Racialized Students as Educational Tools in Child & Youth Care Post-Secondary Education

Discussions in the field of child and youth care in North America have increasingly focused on issues of race and racism, gender identity, abilities and disabilities and other factors that position individuals in particular ways and particular spaces. These are welcome, and one might argue long overdue, directions for our field. Faced with service systems that feature disproportionate representation of racialized young people, their families and communities in those sectors that one might consider coercive (child welfare and youth justice), and underrepresentation in those sectors that are voluntary and often proactively and supportively structured (child and youth mental health), a continued silence on issues of race and racism clearly has become unsustainable, ethically bankrupt, and very likely compromises the quality of practice our field can aspire to. It is encouraging that just last year, the 25 Characteristics of Relational Child and Youth Care Practice were re-written to reflect, even if inadequately, this move towards a more inclusive and critical articulation of what our field is about