Turn your passion for helping into a rewarding career.

The Child and Youth Care Ontario College Advanced Diploma program prepares you to support vulnerable children, youth, and families with complex needs.

Learn a wide range of prevention and intervention strategies that foster positive change and healthy development. Assess the strengths and needs of young people and families and develop interventions to meet those needs. Apply the principles of relational practice, life space engagement and anti-oppressive practice while working with children, youth, and families. In classes, you learn practical and theoretical concepts and then apply them in field placements.

Working with young people in field placements helps you to develop into a confident and competent child and youth care practitioner. By the end of this program, you have practical experience in two different work environments in the field of child and youth care, three days a week during your second and third year of the program.

This program offers two courses in outdoor activities. In these courses, you learn to facilitate activities in the outdoors while on a camping trip with fellow classmates and faculty - a truly memorable learning experience.

There is a wide variety of work opportunities for you after graduation. As a child and youth care practitioner, you may find employment in a variety of environments:

• group homes
• hospitals
• mental health treatment centres
• shelters
• schools
• youth justice programs
• community resource centres

If you are interested in furthering your education, this program is a good foundation for future studies in child and youth care, education, social work, psychology and sociology.

To qualify for this diploma, you must complete the first year with AC Online (Level 01 and 02) within two years. For Level 03, 04, 05, and 06 (Year 2 and 3) when you are transferred to the Ottawa campus for on campus delivery, you must complete the second year and third year full time within two years. Combined, you must complete the program in four years.

SUCCESS FACTORS

This program is well-suited for students who:

• Are emotionally strong and able to cope with stress, challenges and crises.
• Are committed to understanding, working with and facilitating positive change in the lives of children, youth, families, and the community.
• Prefer to work as a member of a team.
• Have strong observation and analytical skills.
• Have strong language (oral and written) skills.
• Are open minded, embrace the concept of diversity, respect and accept the uniqueness in others.

Careers

Graduates may find employment as child and youth care practitioners; youth workers; educational assistants; case coordinator; child advocate; child and youth counsellor; community, family, or housing support workers.

Pathways

Please note: There may be more pathways available for this program than are listed here. Please use our Pathways search tool to see every option.

The graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to:

1. Develop and maintain therapeutic relationships with children, youth and their families, respecting their unique life spaces, and applying the principles of relational practice to meet their needs.
2. Assess the strengths, developmental and holistic needs of children, youth and their families, using methods grounded in theoretical frameworks, research and therapeutic practices, to develop care and intervention plans.
3. Develop and implement care and intervention plans appropriate for the therapeutic milieu using evidence-informed practices and research to provide support for children, youth, and their families.
4. Use equitable and inclusive approaches that are anti-colonial, anti-oppressive, anti-racist, and strength-based frameworks, as well as cultural humility, to create positive and sustainable solutions and respond to inequities and to systemic barriers experienced by children, youth and their families.
5. Advocate for, and in solidarity with, children, youth, their families and communities through their participation in the development and implementation of care and intervention plans that uphold their rights.
6. Employ communication, collaboration and relational skills with the inter-professional team and with community partners to ensure and enhance the professionalism of practice.
7. Engage in self-inquiry, relational inquiry and critical reflection to develop strategies for learning and the practice of self-care, as a practitioner.
8. Use professional development resources and supervision to increase professional capacity, learning and leadership skills.
9. Adhere to relevant legislation and Child and Youth Care standards of practice, competencies, and codes of ethics as a practitioner.
10. Practice in a variety of contexts and settings, respecting needs for developmental growth, safety, wellbeing and agency, while addressing the varying age and developmental ranges of children, youth, and their families.
11. Employ crisis prevention and intervention techniques, and harm-reduction principles, with children, youth and their families in the provision of care, to ensure their safety, resolution of crises, and reparation of relationships.
12. Develop the capacity to work with children, youth and families who identify with Indigenous, Black, and racialized communities, as well as people in LGBTQ2+ and disabled communities, by identifying systemic inequities and barriers, integrating practices such as trauma-informed care, and respecting their inherent rights to self-determine.
13. Identify and apply discipline-specific practices that contribute to the local and global community through social responsibility, economic commitment and environmental stewardship.

Application Information

Registration Note:

If you would like to take courses individually or start the program part time, you are not required to apply to the program. You can register for up to three courses per term by clicking on the course title and selecting "Register Online".

Program Resources

International students wishing to study online should visit https://algonquincollege.com/online/international for information related to International online students and for International fees information prior to registering. Please note that AC Online programs do not qualify international students for new study permits or study permit extensions.

The first year of this AC Online delivered program is fully online (not offered in the classroom) and students must have access to a computer and Internet access to successfully complete this program.

