Bachelor of Child and Youth Care (Honours)

Algonquin College

The Bachelor of Child and Youth Care (Honours) program prepares you for a career in either front-line and/or supervisory roles contributing to the care, welfare and positive health and development of children, youth, families and communities. Societal factors are shifting the way people relate to one another, with interconnection between people becoming complex and challenging, resulting in a significant increase in mental health and behaviour challenges among children and youth. There is a high demand for professionals with the skillsets necessary to provide support, care and advocacy for children, youth and their families who have identified needs. Through theoretical and experiential learning including multiple field placements, you learn to develop prevention and intervention strategies for mental health and behaviour challenges and to facilitate change for individuals and systems, while strengthening communities.As a student in this program, you develop a strength-based anti-oppressive relational practice. You focus on creative prevention and intervention strategies for diverse children, youth, families and communities. Specialized skills in nature-based programming, social innovation and entrepreneurship allows you to be at the forefront of work with young people and communities. Through group projects, you prepare to work in interdisciplinary teams to meet the needs of children and families. You learn to generate and disseminate knowledge to others and identify opportunities to improve services and the two field placements and full work-term (unpaid or paid) enable you to apply your learning in a variety of organizational settings. As part of the coursework, you earn industry certifications, including Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST). Through this program, you develop the advocacy skills to amplify the voices of individuals and systems.

School of Health and Community Studies