Meeting with the family

I was fortunate enough to be able to be at the Canadian National Child and Youth Care conference this past month and in many ways it was like the family reunion I spoke of last September in this spot. Some of the “National grandparents” were there (Hello you old timers. You know who you are.) as were members of the family from all ages and stages. The various branches of the Canadian family were well represented, coming as they did from the various longitudes and latitudes of this land we call home. We also had some distant cousins visiting from outside the country and that, too, was a special treat.

I talked with a number of colleagues and friends after the conference and one of the things that was most rewarding for some of us was to see the newer generations of the family (to us older folks, “newer” is anyone who started later than us) taking the initiative and responsibility for where we will go in the future. Seeing these younger people “step up” and take their place in shaping what the family will be must have been a satisfying experience for some of the folks who have worked so hard over the years to keep us together and keep us on track. To see them building on and extending the values and beliefs which have become central to this field was not only warming, but damn fine exciting as well. In workshops and conversations, discussions and debates, they make their presence known.

How this came about, this passing of values and beliefs about caring and commitment from generation to generation, I don’t know. But I do know that I am grateful. It is nice to know one is a part of something continuing.

Now I know that all Child and Youth Care Workers everywhere do not have the chance to go to such a reunion “but in a way “an important way “we, here in Canada, are only a small part of a larger family “the worldwide family of Child and Youth Care. So, wherever you are, however you are connected, we, who are a part of your family, enjoyed our get-together, however brief and limited it may have been. And by the way, you are all welcome any time. After all, we have been to yours and so we know it really is all one big family in the end.

I like to think of CYC-Net as a “family newsletter” connecting us all, wherever we might be, to the greater family: the family which cares about, works with, and tries to be helpful to, troubled children and their families.

And so, I have a request “think of it as a request from the family...

Could each of you, wherever you are and whatever you are doing, please invite one person to be a part of this experiment of connecting the family together (www.cyc-net.org) “I know that normally when I make an appeal it is about money (and by the way, there are many of you who have yet to make your annual contribution! So get with it, eh?) But this time my appeal is different “get one person to come sign up to the “family newsletter” “have one person join the discussion list. Not a tough request, eh? Come on, you can do it! Today there are over 3775 members “imagine if each of you “brought one person home”, what a group we would be!

So, be well. Help us out here “money, members, articles, all of the above. We are family. Let’s stick together and grow.

Thom