Networking
Child Life Community
As members of a specialized field with a limited number of practitioners, it is important for child life specialists to reach beyond the boundaries of individual programs, disciplines, and geographies to connect with the larger child life community. At Child Life Council, promoting professional collaboration among child life specialists is one of our most important goals, and a key benefit for our members. We encourage you to reach out to a welcoming community of child life professionals, who are ready and eager to share information, ideas and resources. Build lasting relationships that will enhance your personal and professional development, and make a real difference in your career!
Here are just a few of the networking opportunities available to help you connect with child life specialists worldwide:
- CLC Forum – Our automated e-mail discussion group offers is an easy way to communicate with more than 4,000 CLC members. Benefit from the knowledge and experience of your peers by sharing thought-provoking questions, professional challenges, and success stories. By searching the CLC Forum Archives, you will find a treasure trove of informative discussion threads on a wide variety of hot topics.
- