Norman E. Taylor
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being
In keeping with our special call for papers connected to the recent LEPH conference in Umea, Sweden, the upcoming September issue will feature several papers from that event. Some, but not all, will intersect with our chosen “youth” theme for 2023 either directly or indirectly. All of these papers reflect important and emerging research and discussion directly in line with our mission. Our thanks to these contributing authors and reviewers. Thanks also to the conference organizers at the Global Law Enforcement Public Health Association (GLEPHA) for continuing to collaborate with our journal to build and share this vital knowledge base internationally.
At the same time, this upcoming issue will present another opportunity for us to reinforce our continuing attention to this year’s overarching theme of youth. The issue will be opened with an inspiring Editorial from Dr. Robert Chrismas, a long-serving Contributing Editor, and one of our most prolific contributors as an author and reviewer since the early days of our journal. Bob is featured in the Editor’s Spotlight in this Dispatch.
Bob continues the ‘glass half full’ approach introduced by Michael DeValve in March, and echoed in Vivien Lee’s editorial in June. The emerging generations of young adults will be more full of promise, talent, social awareness and concern for the earth than ever before. This much is certain. What is uncertain is the ability of our current systems, and the decision-making of those in positions of power and influence, to meet them where they are and where they will take us all in the years ahead.
In August, the 15th cohort of CACP Executive Global Studies will be presenting their findings and calls-to-action arising from a 15-country study into “Policing with a New Generation”. Among a range of noteworthy findings, three things really stand out in that team’s insights for their direct relevance to our JCSWB theme. The first is the acute level of urgency they will convey behind their propositions for policing. The second is the collateral urgency for all other sectors in the CSWB human services. The third, and now the subject of a parallel Resolution being put forward to the membership jointly with the CACP International Committee, is the urgency in recognizing the uniqueness of Canada’s commitment to multiculturalism, combined with our reliance on immigration, and the resulting schisms this has been introducing and widening in recent years between ‘the system’ and Canadian youth.
Applying a ‘designed futures’ method borrowed from the CACP’s Strategic Foresight learning program, the Global Studies team back-casts from a plausible and preferred vision of 2030 to identify three imperatives on which action needs to be taken now, not just within policing, but across the CSWB spectrum. Here’s hoping.
