Listen to this
1999 was a long time ago in South African history. It was a glorious year where we went to the polls for the second time in our democracy, consolidating good triumphing over evil. We were set on our path of redress and renewal. In the NACCW the receptive environment for NGO work that came with a just government was exciting. In this context the late Brian Gannon, the father of child and youth care in South Africa, a man always ahead of his time, came up with the idea of CYC-Net publishing an online journal.
At that time many were sceptical, not really being able to get heads around the idea of reading professionally on a machine which was not a part of everyday life. CYC-Net was one thing, but many of us did not match Brian’s enthusiasm for something so far away from our reality. We were integrating children’s homes, being part of the law reform process so fundamental to dismantling apartheid and coalescing the child and youth care field around visions of equity and professionalism. And … there was the HIV/AIDS pandemic that was very much with us.
But Brian persevered. Thom Garfat was his partner in this endeavour, and without fanfare the first edition of CYC-Online was available on our screens. Brian continued editing and publishing the NACCW journal, The Child Care Worker, then Child and Youth Care, for a few months, and then devoted himself to CYC-Net. Most local child and youth care people did not have access to the internet, so continuing to publish a hard copy journal was essential, and the NACCW continued printing a professional publication until 2022.
CYC-Online was born out of a child and youth care ethos – one to which Brian fundamentally subscribed. It was innovative, as is good practice. It was generous – it was open access from the start and contributors have always donated their time and thoughts into a space accessible to the child and youth care community the world over. It was audacious. Even though the early years of CYC-Net had been supported by the NACCW, there was no apparent funding sources available, but still the vision drove the action. And the entire endeavour encouraged a levelling of the playing fields by allowing practitioners, the voices of those closest to children, and not just academics, to publish their thoughts.
The intentions behind the effort were noble and salutary, and in many ways the vision of the online publication has been more than realised. The international child and youth care community, and key figures who have supported the sharing platform are to be credited with maintaining and growing the publication over a quarter of a century. This is an impressive achievement!
In South Africa, CYC-Online has been very helpful to our skills development undertaking over these three hundred issues. Having access to the writings of leaders in the field from across the world would simply not have been accessible given the cost of traditional books and most online publications from overseas. CYC-Online has also provided the professional fuel for countless in-service development sessions in residential child and youth care centres and in community settings. An information feed into isolated areas brings energy and sparks new thought when in-person contact is not a given, so in a county which is fifty percent rural, the availability of information through CYC-Online has been vital to many far-flung child and youth care projects.
The combination of the accessibility and status of CYC-Online has also added weight to our professionalisation journey, demonstrating to the many who still do not believe that CYCW actually exists, that there is an international language in the profession, and making it more manifest. CYC-Online has helped to make child and youth care work less easy to dismiss!
Undoubtedly too, the affirmation that comes to practitioners who see themselves in print has been good for the South African child and youth care work sector. The international sharing of professional happenings in the field has allowed the local field to follow international trends and absorb new knowledge and progress. It has also meant that the local innovations have had the benefit of international exposure, promoting true exchange.
Brian would have been pleased with the achievements of CYC-Online were he with us today. And, in true modest style, would have deflected all accolades to others – Thom, so supportive and engaged always, Leon, James, Martin, Heather and others. He certainly would not have taken credit for making it happen. But any new undertaking requires a catalyst.
Internationally the world has moved politically to the right. And we face the annihilation of many creatures on the planet. Inequality is now at grotesque proportions. In South Africa, the realisation of our vision of a ‘new’ South Africa has been hamstrung by greed and power. We hope that justice will prevail and that we are able to recommit to nation-building as are we enter the fourth decade of our beautiful and tumultuous years of democracy.
And, in the context of entering the second quarter century of CYC-Online , what does the South African field look for from the publication?
Brian used to worry that we did not have more South African voices in the journal, and he would go out of his way to support practitioners in expressing themselves in writing. This remains a matter to be addressed. As we know, thanks to Virginia Woolf, one needs a ‘room of one’s own’ to write. Translated into a local context, a computer and data – both expensive commodities in South Africa. Perhaps as we see our colleagues, particularly those younger, increase their dexterity on cell phones, we will see greater representation from our country in this project of South African genesis.
Another element of ‘a room of one’s own’ – the possibility of writing – is that of time. Simply having the time in one’s life to write. I recall Brian, a singularly industrious person, setting up writing engagements on weekends and enjoying helping practitioners to carve out time for this pursuit. This presents a challenge to the field in South Africa – to support the writing of practitioners. As we develop our university degrees and create faculty members, perhaps they too will be able to fill this gap. We need CYC-Online to continue to be receptive to our voices, and to the voices of practitioners.
Hopefully too, as the profession spreads on our continent through FICE Africa (the continent that will be home to half of the world’s children by the time another 300 issues of CYC-Online are published) there will be more voices from the breadth of this continent on the platform.
The challenge in the future for CYC-Online will be to stick with the original vision. To remain innovative, generous, non-hierarchical and audacious. To continue to support the voices of those less often heard in child and youth care work – a profession which is surely even more important today than it was thirty years ago! Thanks to all who continue to work towards this vision. And thanks to the late, great BG!
