Editorial

Child & Youth Services aims to gather an international community of scholars and practitioners committed to relational engagement with children, youth, their families, and communities. As incoming editor-in-chief, I wish to recognize and extend the work and commitments of past editors, Ben Anderson-Nathe, Grant Charles, Kiaras Gharabaghi, Doug Magnuson, and Jerome Beker, along with the editorial board, who have prioritized scholarship and practice that epitomized relational engagements. I first met Jerome Beker, the founding editor of Child & Youth Services, at the International Child and Youth Care Conference in Cleveland, Ohio in United States in 2000. He subsequently reflected on his connections and relational engagements at the conference, citing Lenke Sifkowits and I as “young, relative newcomers” that he met “whose enthusiasm for the work and for young people – is always restorative for those of us who may from time to time begin to wonder and to wander from the task” (Beker, 2001, p. 7). As a young, relative newcomer conference attendee, my youth work practice in the west coast of Canada was being cultivated under the tutelage of early child and youth care scholars such as Gerry Fewster, Roy Ferguson, James P. Anglin, and Sibylle Artz. Nurtured and mentored by scholars and practitioners over the past two decades within and outside of the field of child and youth care, including Jennifer White, Marlene M. Moretti, Deborah Begoray, Karla Braber and Tanya Behardien, my enthusiasm endures for relational practice and scholarship with children, youth, families and communities. It is this enduring enthusiasm that led me to take up the role as editor at Child & Youth Services.

It is easy, however, to momentarily slip into wonderment and wonderment in a world marked by polarization, disinformation, and divisiveness. Yet, the antidote for such discord is indeed relational engagement. Child & Youth Services intentionally focuses on the intricacies of these relational connections within and across disciplines, communities, sociocultural locations, the relationships fostered between practitioners and children, youth, and families, and the collaborative partnerships cultivated among scholars and practitioners, all while transcending geographical boundaries to reach an international audience. Contributors to the present issue offer valuable insights on relational engagement and its inherent complexities.

Relational engagements are intentional, yet spontaneous

Authors Jessika C. Boles, Joan Turner, India Wheeler, and Meredith George share the experiences of Certified Child Life Specialists in United States and Canada who are engaging children, youth and families in group play. Play is a strategic and intentional tool used by the Child Life Specialists in their study that is designed to bring people together within a purposefully constructed space designed with the goal of normalizing the healthcare environment and supporting children’s developmental needs. Within this space, children play, parents socialize, staff join in, and Child Life Specialists optimize their engagements with all involved in working with what resources they have available.

Relationships are socially and culturally constituted, and deeply embedded within a particular context

Bahman Baraie, Mehdi Rezaei, Haidar Nadrian, and Hossein Matlabi explore the cultural and social factors for child marriage in Sanandaj, Iran. Through qualitative semi-structured interviews, the authors learn that child marriage is a value-laden response to pressures of maintaining honor, reputation and virtue. Perceived risks to these values give rise to disruptions in kinship and community relationships. The authors recommend that future micro- and macro-level intervention efforts designed to lessen the harms of child marriage give due consideration to the socio-cultural elements that sustain this practice.

Relational engagement requires attending to the present moment, when shifting practice for the future

Netherlands’ scholars Arnout Ernst Bunders, Emma Emily de Wit, Marcus Antonius Henricus Maria Dinkgreve, Jacqueling Elisabeth Willy Broerse, and Barbara Johanna Regeer explore an innovative approach in a child and youth protection organization whereby team leaders facilitate a reflexive case management process. Balancing the tensions of sharing responsibility versus control, and efficiency versus learning, is no small feat for team leaders who are required to attune to the moment, and be responsive to the team’s emotional energy, while simultaneously propelling forward changes to practice.

Relational engagement promotes young people’s well-being

In Canada, Jocelyn McQuay, Gabrielle Wilcox, and David Nordstokke investigate the relationship between well-being and perceived strength of caring connections for youth with complex needs residing in out-of-home care. Findings from their study indicate that emotional support, and specifically, a strong relationship with a caring adult, works to promote youth well-being and general feelings of happiness among youth about their lives.

Relational engagement occurs in physical proximity, yet being in the same geographic location is insufficient on its own

Sibnath Deb, P. David Paul, Shayana Deb, and Shikha Soni examine the views of National Cadet Corps Officers on the welfare of youth living in the North-East states of India and the barriers youth face in participating in camps organized by the National Cadet Corps. Based on their proximity, officers are situated as potential contributors to positive youth development, however, poverty, lack of access to the internet, substance dependence, mental health needs, and competing educational programs hinder youth participation.

Relational engagement can be enhanced through the use of technology

A mobile app provides an opportunity to open up discussions on sexual health between youth and health care providers. In their case study in the United States, authors Becky A. De Oliveria, Kaitlin Dent, Jennifer A. Smith, William Merchant, and Stephen Wright found that using a digital app-based sexual risk assessment screening tool lessens discomfort and fear among youth and leads to increases in information shared during subsequent face-to-face interviews with care providers. This tool may mitigate barriers to relational engagement by lessening young people’s fear of judgment by health care staff and translating assessment items into additional languages.

Relational engagement is fostered through conversation and dialogue

Mark Hammond and Eliz McArdle explore the links between conversation and learning in youth workers’ experiences with young people in Ireland. Youth workers utilize conversation and dialogue as a two-way intentional consciousness-raising process that works to create greater equality in the youth-youth worker relationship and mitigate power differentials.

Relational engagement is person-centred practice

In a qualitative study exploring patient navigation in the context of childhood neurodisability in Canada, Emily Gardiner, Vivian Wong, and Anton R. Miller identify principles of navigation that guide practitioners’ practice. Holistic, strength-based and person-centered planning that prioritizes autonomous choice guides patient navigators’ work with families of children with neurodisability. Notably, patient navigation as both a professional role and a task assumes that services are available and accessible, which, unfortunately is not always the case.

Findings from studies published in this issue of Child & Youth Services suggest relational engagement is intentional and spontaneous, socially and culturally constituted, attentive to the present and future, proximal, person-centred and enhanced through digital tools, fostered through conversation and dialogue, and effective in promoting youth well-being. Wondering and wandering naught, Child & Youth Services remains, and will remain, committed to advancing our thinking and practice on relational engagement in all its complexities.