system, service models, and approaches to care.

Understanding Indigenous Perspectives and Experiences

This course introduces students to working with Indigenous peoples respectfully, through an understanding of relevant historical events, current intergenerational grief affecting families and communities, and the people’s resilience.

Practicum II

This course is the second on-site practicum experience, offering students the opportunity to engage with children, youth and families in a practice setting different from that of CYCC 1240. Through an anti-colonial, anti-racist and anti-oppressive lens, students will integrate theoretical knowledge with professional practice guided by the Child and Youth Care Education Consortium of British Columbia, the North American Competencies for Child and Youth Work Practitioners, and the Child and Youth Care Educational Accreditation Board of Canada.

Child and Youth Care Practice: Advanced

This course provides students with an opportunity to consolidate and enhance child and youth care practice skills. Using current and emerging theory and practice, students will be supported in the application and development of skills in various settings. The primary focus of the course will be children, youth and families at risk.

Enhancing Resilience in Aboriginal Children and Youth

This course provides students with an opportunity to consolidate and enhance Aboriginal youth care practice skills. Students will be supported to develop and apply practice skills that reflect the experience of Aboriginal communities and Indigenous ways of approaching child and youth care practice in a range of settings. The primary focus will be on strengths, resilience, risks and challenges for Aboriginal children, youth, families and communities.

Understanding Violence in Child and Youth Care Practice

In this course, students will critically examine violence and abuse through multiple theoretical frameworks. They will explore the complex impacts on children, youth and families using CYC perspectives that take into account anti-colonial, anti-racist and anti-oppressive understanding and responses to violence. Emphasis is placed on developing CYC skills, ethical awareness, and culturally sensitive approaches, as well as on examining systemic barriers and challenges in which practitioners work.

Diversity, Difference, and Anti-Oppression in CYC Practice

In an increasingly diverse Canadian society, child and youth care (CYC) students must develop and sustain a culturally sensitive, anti-oppressive, anti-colonial, anti-racist, and transformative practice that fosters equitable communities. Within a supportive learning environment, this goal will be achieved by critically examining one's own social location and the complexities of historical and contemporary challenges faced by children, youth, and families in Canada.

Developmental Theory and CYC Practice with Children

This course focuses on developmental theory and clinical application with children. The content examines the history of contemporary theories and relevant implications in practice with children and their families. The context of the ecological model is used as a unifying construct for considering all work with children and families in community settings.

Developmental Theory and CYC Practice with Youth

This course focuses on contemporary developmental theory and clinical application with youth. The content examines the history and application of contemporary theories to the various community agencies and issues relevant to the field of practice with youth and their families. The course emphasizes program design and professional practice for all work with youth and their families.

Child and Youth Care Practice in Child Protection

This course introduces the knowledge and skills for child and youth care workers practicing in child protection settings. Students will learn to apply skills in the areas of investigative interviewing, documentation, applying practice standards and report writing. This course approaches the field of child protection from a strengths-based perspective and explores a range of alternative dispute mechanisms available in child protection. This course examines the principles of social justice and the challenges in child welfare practice with First Nations children, families and communities.

Professional Child and Youth Care: Theory and Practice

This course integrates theory and practice of child and youth care (CYC) by focusing on theoretical perspectives of change and their associated goals, strategies, and techniques. Issues and techniques in assessment, case planning, and intervention will be critically examined for their effectiveness and ethical use in support of decolonization, equity, and social justice in CYC. Practical models for case planning, presentation, and evaluation will be presented. Students will demonstrate competence in these real or simulated professional practice areas, and analyze the relationship between professional knowledge, skills, values, and styles.

Critical Issues in Current Child and Youth Care Practice

This course examines current issues of risk in the lives of children and youth. Students will analyze areas of practice using theoretical frameworks relevant to CYC practice and will develop interventions appropriate to the risk issue. Students will demonstrate competence in real or simulated examples of risk situations using professional knowledge, skills, values and styles.

International Perspectives & Child and Youth Care Practices

This course explores child and youth care practices from a global perspective and examines how ideas about childhood, adolescence, and family are conceptualized across international landscapes. Students will examine how cultural, social, political, and economic contexts shape approaches to care, advocacy, and interventions for children, youth, and families worldwide. Students will analyze international models of care and consider issues related to social justice, inequality, human rights, and global health, particularly as they intersect with migration and settlement. The course also investigates how globalizing forces shape the lives and perspectives of young people, their families, and local communities.

Advanced Practice in Child and Youth Care 1

This course provides an opportunity to apply case-planning, intervention, and evaluation skills at an advanced level. Professional consultation, clinical functioning, and the integration of theory and practice are emphasized.

Advanced Practice in CYC, Part 2

This final practicum course in the program completes the BACYCC degree. It builds on CYCC 4410 where the emphasis continues to be on professional consultation, clinical functioning, ethical practice, and reflective integration of theory and practice. Students are now additionally expected to work independently, show leadership, and integrate supervisor and faculty feedback into their practice.

Research Methods in Child and Youth Care

In this course, students explore research in the context of child and youth care. Students will develop the knowledge and skills necessary to locate, understand, and apply research relating to the field of CYC. Students will examine research design and methodologies, using both qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Data Analysis in Child and Youth Care

In this course, students are introduced to techniques to analyze both qualitative and quantitative data, in the context of the child and youth care field.

Advanced Skills with Individuals in Child and Youth Care

This course focuses on the application of CYC theories and related intervention skills in working with children and youth, while engaging in reflexive practice. This course will provide students the opportunity to learn and receive feedback on the use of helping skills for engaging children and youth on both common and complex topics in a participatory learning environment.

Topics will include:
- Assessing for suicide risk
- Grief and loss
- Substance use
- Disclosures of trauma and abuse
- Other relevant child and youth issues

Leadership Skills with Groups in Child and Youth Care Organizations

This course explores theoretical approaches and techniques related to leadership planning and facilitation of professional groups are presented as part of the course content. Topics include organizational development, the function of groups in organizations and group facilitation and leadership. The student will apply theory through leading task groups in organizational development and will receive feedback on their work in a laboratory-style environment.

Development of Attachment and its Application to Trauma-Informed CYCC Practice

This course provides an overview of attachment theory from infancy to adolescence and its clinical application in trauma-informed CYC practice. Topics include the socio-cultural origins of attachment theory, key concepts in attachment theory, psycho-biological origins of infant attachment, understanding the attachment process from infancy to adolescence, cross-cultural patterns of attachment, and clinical applications of modern attachment theory and research in trauma-informed CYC practice.

Critical Issues in Substance Use and Mental Health: A CYC Perspective

This course explores current issues and trends in youth mental health and substance use through a Child and Youth Care lens, with a specific focus on the British Columbia context. Grounded in an anti-oppressive framework, students will critically examine how systemic, social, and structural factors shape young people's experiences of mental health and substance use challenges as well as their access to and experiences of care. The course emphasizes ethical and relational practice, encouraging students to reflect on power, privilege, and advocacy in their professional roles. Through case studies, policy analysis, and collaborative learning, students will develop the skills to engage in critically reflective, compassionate CYC practice within and in partnership with Mental Health Substance Use (MHSU) systems.

Personal and Professional Issues for the Youth Justice Worker

This course will examine issues critical to the student’s development as a youth justice worker. This includes developing self-awareness and professional competencies, exploring personal values, practicing ethical decision making, and examining the importance of wellness in professional practice.