CONTENTS

EDITORIAL

Welcome to the second incarnation of Relational Child & Youth Care Practice. Our thanks to all those readers who took the time to offer their opinions on our inaugural issue. Your feedback was most encouraging and greatly appreciated. It’s good to know that, in this age of electronic communication, the printed word still has a significant place in the scheme of things.
While the response to our new publication has been overwhelmingly positive, a couple of our more ‘academic’ colleagues did raise interesting questions. One wondered if all our subscribers would appreciate our decision to “turn a well established professional journal into a glossy magazine?” The other asked if this decision was made “primarily for commercial reasons.” These are questions that go to the very heart of what Relational Child & Youth Care Practice is all about and I would like to take this editorial space to respond.
There is no doubt that the appearance of Relational Child & Youth Care Practice is radically different from that of its predecessor, our beloved Journal of Child and Youth Care. But anyone who cares to examine the aspirations, philosophy and editorial policies we developed over the past twenty years will know that that the nature of our transformation is far from radical. From the outset, it was our intention to reflect, document and share the child and youth care experience, in all of its diverse forms and facets. For as long as I can remember, we have promoted the belief that the soul of our profession lies in the nature of the relationships we create with young people and their families. And, from an editorial perspective, we have constantly urged front line practitioners to write about their personal and professional experiences. On the other side of the equation, we have always wanted a publication that people will actually pick up and read.
In all of these areas, the academic journal turns out to be a very inadequate and restrictive vehicle. Over the years, countless front-line practitioners have told us how they feel overwhelmed by the prospect of creating a twenty-page manuscript and inhibited by the formal publication requirements. Sadly, many of these would-be contributors fell by the wayside, even though they could write well and had much to say. By the same token, the essence of the child and youth care relationship is not theoretical or empirical, it is personal and experiential. And this is not something that can be conveniently squeezed into a form that stresses objectivity, logical discourse, standardized interventions and replicable outcomes.
The traditional scholarly journal presents similar problems for the reader. The layout is generally unappealing, the articles are typically lengthy, the writing style is frequently monotonous, and the range of content is restricted by the rules and regulations. This is not a very attractive proposition for those of us who do most of our reading over a cup of coffee or during an unexpected break in our daily routines. More to the point, this format does not reflect the infinite diversity of professional child and youth care.
But there seems to be another issue implied in our colleague’s question. Does our decision to break the rules imply that we are not interested in establishing a solid place for Child and Youth Care within the professional hierarchy of the more established professions? The answer is “yes” but we have never promoted the idea that we should follow in the footsteps of the more ‘established’ professions. In fact, we have persistently resisted professional aspirations based upon relative status, esoteric language, delineated exclusivity and zealously protected boundaries.
So does this mean that we are prepared to take our place as second class citizens — assistants to the real professionals. Hell no! We have simply redefined the concept of professionalism. We believe that child and youth care practitioners have knowledge and experience that is valuable to anyone who cares about the well-being of children and youth. This is the knowledge to be gained through direct personal involvement in the lives of young people and their families without hiding behind the smoke and mirrors of some conjured-up professional mystique. Our clients are not “consumers” or serviceable objects.
And this brings me to the matter of commercialism. Of course we want to expand the distribution of our publication, but our primary concern is not with marketability and consumer satisfaction. Our challenge has always been to capture the essence of our profession and make it as widely available as possible, within and beyond our professional ranks. This is strictly a labor of love. For this reason alone, we produced The Journal of Child and Youth Care for over twenty years with no financial compensation for those of us who spent countless hours nurturing, managing, promoting, coercing, organizing, editing and distributing this publication, often digging into our own pockets to keep the dream alive.
Relational Child and Youth Care Practice is the continuation of that dream. By design, we have sought no third party sponsorship, no government grants and no corporate handouts. We firmly believe that our publication should be fully supported by the profession it seeks to reflect, represent and promote. Anything less would be completely unacceptable.
This is not to imply that we are all martyrs, looking for some undisclosed pay-off in the afterlife. For us the rewards are immediate and plentiful, culminating in the appearance of each new issue — every one a miracle. But the broader satisfaction lies in an ever-changing network of relationships that integrates like minds and hearts within a common purpose.
With the establishment of Relational Child & Youth Care Practice, for example, we have been joined by CYC-Net Editor Brian Gannon and his colleagues in South Africa and their immediate contribution has been profound and far-reaching. Welcome aboard. Subscriptions are on the increase and we are already receiving and reviewing a fascinating range of new submissions, confirming our belief that Child & Youth Care professionals have much to say, and in many different ways.

So, all questions of professionalism and commercialism aside, we are excited about our new publication and look forward to extending our relational network in the years ahead. Of course the future is always unpredictable but, with your support and participation, we see no reason why our garden shouldn’t continue to flourish.

Gerry Fewster

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