Listen to this... to the Cream City Summit III, sponsored by the International Leadership Coalition for Child and Youth Care, to take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, March 27 and 28, 2003. Sponsored by the International Leadership Coalition for Professional Child and Youth Care and organized by Mark Krueger and the staff of the Child and Youth Care Learning Center, here is a chance to celebrate recent accomplishments in the field, connect and re-connect, and generate new energy around a specific activity to move the field forward in the future.
The theme is, “Professional certification is here: How can we support it?" This refers to the certification process associated with the North American Competencies that have been developed and finalized by the Association for Child and Youth Care Practice and collaborating organizations, the Council of Canadian Child and Youth Care Organizations and the International Leadership Coalition for Professional Child and Youth Work.
From Andy Munoz “we all know him “comes a special suggestion that I’m happy to pass on. Let’s all be there ! Andy further proposes that each of us contact people we know and have known in the field over the years and encourage them to come. If you've been involved with child and youth work over the years, see if you can come to Milwaukee to renew old friendships and make new ones! Everybody who has been to previous Summits knows that they will experience warm hospitality “including creamy treats and other local delights.
Then, let’s indeed celebrate the accomplishment of the North American Competencies. Years in conception and preparation, with wide input and extensive review, the North American Certification Project Competencies for Professional Child and Youth Work Practitioners document is ready. The complete text has just been printed in volume 17 of the Journal of Child and Youth Care Work. The Cream City Summit is an ideal place for us to acknowledge this achievement, including the leadership of Martha Mattingly in assembling the document through numerous iterations, and David Thomas, the President of the Association for Child and Youth Care Practice for overall support in keeping the project moving forward. *
Andrew Hahn, a prominent scholar of youth development, in a 1998 article entitled High Standards that appeared Youth Today, a national newsletter on key issues in youth work, heartily endorsed the notion of competencies and certification as productive step towards much needed professionalization of child and youth work. He cited Texas-based efforts to develop a certification process, and suggested replicating the Texas model. Now we are well underway and poised to take the next steps “nationally and internationally. In a historical perspective on the North American Certification process, David Thomas writing in the same volume of the Journal of Child and Youth Care Work in which the Competencies appear, recognizes that “If the certification process is not developed over the next few years, the momentum will be lost, and it’s largely up to us to keep it going ... It is time to get this done. It is time for action". So put the date on your calendar and contact your professional friends and colleagues.
Some of us over the years have developed friendly rituals at conferences that include indulging in ice cream. Where better to get it in than in the Cream City ? So let’s make it an “Ice Cream City Social" Can you taste that cone or sundae yet? As well, we can all taste victory for children, youth and families of the future as we collaborate to make certification happen.
* Also see on this web site:
1. ANNOUNCEMENT: Cream City Summit III :
Professional Certification is here: How can we support it?"
2. The North American Certification Project (NACP) : Report and request
for participation (case study form download)
