Hiring Care, Episode 5: The Cost Is Unacceptable

Hiring Care is an audio drama inquiry created from one-on-one conversations with 10 child and youth care practitioners (CYCPs) “from care” (CYCPfC). Most of the script is verbatim, meaning the words spoken by the actors are (mostly) re-enactments of what CYCPfC said in the conversations. The conversations have been re-arranged and different CYCPfC have been put into relationships with each other, even though they never actually spoke with each other during the recorded conversations. Three of the characters (B, Ellisha, and Terri) are composites of two different people.

Hiring Care is constructed as a conversation between a group of seven CYCPs “from care” (CYCPfC) who are meeting to talk about creating a way to support agencies who want to hire practitioners with child welfare experience. This frame for the structure came out of an idea mentioned by one of the conversationalists (Charlotte), who said she and some of her colleagues “wanted to create a booklet about how to support someone with lived experience in care in your organization, who works for you”. Hiring Carehas seven different episodes, each one introduced by a different character and addressing different themes, although there are some overlaps between the different episodes.

While the script follows a chronological order, it is not necessary to listen to them in a particular order. You might find it more relevant to pick specific themes (identified with each episode) and listen to that particular conversation.

To learn more about the project, please visit www.TuningIntoCYC.org

Charlie challenges the group to think beyond their understandings regarding the benefits of being from care, and pushes the white CYCPfC to think of the cultural costs for Indigenous and other racialized young people incurred by going into child protection services.