Name:       Janet Newbury

Age:          32

Location:  Powell River, British Columbia

Biography
Originally from Corner Brook, Newfoundland, I grew up with a wonderful home but a deep curiosity about everything beyond it. I spent my summers working at a children’s camp in Nova Scotia throughout high school, and eventually went to Ottawa to university. From that point forward, two things seemed to drive me (and still do): my love of working with children and youth, and my interest in learning about the world. I travelled a lot, both within and outside of Canada. Interestingly, when I was in Canada, I usually worked mainly in the service industry and had to volunteer in order to continue my engagement with kids. But when I was outside of Canada I was able to work and volunteer with children and youth. My degree in Sociology just didn’t seem to be what I needed in order to do the work that interested me most in Canada.

How I came to be in this field
While living in Jamaica, I taught at the American International School of Kingston, which was a nice job. I enjoyed it. At the same time, I also volunteered at girls’ home called Mary’s Child: it was home to a number of girls who were either pregnant or new mothers. I loved my role there, and I loved the girls, their babies, and the house mother, Miss Brown, who impressively ran the place. Recognizing that this was where my passion lay, I began to search online for similar jobs in Canada. That was when I ‘discovered’ the field of child and youth care. When I returned to Canada I moved to Truro and entered the CYC program at the Nova Scotia Community College. The program was amazing, and I was very pleased to have formally entered the field. However, after a series of jobs upon graduation in British Columbia and Alberta I realized that as much as I loved working with children and youth, there were a lot of things I did not love about the systems designed to support them. That realization led me to do a Master’s in Child and Youth Care at the University of Victoria. I am now happily living in Powell River, enjoying my involvement in community-, family-, and youth-focused initiatives, and working on my PhD through the University of Victoria.

My favorite saying
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

A few thoughts about child and youth care practice
The practice of child and youth care (relational engagement with children, youth, families, and communities) is very exciting to me, as it is an approach that can be adopted within any context or discipline. Any effort to professionalize must not interfere with this commitment to engaging authentically and in the moment. Flexibility and the multidisciplinary nature of CYC are certainly strengths.

Last thing I read, watched, or heard which I would recommend to others
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html

Favorite child and youth care experience
Do I have a favourite? I don’t know, but I’ll happily share a moment I often recall with a smile: I was leaving the small town I had been living and working in as a Family Initiatives Counsellor. My final stop was one last good-bye at the home of a 3 ½ year old boy I worked with and whose family I had become quite close to. I pulled into the driveway and could see him sitting in the window, waiting. When I came into the living room he gave me a tiny gift-wrapped box. I opened it (with him watching on excitedly!) to find about 20 tiny squares of paper, each of them with a little red X on it. These were kisses – all individually kissed by him – for me to take with me on my journey. That was 5 years ago, and the little wooden box of kisses still sits on the window sill next to my desk. Without a doubt, the best gift I was ever given.

A few thoughts for those starting out
I would like to pose a good-natured challenge to newcomers to the field to help us collectively cultivate a discourse and practice of citizenship within CYC. I’d love to hear the thoughts of those who are new to the field in this regard, so I encourage you to share them with the CYC community:

"Missing from our discourse is a way to think of ourselves as citizens, not just providers, as people engaged in partnerships with other citizens to tackle public problems.  Also missing is the idea of our clients as citizens with something to contribute to their communities ... The provider/consumer dichotomy leaves out a third alternative – citizen partnerships where we are neither providers nor consumers – which our world sorely needs in an era of widespread disengagement from civic life.” (Doherty & Carroll, 2007, p. 225).

Doherty, W. and Carroll, J. (2007). Families and therapists as citizens: The families and democracy project. In E. Aldarondo (Ed.) Advancing social justice through clinical practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

 A writing of my own
Newbury, J. (2009) Contextualizing Child and Youth Care: Striving for Socially Just Practice. Relational Child & Youth Care Practice, 22,  4. pg 20.

Influences on my work
There are many! Conversations with my husband, mentors, family, students, colleagues, and friends ... Situations I find myself in where I cannot deny that I have no answers but must engage somehow regardless ... All the grassroots efforts for positive change in my own community ... and the people (adults and children) I know who are making the world a better place just by ‘living well’ ...