Custom Training

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Group Learning (Remote or on-site)

Interactive sessions that bring leadership principles to life through reflection, dialogue, and collective insight. These sessions help teams translate leadership concepts into practical strategies for everyday challenges. Number of sessions and content is tailored for your group.

One-on-One Mentoring (Remote or on-site)

Personalized on-on-one sessions create space for deeper reflection and sustained growth. Explore patterns, identify opportunities for change, or strengthen confidence in applying new skills. Ideal for new and emerging leaders navigating growth, transition, or new responsibilities.

Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI)

The SDI is a research-based assessment providing practical insights into the motivational and relational dynamics that shape how people work together. It highlights motives, conflict patterns, and strengths—along with how those strengths can limit effectiveness when overused. The SDI gives leaders insight into what drives behavior in both steady times and stress, strengthening communication and collaboration.

Contact James Freeman

Caring To Connect: Nurturing Hopeful, Healing Relationships with Young People

Paperback book

Editor: James Freeman

Publisher: CYC-Net Press

Published: 2022

ISBN: 978-1-7764030-0-4

Pages: 118

Caring to Connect is a reminder that the heart of this work lives in the small, human moments we share with young people. It’s about choosing to show up with warmth, steadiness, and genuine interest, letting young people know that their stories matter and that someone is truly with them.

It lifts up the beauty and weight of childhood and adolescence, and how much it means for a young person to feel seen, safe, and valued. The guidance is gentle and practical, rooted in real practice: honoring rights, responding to hurt with care, and creating relationships that help young people grow into themselves with more confidence and hope.

At its core, it’s an invitation to slow down, pay attention, and nurture the small places where hope can take root again.

This book draws from James Freeman’s tenure as editor of the monthly journal CYC‑Online (issues 200–250), where practitioners from around the world share their everyday wisdom about what it means to care well. Includes a study guide for personal or group reflection.

Chapters

Canaries in the Coal Mine

Hans Skott-Myhre

Searching for Hope

Heather Sago & Aurrora De Monte

Space to Tell Their Story

Thom Garfat

Child Rights and Human Tragedy

Tara Collins

Wounded Healers

Maxwell Smart & John Digney

Messages of Love and Connection

Jack Phelan

Caring for One Another

Kiaras Gharabaghi

Rituals of Encounter that Guarantee Cultural Safety

Leon Fulcher

Trauma and Calming Co-Regulation

Howard Bath

Relational Repair and Shame

Laura Steckley

The Power of Feeling Safe

Mark Freado

Trauma-Informed Emotional Warmth in Public Care

Colin Maginn

Unsuspected Influences Between Children and Support Staff

Werner van der Westhuizen

Connecting Across the Generations

Mark Smith

Measuring the Qualities of a Relationship

Doug Magnuson, Priscilla Healey, Ashleigh Martinflatt and Jenny McGrath

A Manifesto of Hope

Gerry Fewster

Purchase from CYC-Net Press

Supervision in Child and Youth Care Practice

Paperback book

Editors: Grant Charles, James Freeman & Thom Garfat

Publisher: CYC-Net Press

Published: 2026 (2nd Edition)

ISBN: 978-1-7764578-9-2

Pages: 143

Supervision isn’t meant to live inside an isolated hour on the calendar. This book reframes it as a relational practice of “being with” staff, shaping how they think and respond in the moments that matter. It’s a call to lead with more presence, not more paperwork. To model the curiosity, steadiness, and connection we want our teams to embody. Because what staff experience from their supervisors is what they pass on in the care young people and families receive.

Chapters

Mattering: The Core of Supervision

Grant Charles and Thom Garfat

Relational Supervision: Getting Out of Your Office and Leading with Intention and Connection

Michelle Holbrook, Andraya MacMillan, Mairi Macintyre and Ron Smith

Twenty‑Nine Ways of Connecting Child and Youth Practitioner and Supervisory Practice

Grant Charles

The Relationship Boundaries that Control Supervision

Jack Phelan

A Daily Life Events Approach to Relational Child and Youth Care Supervision

Thom Garfat, Leon Fulcher and James Freeman

Individual Developmental Plans and a Relational Child and Youth Care Supervision Cycle

Thom Garfat and Grant Charles

Supervision as an Act of Service

James Freeman and Kelsie Tatum Martinez

Unspoken Realities of Becoming a New Supervisor

James Freeman and Toné Reyes

Developing Reflective Supervision Training: A Case Study

Virginia Hervey and Pennie Sibbald

Humour in Supervision?

John Digney

External Models of Supervision

Kiaras Gharabaghi

Purchase from CYC-Net Press