Online students can only commence second year in September. If you do not successfully complete first year (Level 01 and 02), you will be required to wait until September of the following year. For Levels 03, 04, 05, and 06 (Year 2 and 3), you will be transferred to the Ottawa campus and classess will be on campus.

Please note that in order to proceed to second year on campus, you will be required to complete ParaMed process by June 01; extensions will not be approved.

Second and third year on campus is delivered in a variety of formats, including face-to-face in a classroom and hybrid (combination of classroom and independent learning). Students participate in both types of learning. Students also participate in laboratory and field placement learning activities.

Online classes for first-year students run fully online. On-campus class schedules for second-year and third-year vary from term to term and courses may be scheduled between the hours of 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Friday. Second-year and third-year classes take place on campus two days per week. Field placements occur off campus three days per week. All second-year students are required to complete a school-based field placement. Third-year placements are based on community capacity. Some field placements require the student to be available for an evening or weekend shift.

Students may apply for transfer of academic credits from Algonquin College (internal transfer) or from other institutions (external transfer). College Policies AA09 and AA10 apply to transfer of credits. Students pay a fee for each course they wish to be exempt from and must provide course outlines and transcripts for the course substituted. See https://www.algonquincollege.com/policies.

Students may apply for credit by challenging courses using Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR). College Policy AA06 applies to PLAR: https://www.algonquincollege.com/policies/files/2023/04/AA06.pdf. Students pay a fee for each course they wish to be exempt from and, through either a portfolio or challenge examination, a PLAR may lead to the acceptance of work and life experience in lieu of taking certain courses. More information can be found at https://www.algonquincollege.com/plar.

Graduates may be eligible to apply their academic credits toward further study at many postsecondary institutions. For specific articulation agreements please visit our website at https://www.algonquincollege.com/degree-pathways.

Child and Youth Care is a physically demanding profession. In order to ensure client safety, individuals must be able to move quickly/run between different areas in a room or a building and outside. Child and youth care practitioners must be able to observe clients in order to assess their skills and abilities and develop and implement appropriate treatment and/or program goals. Entering the Child and Youth Care program without these abilities may result in unsuccessful field placements and students who fail to successfully complete field placements are not eligible to graduate from the program.

ACADEMIC PROBATION:
Students who have two or more F grades in a given term or whose term grade point average falls below 1.7 are considered to be on academic probation (Policy AA14 Grading System). This requires the student to meet with their academic manager to sign a learning contract which identifies the conditions which must be met to continue in the program. Students who do not meet the terms of their learning contract are withdrawn from the program.

ACADEMIC PLANNER:
The Academic Planner provides registered part-time students the ability to declare into a program of study. The Academic Planner outlines successfully completed courses to date, as well as courses that need to be completed in order to meet graduation requirements. It is therefore, essential that all part-time students declare to their program of study, allowing administrators to plan course offerings. The tool is available on ACSIS, located under 'Part-time Students' on the left-hand toolbar.

WORK INTEGRATED LEARNING OVERVIEW:
There are four block placements required for the CYC program. All placements are undertaken after students transfer to on-campus for Year 2 and 3, however students will be required to complete their placement preparations in order to successfully transfer to the on-campus delivery.

PLACEMENT ELIGIBILITY:
In order to be eligible for field placements, students must meet the following requirements prior to the placement deadline:

1. Academic Clearance: Students must complete all required prerequisite courses prior to the placement start date.
2. On-campus Transfer Request Form: Students are required to submit a transfer request form prior to January 31 to indicate their intention to transfer to on-campus.
3. ParaMed Clearance: Students are required to meet the following medical and non-medical requirements. Upon completion, these requirements must be confirmed through ParaMed, our partner organization: a. Immunization Records, b. Police Records Check for Service with the Vulnerable Sector (PRCSVS), c. Standard First Aid/CPR Level C.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Further placement information for online students can be found on the Field Placement Centre: https://www.algonquincollege.com/online/field-placement Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR).

Students who wish to apply for PLAR need to demonstrate competency at a post-secondary level in all of the course learning requirements. Evidence of learning achievements for PLAR candidates may include a comprehensive challenge examination and/or completion of a portfolio.

PROGRAM PROGRESSION:
As per policy AA39: Program Progression and Graduation Requirements when students are admitted to a program, they are assigned to the Program of Study that aligns with their start date. If a student takes a break for two or more consecutive terms the Program of Study is reset

Future Students

For additional information, please contact our Customer Service Representative team at online@algonquincollege.com and they will direct you to the best person to answer your specific questions.

Current Students

For additional information, please reference the AC Online Circle of Care.