Strategy for Working With Adolescents in Difficulty: Motivation Through a Humanitarian Work Project

Abstract

Adolescents who are placed in residential care with child welfare services have many personal and family problems. They also tend to have notable difficulties with social skills. The Centre jeunesse de Québec-Institut universitaire (CJQ-IU) in partnership with the local school system, conducted a humanitarian work project in Peru with teenagers in residential care. The project’s goals were to help adolescents develop their self-esteem and succeed in overcoming challenges at the individual and interpersonal levels. This article presents the results of an evaluative study conducted as part of the project. In many respects, the information gathered confirms the importance of being creative and innovative when working with adolescents in difficulty and developing partnerships with the different practitioners who work with them. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the possibilities that social work approaches based on adventure, travel to different cultures, and humanitarian work can offer.

KEYWORDS:

• adolescence
• intervention
• residential care
• social skills
• qualitative

Notes

1. The school La Relance of the Commission scolaire des Premières-Seigneuries (a local school board) is in charge of educating young people in residential care at Le Gouvernail youth centre, which is part of the CJQ-IU. The school is located at the youth centre.

2. The organisation is called Alternative de Vie et Éveil Social (AVES) and is located in Quebec City.

3. Enhancement of social competence by behaviour modification; Psychodynamic treatment; Adventurous learning; Structured community living.

4. Machu Picchu (from the Quechua machu, old, and picchu, mountain) is an ancient Inca site dating back to the 15th century that is located on a rocky mountain ridge. During their stay, the participants had to climb the mountain, which is quite a challenge considering how high (2,400 metres) and steep it is.

5. An open unit is one in which the young person is allowed to go out for a determined period of time (evenings and/or weekends).

6. The adolescents participated in three fundraising activities: a car wash, a T-shirt sale with the Vision Peru logo on the shirts, and a fundraising dinner in a pizzeria that was part of a Québec City restaurant chain.