Chapter 7. Creating and Sustaining a Culture of Group Care

Abstract

Group care centers are established to provide a range of living, learning, treatment, and supervisory opportunities for children and young people who, for a variety of reasons, need alternative, supplementary, or substitute care. It is important, therefore, that group care centres establish an organizational climate, ethos, or culture of caring that is consistent with these objectives. This is achieved through internal organizational design, administrative routines, maintaining the physical environment, and support for staff team functioning, including attention to specific work methods.

From Chaos to Normalization and Deconfinement: What did the Pandemic Unveil in Youth Residential Care

“…Additionally, the affective resonance in assisting staff involvement seems to fuel one of the most important and challenging tasks of professionals working in RC settings, that is, to induce in youth a sense of worth of love and affection (Graham, 2005 ). The challenge is to intentionalize this emotional availability as a central interventional strategy and to advocate for the importance of creating conditions for a real “culture of caring” (Ainsworth & Fulcher, 2008 , p. 151).…”