Delivering Services to Vulnerable Children and Families: A Systemic Response

1. Delivering Services to Vulnerable Children and Families: A Systemic ResponseBrian De LordCEO, Europeace YouthEFeCT ConferenceGent, BelgiumMarch 2014 Reflection – Balance - Resilience

2. Why the need for a Systemic Methodology? Reflection – Balance - Resilience

3. The Liberal Arts Ideas proposed by the liberal tradition in education are not part of a systemic approach, rather the disconnected suggestions of individuals and organisations Reflection – Balance - Resilience

4. We need to be organised about our: VALUES PHILOSOPHY Reflection – Balance - Resilience

5. These need to be congruent with the professional behaviour of staff Reflection – Balance - Resilience

6. Approaches are categorised in oppositional ways as either: We wanted to include all approaches, congruent with values, that could be effective; regardless of how they could be categorised Reflection – Balance - Resilience

7. The EPY Framework: A Memory Aid Practitioners Reflection – Balance - Resilience

8. Piano and Guitar analogy Reflection – Balance - Resilience

9. The EPY Systemic Framework

10. The Cultivation of Practices Reflection – Balance - Resilience

11. The Qualities - Process “The qualities, generally taken for granted, cannot develop without actively exploring the oppositional nature of the conflicts”

12. The Theories • ”This is not an exhaustive list of the possibilities and should be used when appropriate.Q. Which of these theories are oppositional and which are collaborative?”

13. The Environment Q. How do we use these concepts within the contexts of: the individual, the family, the wider community,the national and international communities, in partnership with other statutory and voluntary agencies?

14. Effective & Transformational Practice The Application These facilitate the relationship between the other four, and contribute to the quality of service. How do we navigate the conflicting experiences we have during this process? Reflection – Balance - Resilience

15. Summary It is a model that emphasises the ‘Why’✔, ‘How’✔and ‘When’✔ rather than the ‘What’✖

16. The EPY Framework in Practice “Oppositional conflict should not mean competition or stagnation, it could be described as active balance”

17. “Oppositional conflict should be seen as a dynamic that can promote creativity, rather than the more common competitive and attritional process…”

18. We’ve devised an interwoven methodology We’ve created an organisation that emphasises the weft We collaborate in our partnerships by weaving similarities and differences together

19. EPY Staff are… Reflection – Balance - Resilience

20. Practitioners need to be… Vulnerable & aware of own prejudices Inter-Disciplinary Professionals & Specialists Responsible risk takers Boundaried& sincere humanitarians Non-Oppressive Effectively responsive i.e. Thought + Action Collaborative & competitive Emotionally Literate

21. Cultivation of a work environment that is sensitive to practitioner vulnerability & insecurity yet still insists on personal & professional development Encourage and create An Epistemic Culture What would a emotionally literate organisation look like? Innovation of accreditation for new Inter Disciplinary competencies Managing staff against a firm, theoretical, and practical model. Provision of Knowledge, Training & Structures for Effective & Inter Disciplinary Practice

22. 2. Recognise & reward effective collaboration within & between partnership networks 1. Devise targets and KPIs that will support effective practice Implications for Policy Makers 4. Create a structure where Inter Disciplinary Professionals can work alongside specialists 3. Commission new training courses to enable the transformation of delivery services Reflection – Balance - Resilience

23. Identity “I feel with some passion that what we truly are is private, and almost infinitely complex, and ambiguous, and both external and internal, and double – or – triple or multiply natured, and largely mysterious even to ourselves; and furthermore that what we are is only part of us, because identity, unlike “identity”, must include what we do. And I think that to find oneself and every aspect of this complexity reduced in the public mind to one property that apparently subsumes all the rest (“gay”, “black”, “Muslim”, whatever) is to be the victim of a piece of extraordinary intellectual vulgarity.” Phillip Pullman Reflection – Balance - Resilience

24. “Activism is my way of paying rent for living on the planet” Alice Walker Globalism: Opportunity or Responsibility? Reflection – Balance - Resilience

25. Thank you very much and please stay in touch… Brian De Lord – CEO – Europeace Youth bdelord@europeaceyouth.org Reflection – Balance - Resilience