Child and Youth Care Practice with Families

A Relational Approach

Jenny McGrath, Ph.D, Kelly Shaw, Ph.D and Thom Garfat, Ph.D (Editors)

ISBN 978-1-7764578-4-7 (Paperback)

Published: 2026  |  255 pages

At its core, this book is grounded in the belief that working with families is not a specialized area of Child and Youth Care practice; it is fundamental to ethical and effective practice. Regardless of practice setting, children and youth are connected to families, relationships, communities, and broader social systems that shape their experiences. Meaningful Child and Youth Care practice therefore requires engaging with families through a relational lens by recognizing their strengths, respecting their expertise, and understanding the context and lifespace in which they live.

Throughout this book, relationships are presented not simply as a practice skill, but as the foundation upon which responsive, ethical, and effective family work is built. Relational practice requires practitioners to consider not only the circumstances of families’ lives, but also their own assumptions, values, responses, and ways of ‘being in relationship’. Family work begins with understanding, connection, and partnership. Readers will encounter interconnected ideas that shape relational Child and Youth Care practice with families. Across the chapters, relationships are understood as both the foundation and the process of practice, requiring practitioners to engage with families through reflection, and with humility, and ethical intention. Families are recognized as partners whose lived experiences, knowledge, strengths, and voices are essential to meaningful collaboration.

This book is a welcome and timely addition to the literature in the field of child and youth care. The core of our work is about being in relationship and some of the most significant relationships we will ever have are with our families. No matter the road we travel or the places we go, our families are always with us. It is the same for the young people we work with. This book will encourage you to identify and reflect on your own beliefs and explore how you view and work with young people and their families. Our young people need us to recognize their family as a significant part of their past, present, and future.

Christine Gaitens, MSc. CYC-P, RSW

Child and Youth Care Practitioner A timely and generous collection. Its premise is quietly transformative: that families belong at the centre of Child and Youth Care, and that relationship — the space between us — is where the work truly happens. Ranging from foundational theory to lived experience across Canada, India and South Africa, these chapters honour the complexity of family life without reaching for easy answers. They ask us to stay curious, to remain in relationship when times are hard, and to take children's rights and voices seriously. Accessible enough for students, rich enough for the experienced — this belongs on every CYC reading list.

Dr John Paul Fitzpatrick Department of Social Work and Social Policy, University of Strathclyde

This book is a must-read for youth care workers who want to be sure to put family in the focus. Direct care staff will learn frameworks, read stories, and get real knowledge on how to best serve the youth they serve and the family unit in which they belong. Relational youth work and how it extends to the family is a concept all youth care staff need to know. The collection of authors in this book are experts who are paving the way for the field. A must -have book for my agency and staff.

Jody Rhodes, MS, CYC-P Executive Director, Neu-Life Community Development, USA

For discounted volume purchases and review copies, please email us here.