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.

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.

For Online Students Only:

Online students complete Year 1 courses (Level 01 and 02) online and must transfer on campus for in-person learning for Years 2 and 3 (Levels 03 to 06). Students cannot complete the entire advanced diploma online.

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

Year 1 - Online Information

The first year of this AC Online delivered program is fully online (not offered in the classroom). Second and third year on-campus are delivered in a variety of formats, including face-to-face in a classroom and hybrid (combination of classroom and independent learning) as well as labs and field placements.

Year 2 and 3 - On-Campus and Field Placement Information

Field Placement Eligibility:

Field placements occur only in second and third year of the program.

To be eligible for placement, you must submit proof of Standard First Aid certification, CPR level C, PRCSVS, and complete and submit up to date immunizations to ParaMed. ParaMed services are the third-party provider who collects all field placement documentation for the Community Studies department.

Police Records Check Documentation:

Students must provide the College with a current Police Records Check for Service with the Vulnerable Sector (PRCSVS) prior to field placement and students are responsible for any associated costs. If this documentation is not submitted by the deadline identified by the department, students may not be placed in field practice and progression through the program may be delayed. If you cannot complete field placement, you will not be able to graduate.

Health Requirements:

The physical and emotional health of each applicant to the program must be such that they can successfully cope with the program of instruction including the demands of field placement. If you have any physical or emotional limitations that may impact your studies contact the coordinator of the program prior to submitting an application.

Program Progression:

All courses in Level 01 and Level 02 (Year 1) must be successfully completed before entering Level 03 (Year 2) of the program. All courses in Level 03 and Level 04 (Year 2) must be successfully completed before entering Level 05 courses (Year 3) of the program. When reducing a course load in Year 2 and Year 3 of the program all theory courses must be completed first before the field practice related courses.

Scheduling of On-Campus Courses:

The Child and Youth Care program consists of courses that are 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.

Class schedules vary from term to term and courses may be scheduled between the hours of 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. Monday through Friday. Classes for first-year students run Monday through Friday. Second and third-year classes take place on campus two days per week. Field placements occur off campus three days per week. Some field placements require the student to be available for evening or weekend shifts.

There is only a two-week break between the first and second year of the program for students in the January intake. Students who begin the program in January will complete the first year from January to August and complete the second year of the program from September to April. Please note there is no extended break between Year 1 and Year 2.

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.