Listen to thisI’ve been thinking back over my Social Work career in the Child and Youth Care field and thinking about lessons learned as a young professional in training, then as a new graduate working in the field and placement supervisor for trainee professionals. Those lessons were reinforced as a new Lecturer then Professor responsible for the education and training of would-be professionals and as a researcher exploring dimensions of teamwork in child and youth care practice. Along the way, a guiding career principle has been that unless I took charge of my own personal and professional development, nobody or agency was likely to provide that for me. My international study about “Who Cares for the Caregivers?” reinforced the argument that child and youth care services for troubled and troublesome teenagers are “demanding, stress-filled services” where management of personal and professional development is linked to the provision of “good enough” services over time.
As a student on professional placement, I spent two days a week working in a secure facility with young people sent for diagnostic-assessment from juvenile courts before placement in a variety of child and youth care settings. During that time, I remember the first large Child and Youth Care conference I ever attended, where the famous Bruno Bettelheim presented. As a student, I managed to register for the conference at a reduced fee and still remember those inspirational moments shared with a thousand other participants from across the Child and Youth Care field, listening to stories told by a legend. This was the first personal and professional development opportunity I had ever sought.
I continued to identify and seek out personal and professional development opportunities as a recently qualified professional and with students undertaking professional placements under my supervision. Agencies provided some in-service training opportunities, but these were more often focused on important agency requirements without necessarily focusing on my own personal and professional development needs. External supervision was offered to senior practitioners, and this is another valuable source of personal and professional development support. Memory reminds me that as a new Lecturer and Professor in Social Work in the Child and Youth Care field, attention was given to the importance of identifying one’s own personal and professional development needs, challenges and opportunities to which they might take advantage.
I remember when I was invited to join The International Child and Youth Care Network at www.cyc-net.org an internet-based email group brought together by South African Brian Gannon and Canadian Thom Garfat, and later with help from former residential care student, Martin Stabrey through his company, Pretext Publishing. What began as an exchange of hand-written letters and audio recordings sent between Canada and South Africa, CYC-Net started growing into an offering of personal and professional development opportunities of a different order! CYC-Net opened opportunities to engage with other people in the world who shared a common interest in Child and Youth Care practice! Since 1997, CYC-Net has established the largest collection of Child and Youth Care learning and teaching materials available anywhere in the world. The monthly edition of CYC-Online is still freely available to anyone engaged, whether in voluntary or professional employment or teaching about practice in the Child and Youth Care field.
Paradoxically, at a time when the need is heightened for personal and professional development opportunities amongst those working across the Child and Youth Care field, there are still too many reasons offered for why our workforce remains professionally disconnected. Why not support CYC-Net and sustain free access world-wide to monthly editions of CYC-Online? Have lecturers and professors ensured that their educational institutions offer Child and Youth Care students ready access to the e-Journal Relational Child and Youth Care Practice with access to early editions of this journal available for the Child and Youth Care field? What specialist Child and Youth Care books are included in course reading lists? Which specialist e-books offered through the CYC-Net Press library are identified as core texts for students enrolled in college or university courses? Do students know about checking the Employment options page at CYC-Net? Do larger service agencies with a Training Officer and library have subscriptions for Relational Child and Youth Care Practice or other specialist Child and Youth Care materials available via the CYC-Net library? Are youth workers even aware of how they are invited to submit short (500 word) accounts about opportunity moments in practice with young people for CYC-Online?
In summary, it should be clear that for deeply personal reasons, I think personal and professional development is the responsibility of each one of us as ‘free-standing professionals’ employed across the field of Child and Youth Care. I challenge you to allocate one hour per week in your anticipated hectic work week and identify/timetable when you will use that one hour of work time to focus on YOUR personal and professional development as an employee working in the Child and Youth Care field. If you are inspired to spend more time, then follow that thread further outside work. Zero in on ‘one hour per week’, and if possible, make it a consistent diary entry from week to week, focusing on your personal and professional development as an employee in the Child and Youth Care field. What it says on your Business Card, if you have one, does not explain who you are as a “Free-Standing Professional”. It may not always be possible to ensure that the same hour gets built into your work diary or calendar per week, especially if you don’t plan for it to happen at the start of each week! For a start, go to CYC-Net and use the Search function to review what others’ have said about a practice issue that may have challenged you in the past week. Add the CYC-Net App to your Smartphone and follow practice themes highlighted by others in your field. Check out what is involved with subscribing to Relational Child and Youth Care Practice.
Reader, my question is – if you have not already done so – I am asking whether you will gift the cost of 2 cups of Tim Horton’s or Starbuck’s Coffee per month (roughly US$ 10) as a donation to support a continuing future for The International Child and Youth Care Network? Some in North America have explained they are unable to contribute because they are poorly paid. Sadly, those working across the Developing World, mostly women, are even more poorly paid. Few working across the field of Child and Youth Care (even on low salaries) realise that small annual charity donations are tax deductible. What personal and professional development opportunities were built into your work life during the past 12 months? Sign up now for a monthly investment in personal and professional development that keeps CYC-Net! Thanks.
