Faculty of Social & Community Services News

Combined, FSCS students accrued more than 7,000 hours of placement credit.

Under the leadership of Linda Hill and Philip Burge in collaboration with Cross-Cultural Solutions, 19 students from a variety of FSCS programs worked with young children at a primary school in a small community outside of Lima. Students spent their mornings facilitating educational lessons and activities with the children, and in the afternoons, took part in learning experiences that focused on Peruvian history and culture such as cooking lessons, art and calligraphy lessons, and visiting local sites and museums.

Later in the month, 16 FSCS students embarked to Kingston, Jamaica where they engaged in lectures, volunteer projects, and cultural learning experiences that focused on criminal justice and youth in Jamaica. This trip was developed under the leadership of Sheria Myrie, Lisa Cummings, and Coura Niang in collaboration with the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies at the University of West Indies – Mona. Highlights from the trip included visiting the Jamaica Defense Force Base, the Ministry of National Security, and volunteering at Annie Dawson’s Children Home, Boys’ Town Infant and Primary School, and with the We Transform project at the Rio Cobre Juvenile Correctional Centre.

The GSS offers a unique opportunity for both Humber and non-Humber students to work together with peers from around the world to explore and discuss critical issues that require multidisciplinary solutions with global perspectives. The FSCS was thrilled to host two Global Summer School courses: Transformational Leadership & Advocacy and the Summer Police Program. Through the two courses, 28 Humber students and 21 non-Humber students from China, Indonesia and Jamaica completed the program for academic credit and experiential learning experience in a truly global and interdisciplinary environment.

At the event, guests learned more about the programs offered in the Criminal Justice and Human Services clusters. Representatives from each program along with student services representatives from across the College were available to discuss opportunities and resources available to Humber students, and to answer questions. 

This is a special annual event to celebrate and recognize the invaluable contributions of partnering agencies who help bring learning to life for our students in the field. A series of professional development sessions were offered as part of the event including sessions on Social Innovation in the Classroom, Collaborating with Humber on Projects and Applied Research, Grant Writing 101 and Managing Difficult Situations in the Field. To bring the event to a close, a cocktail happy hour with a performance by the Humber Jazz Band provided a perfect environment for attendees to share their impressions and ideas generated from the workshops and from their experiences with placement students.

The project aims to end violence in the respective countries and has set out to create an e-learning platform that serves this goal. After their kick-off seminar in December, the professors split into two teams according to their various subject matter expertise. One team, comprised of professors, nurses and midwives have taken on violence in health settings. The other team, comprised of educators, CYCs and ECEs, has taken on the task of addressing violence in institutional settings.

Students and professors have since visited each other across the globe! From midwifery students in Hoima, Uganda, to a conference on Kindergartens in Hanoi, Vietnam, colleagues have continued to connect and build content. The e-learning activities are being submitted. Stay tuned for the material that will be made available when the project closes in 2020.

The purpose of their trip is to attend the National Association of Child Care Workers (NACCW) and CYC-NET world conference.

Two of the CYC students will be presenting their 4th-year thesis research on relational gaps in Toronto Police Service youth programs. Jaspreet and her team of research assistants will be presenting on their research funded by a Cultivate grant, looking at calls to action for the profession from Indigenous, Black and other People of Color who are service users and providers.

The project is titled: Look at my Life: Youth Identified ‘Sparks’ for Firearm Possession Among Young People in Toronto.

Tina-Nadia Gopal Chambers, a faculty member of the Child and Youth Care program, was the Principal Researcher on the project. The research findings were released in July, 2018 which identified the following influences that contribute to young people becoming involved in crime:

• Risk factors, including trauma, family environment, lack of non-family adults/mentors, lack of community programs, negative peers, and negative school experiences;
• Systemic barriers, including racism, poverty, lack of community safety; and
• Barriers after being incarcerated, including accessing employment due to a criminal record and a lack of education, and returning to the same environment with little support.

A copy of the report is available at: http://www.amadeusz.ca/research-2/.

