Introducing my Idea
In a recent CYC-Net e-mail exchange on self-renewal I introduced the notion of an international CYC-Net Adopt-a-Tree week. In reply to a really thoughtful correspondence from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, I responded that all of us CYC-Net'ers should lobby for an international Child and Youth Care Workers 'adopt-a-tree' week and I want to suggest October 2004 as the first such week. We should strike whilst the proverbial iron is hot.

Here’s my idea. Each of us could bring a digital camera out into a forest or wooded area which we love to spend some time in (hell, it could even by a roadside where a solitary tree stands guarding us against total globalisation) and take a picture of the tree with us beside it. That way we could celebrate individual and collective tree choices and gain yet another little window into the soul of child and youth care practitioners and the things that interest us.

Making it Count: Involving Children and Youth in the Experience
I then want to extend this idea and open it up to the children and youth with whom we work and on behalf of whom we are advocates. We could encourage them to reflect on the choices made by Child and Youth Care staff around the world and put together a scrapbook or portfolio. This could be sent to me, care of the Centre for Child and Youth Care Learning, Athlone Institute of Technology, Athlone, Ireland. Together with the International Fellow of the Centre, Dr. Thom Garfat, we will choose the winning entry in October and issue the winner with a certificate and prize. The certificate could be, of course, on recycled acid-free paper and the prize would be hung strategically on a wall of choice of the young person or persons engaging in this global social experiment.

What I Would Like to See
Thom and Brian regularly tell us that CYC-Net is truly global so I would love to see portfolios coming in from as many systems and countries as possible. Let the children and youth decide the content for us adults, and let their imaginations run riot! It could be a really fun exercise and a uniting one.

Imagine it, a world of us, from all backgrounds, all colours, all religions and non-religions united, both genders (Mark Smith) in tree life! And we could use the trees as a medium for 'being' with youth, story-telling with youth (Mike Burns and Jack Phelan), dance and rhythm with youth (Mark Kreuger and Leanne Rose Sladde), with self (Thom Garfat, Gerry Fewster and Margaret Sullivan) and environment (Karen).

Let us all Share in the Game
Perhaps we could ask Brian, our noble co-editor based in South Africa, to paste up our Child and Youth Care ‘adopt-a-tree’ portfolio on the CYC-Net website and a photo of the winning entry. This is supposed to be fun or as we say in Ireland, craic (not the drug!). At the very least, as Linda suggested, let us sneak out and embrace mother nature.

Anyone out there interested in this idea?

Niall
A Forest in East Galway,
Ireland