LEVERAGING GLOBAL LEARNING

I’m coming to the end of this year’s first series of nine webinars on leveraging OOHC global learning. To support the webinars I have put together a resource for attendees specifically on what I covered in the last part of these sessions on strategies that individuals and organisations can put in place. Here are my 25 ways to leverage OOHC global learning. 

There may be something here that you could action quickly and easily and/or new opportunities like ‘attendance’ at a major international online or hybrid conference that you’ve not previously had the budget or time to go to in-person. Echoing the reality that this pandemic has still got some way to go yet, and many of us still being largely tied to our computers, this material is framed around platforms.This material is also available as a colour four page downloadable pdf from www.betteroutcomes.org.nz/resources

OUTLOOK (Receive)

Use email to improve your information diet – set and forget and just read as time, priorities and interests allow:

  • Join an international OOHC organisation as a paying member and get regular information from them into your inbox:

  • Subscribe to mailing lists and blogs of international or overseas organisations, for example (some organisations can also be followed on Twitter and/or Facebook):

    • INTRAC International Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood from Care https://globalintrac.com

    • CELCIS (Centre for Excellence for Children's Care and Protection and formally the Centre of Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland; also incorporates the Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care) https://www.celcis.org/about-us/

GOOGLE ALERTS

Get to know about some new developments as they come onstream?

  • Google Alerts is a content change detection and notification service. The service sends emails to the user when it finds new results, such as web pages, newspaper articles, blogs, or scientific research, that match the user's search term. You can choose a particular country and determine whether to receive notifications daily or weekly. While its quite basic and not fail-safe, setting up Google Alerts is really easy. Here’s a link to Google’s set-up instructions https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/4815696?hl=en

GOOGLE (Find)

Make more and better use of search engines:

  • Free online journals, for example, the International Child and Youth Care Network (CYC-Net) https://cyc-net.org/cyc-online/ and the Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care (also includes material on foster care and transitioning from care) https://www.celcis.org/knowledge-bank/sircc-journal/

  • Cochrane Library https://www.cochranelibrary.com/ and Campbell Collaboration https://www.campbellcollaboration.org for systematic reviews of published randomised trials that meet specified quality criteria.

  • Evidence-based websites, for example the California Evidence-based Clearing House on Child Welfare https://www.cebc4cw.org/

  • PracticeWise website on what works in children's mental health and evidence-based practices https://practicewise.com/

  • Many or most peer-reviewed online research articles is now available to those without access through a university to academic journal databases, for example, open access, free repository copy on institution websites, pay to view, or related material in another document, a YouTube video, or PowerPoint slides.

  • Most reports ever written on OOHC, including some old ones, can now be found online using Google or other search engines

  • Most newly published books are now available instantly on Amazon in Kindle format www.amazon.com – you don’t need a Kindle device and can access content from desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. For some more popular titles you can add the option of audio narration (while many non-academic Kindle books only cost a few dollars).

  • Podcasts: 

    • Canadian Wolfgang Vachon has conversations with young people, parents and professionals about the child & youth social service system. Wolfgang is currently a full-time faculty member at Humber College teaching in the Child and Youth Care program

    • https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/cyc-podcast/id1006649551

    • Care-leaver Thomas Mongan and advocate Peter Lane run the Care Experienced Podcast including interviews with care experience people from other countries. They are part of EPIC the advocacy organisation for young people in or leaving care in Ireland https://www.epiconline.ie/the-care-experience-podcast/

    • The Canadian Project Outsiders foster care experience podcast is hosted by Chanice McAnuff – the CEO of Project Outsiders and herself care experienced. The main format is individual interviews with care experienced people, although there are also some panel discussions involving professionals https://www.projectoutsiders.com/podcast

    • Joe Gibb in Scotland does a podcast on residential youth care https://anchor.fm/scottishrcc where he interviews those in the field from Scotland and internationally

  • Google Scholar www.scholar.google.com indexes metadata from peer reviewed online academic journals and books, and in some instances full-text is available (and many instances if you are able to access through an academic library).

EVENTBRITE

While looking forward to the return of some in-person events, more accessible online events are also here to stay:

  • Online, hybrid and in-person conference opportunities

  • Online discussion series

    • CYC-NET Characteristics of Relational Child and Youth Care. 10 one hour weekly online discussions commencing 12 July 2021 https://cyc-net.org

    • Global INTRAC annual (online) meetings

  • Various other events and opportunities:

    • Bespoke and public webinars

    • Masterclasses

    • Online training workshops

    • Coaching programs

    • Mentoring

 LINKEDIN (Connect)

Most of us are on LinkedIn, but use it more purposefully and strategically:

  • Identify key individuals in your field and consider asking for the connection. If you don’t know them better to include a message on why you would like to connect. If they are on active on LinkedIn most will accept your request.

  • Follow organisations (company pages) and any individuals who you may be reluctant to ask for a connection as you’ll get to see what they are sharing and talking about.

  • Join a well-functioning LinkedIn groups, for example Patrick Tomlinson’s Therapeutic Residential and Foster Care for Traumatized Children.

  • Post a question either from your own page (to your connections) or a group page (to group members) on a topic that you are looking for information on, or initiate an online discussion. And respond to the posts of others.

  • Write a LinkedIn article on a particular topic of interest and have people find you!

  • Facebook also has some private professional groups, for example CYC-Net has 2,500 members and is very active.

ZOOM:

Using video to build learning relationships:

  • Set up some one-to-one meetings with some new connections around a topic and/or role and build relationships

  • Join an international organisation, attend meetings, become a board members and/or contributor. For example the Association of Residential Children’s Center’s hold regular “affinity group meetings’ those with an ongoing interest in a specific topic and non-members can join their first meeting without joining this membership organisation.

  • Interview key leaders, researchers or practitioners who have already done something that you’re considering doing. Researchers in particular generally love to talk about their work.

 EXTRA:

Consider doing an overseas qualification or course:

  • Study formally with a university overseas, for example Strathclyde University’s online MSc in Child and Youth Care Studies

  • Enrol on a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). For example CELCIS periodically runs a 6 week free course on implementing the United Nations Guidelines on the Alternative Care of Children with thousands from across the world at a time http://www.alternativecaremooc.com/index.php/en/

 I would love to hear from you on your global favourites and other ideas or learning opportunities that I may have missed. Please email me at iain@betteroutcomes.org.nz

OOHC LeadershipIain Mathesonleverage, global, learning