In his third book about child and youth care, Mark Krueger presents a revolutionary approach for improving the quality of care for our nation's troubled youth. He proposes that we reallocate resources and change our attitudes to support caregivers - child and youth care workers, house-parents, and parents - who spend the most time caring for troubled youth, before we can have a viable system for helping thousands of youth with special problems and needs. Unlike other authors, his alternative is not based on distant information and assessments, because he was there, on-the-line, as a child and youth care worker for eleven years. This experience allows him to give the inside view that is missing from other books and to support his arguments with vivid firsthand descriptions of problems and solutions. This book will be of interest to anyone who cares for troubled youth or who has entrusted the care of troubled youths into the hands of others.

Intervention Techniques for Child/Youth Care Workers is extremely popular among child and youth care workers throughout the United States and Canada. This is the first written by a practicing child/youth care worker and contains easy step-by-step classroom and self-instruction. The fact that the author has "been there" makes the book even more practical and relevant for child care workers, home and community service workers, teachers, administrators, and instructors.

Youth Work with at-risk youths is largely existential, experiential, and developmental. It takes place in the here and now as workers use their experience and knowledge of human development to weave as much care, learning, and counseling as possible into their daily interactions. Each interaction and/or moment has tremendous potential. A worker putting his hand on a youth's shoulder and leading the way out the door. A worker sitting quietly on a couch reading with a youth. A group of youths running together. A smile. A conversation. A crisis.

When it goes well, youth workers and youths are in sync with each other's rhythms for trusting and growing. They are present and acting with purpose. At other times, youth work is a struggle. A gut-wrenching, frightening struggle that takes courage and desire to resolve.

In this book, youth work theories, techniques, and themes are described within the context of a twenty-four hour period at an agency with several community and group care programs for at-risk teenagers. My hope is that it will provide a forum for learning and reaffirming many of the central actions and attitudes in effective youth work practice.

Through essays, practice examples, and a curriculum outline, Interactive Youth Work Practice promotes the theory that youth develop in moments and interactions. These moments and interactions are enhanced when workers have the capacity to guide, teach, learn, and be with youth, with sensitivity to their developmental capacities and readiness for growth and the multiple contexts within which interactions take place. Youth work is viewed as a shared journey, workers and youth going through the day, learning and growing together!

A collection of 11 short stories, this book is an entertaining account of child/youth care workers on the job. A perfect companion to classroom material, it is also an excellent inservice training resource for child/youth care workers who want more than a textbook.

Highmount Group Home for troubled boys is closing and Rick Hayward, a 15-year-old, decides to take matters in his own hands. He has 30 days to find a home and only his own streetwise creativity with which to do it. Meanwhile his youth workers, Nora, Bob, and Ted, try to regain his trust.

In Motion is a story about adolescence, separation, people who keep caring under adverse conditions, and most of all the amazing capacity for survival that can be found in many troubled and abused youth.

Job satisfaction may be defined in several ways. It is, for instance, a feeling of fulfillment associated with working. It is also an attitude about various facets of a job, such as working conditions, supervision, decision making, etc.

Job satisfaction and competence are often interwoven. People who are satisfied tend to perform better. They also tend to stay longer at their agencies. Job satisfaction in child and youth care is crucial because at-risk children and families need competent, enthusiastic workers can be depended on.

In this new third edition, job satisfaction is viewed from five interwoven perspectives. The premise is that job satisfaction comes from many personal sources and is nourished by supportive agency practices, daily interactions, and long-term goals.

Floating is novel about child and youth care work. The story is focused on the relationship between a youth worker, Kent, and a teenage boy, Daniel. The book attempts to portray teamwork and group work as it occurs in a residential treatment center.

It has been widely read by child and youth care professionals and used as a central text at universities that teach child and youth care. Movie rights have been obtained by a producer.