CYC-Net Founders

Brian Gannon

Brian worked in Child and Youth Care from 1959 as a child care worker, principal, trainer, supervisor, lecturer and writer.

He started his career in child care while in his final undergraduate year. Four years later he and a colleague started a new program (St Nicolas Home) in Johannesburg, South Africa, for a sector of the population not previously provided for. In 1967 he was invited to become principal of St Johns Hostel, a 64-bed program in Cape Town where he remained for fifteen years.

In the late 1960s, in the Western Cape, he founded South Africa's first child care workers' association, and was instrumental in the establishment of similar associations in Natal, the Transvaal and the Eastern Cape. In 1975 these provincial associations amalgamated to form the National Association of Child Care Workers (NACCW). In 1982 Brian became the NACCW's first National Director. The NACCW has become the major training, literature and advocacy organisation in the field in South Africa.

Brian produced the NACCW's monthly journal Child and Youth Care from 1983 until 1999, when he founded CYC-Net with Thom Garfat.

Brian passed away on 28 September 2017.

Thom is a Director of Transformative Relational Consultation and Training and has worked with young people, families and those who work with them for 50 years.

He is the co-founder of the journal Relational Child and Youth Care Practice and his training, The Purposeful Use of Daily Life Events is used worldwide.

He is the author and co-author of eight books and numerous professional articles. His primary focus is on ‘making it work’; finding practical everyday ways to enhance the process of healing and development.

Thom was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2023.

He lives in Quebec, Canada, with Sylviane.