Listen to thisGreetings regular readers. Well, it is a fairly cool evening in Galway, Ireland where I have just returned from British Columbia in Canada where I co-presented a paper on the increasing absence of males in direct Child and Youth Care work at the international Child and Youth Care conference held at the University of Victoria. I had the opportunity to reconnect with a number of European and North American colleagues, which proved to be a most interesting and rewarding experience. It gives me great hope when I meet and spend time with people who are dedicated to children and youth. It feels even better when I get to do this in 25 degrees heat.
As it turned out, the conference illustrated just how connected the international Child and Youth Care community is on a global level. Susan, baby Conor and I ended up staying with a colleague in a wonderful house just beside the University for five nights. When we were taking up residence, a chap who was introduced to us as Doug met us in the basement. We said our brief hellos and then set about the task of unloading bags and feeding our little guy. Later in the day, we again spoke with Doug and he said he enjoyed editing my last chapter. Somewhat taken aback with the comment, I sought clarification. 'Doug' was Doug Magnuson from the University of Northern Iowa in the States and he had, indeed, been editing a chapter of mine for a new book. We had spent the week leading up to the conference swapping scripts back and forth. This basement conversation illustrated for me that no matter where one works in the world, one can easily connect with colleagues in the field.
A New Year – A New Post
And so I approach the new academic year with a changing horizon. Some
readers may remember that I took up a Head of Department of Humanities
post at the Athlone Institute of Technology in Ireland some two years
ago. In my innocence I thought that this post would bring me even closer
to the field than I had been in the college in Waterford, but this
turned out not to be the case. I found myself in a middle management
position that was almost entirely operational in orientation and,
despite my efforts, offered less and less time to engage with front-line
workers and Child and Youth Care students. I found this to be a very
frustrating and unrewarding experience and decided that I had to change
or lose my sanity (please, no jokes from the margins on my mental health
status!). This was not a decision that was easy to make.
On the positive side, the two years of endless daily administration gave me an opportunity to really examine my value system “outside of work where I had some time to myself when Conor wasn't hanging off me trying to extract some chocolate from one of my pockets. I considered what contribution I really wanted to make in Child and Youth Care and how and where I might make this happen. I entered into negotiations with the college Management Executive and interviewed for a new position, which I am delighted to say I secured last June.
I start next week in my new post as Director of a Centre for Child and Youth Care Learning with, wait for it, a dedicated day/evening a week set aside for me to work in direct practice with children and youth, and a protected research day. This presents a real challenge for me as I approach such an opportunity like any Child and Youth Care worker might approach a new shift in a new group home. Of course, I am viewing this from a slightly unusual angle in that I have quite a bag of theory in my possession (I have been teaching in the field for over a decade at this stage, convincing students that some interventions actually work!) and I get to test these out first-hand. I have also written a model with one of the CYC-Net editors, Dr Thom Garfat, on family work, which I will be able to test in the flesh. I know much about how things are supposed to work, but will now live through the experience myself. This is the very essence of Child and Youth Care Although my wife and I work in our private practice with 'at risk' children, one could argue that this is somewhat “sanitised” in that we get to choose who we want to work with. Now, I accept the hand of fate in terms of the service users and staff team “and this is altogether different. I could work with any child in the agency and any child could be landed with me.
There is no particular job mobility gain in this move for me and several of my Irish colleagues have expressed great surprise that I would relinquish a Head of Department post for one that is both experimental and experiential. But, having listened to the wonderful Dr. Henry Maier out in Victoria deliver a speech to an audience of Child and Youth Care practitioners, managers and educators, I know in my heart why I would make a such a move. It is to 'be with' children and youth again. And this is why I went into this field in the first place. Interestingly, none of my international friends were surprised and saw my move as quite a logical one. This, in itself, says a great deal to me.
One of the beliefs I subscribe to most, and I see this articulated in my regular travels to North America these days, is the sense that Child and Youth Care education and practice should belong primarily to Child and Youth Care. At the same time, we should continue to value significantly the contribution of our professional peers from related disciplines. I care not whether one has an academic tag of sociologist, anthropologist or whatever. What I want to see is a defined Child and Youth Care perspective and way-of-doing from those of us who are fortunate enough to be in positions of established or emerging voices in the field.
And speaking of “voices”, did you hear about the EirCan Voices conference to be held in Ireland in 2005?