Receiving $7,000.00 in funding from the Government of Canada, the joint-project proposal was one of 33 selected from a competition open to post-secondary institutes across Canada. Overall, 33 projects from 22 institutes across seven provinces were selected. The Faculty Mobility Program provides full-time faculty at Canadian post-secondary institutes with short-term opportunities to teach or conduct research in Latin Americas and the Caribbean, at the college, undergraduate and graduate levels. In collaboration with USIL, the SSCS submitted a project proposal titled “Case-based Curriculum through Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL).” In May 2019, Community Development faculty from USIL and Humber College will create case-based learning (CBL) modules that focus on people coming together to identify and address local issues. Each case will include detailed background information on socio-cultural, political and economic realities that impact decision making and outcomes related to community work in each country. The cases will support students in examining root causes of community problems and resources/solutions available to address issues through different cultural lenses. Using Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) models, faculty from Canada and Peru will connect their classrooms via webinars to work through cases and learn from one another.

For more information on the Faculty Mobility Program, please click here.

This funding will go directly to supporting students embarking on a faculty-led trip to Lima, Peru in May, 2019. This funding covers 50% of the program cost. This is an excellent opportunity for students who may not consider this experience because of financial barriers to participate.

The trip will provide students with service learning opportunities in Villa El Salvador; an area that is organizing and building community capacity many years after the Shining Path movement. Students will learn about leadership development within the community, how people are engaged locally and how local services and resources have been accessed and developed after a forced-migration period. Students will develop their cultural competence and gain an appreciation for 'personal resiliency' and 'post-traumatic growth' in relation to people's ability to 'start over' and care for their community and one another. In keeping with our school commitment to recognizing study abroad opportunities as field experience, the trip will be recognized as a field and seminar course for some programs of study within the School. Faculty are encouraged to promote the trip to their students.

Diversely Creative was started by two Humber College Child and Youth Care Alumni’s who have a passion for life-skill program development. Their goal is to empower each child to reach their full potential by providing alternative ways of learning and communicating. Diversely Creative is passionate about supporting children's diverse ways of learning, and believe that by giving them the right tools, they will have the ability to succeed. Most recently, Diversely Creative launched a self-regulation board game, Game of Emotions, for children to learn positive ways of expressing their emotions and promote the development of self-awareness and communication skills.

Students came to provide feedback and take information back to their peers within their cohorts. We have planned out our semester and upcoming class rep projects. Stay tuned!

The HBCYC faculty held a grad school info session for our students thinking of furthering their education after completing their HBCYC degrees and diplomas. Students came out to receive information on how to find a program that suits them and the steps in the application process.

Humber was also well represented at this year’s Ontario Association of Child and Youth Care’s Annual General Meeting. Student Amplifiers are hard at work making classroom visits and promoting the importance of OACYC membership and engagement.

By embodying the practice themselves, they are gaining a stronger sense of mind/body connection and the impact it can have on one’s emotions, feelings and thoughts. Insight and exposure to a variety of meditations and mindfulness activities are supporting not only personal growth and self-care but an awareness of alternative ways to support children and youth with their emotional regulation and wellbeing. A significant portion of the students embark on this ‘optional’ practice for the first 10-15 minutes of one of their classes each week. What an incredible demonstration of personal and professional commitment by these students.

The study was conducted in partnership with the Sandbox Project's Young Canadian Roundtable on Health and the Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement at the Students Commission.

Valerie said that she was "grateful to have had the opportunity to have been around so many dedicated mental health professionals, to see the research being done and to hear the inspirational words of all the speakers." She strives to "continue to push the boundaries of what CYC undergrads are capable of."

The programs are Advanced Diploma, Accelerated Diploma and Honours Degree in Child and Youth Care.

The Child and Youth Care Educational Accreditation Board of Canada has set standards and reviews programs for compliance to ensure professionals educated in the field of Child and Youth Care are trained to a specific standard of Child and Youth Care competence. The objective of accreditation is to ensure accredited programs in Child and Youth Care support students to meet or exceed established competencies of Child and Youth Care practice, and outcome measures are used to continuously improve programs. Humber is one of three programs in the province and one of four in the country!

Thank you and congratulations to everyone involved in the successful completion of the accreditation process!