Developing work with children and young people - Essay Example

.. is underpinned in working with the youth. Compassion entails the possession of both sympathy and empathy; sympathy makes the compassionate worker deeply aware of the plight of others, while empathy is the aspect of willing to relieve the plight. This study will discuss this quote in relation to the values central to working with children and the youth. This will be in terms of both theory and practice in several aspects of child and youth work. One of the values of modern care work with children and youth is the person-centered practice (National Services Framework 2004).

This value is a response towards the failures in previous welfare and social services work which approached the practice from a top-down approach. In the previous approach, all the power rested in the care system and policy makers, with the service users themselves relegated to mere recipients. Decision making and execution alongside policy formulation happened without their input. However, contemporary care work appreciates the importance of making services more responsive to the user’s needs.

Hence, empowering the service user - in this case children and youths - to contribute constructively is essential. This shift involves gathering insight from the user and providing them with the relevant information. The shift towards person-centered practice places a great deal of weight on the interaction happening between the worker and the child/youth; it is the point of interaction that proves indispensable for the success of the person-centred approach. The worker has to discern the needs, challenges and strengths from the perspective of the user.

Hence, it is absolutely necessary for the care worker to be compassionate so as to maximise the value of the interaction and understand the child’s world. As already stated, compassion involves being aware of the experiences of others; hence the compassionate worker is a strength to the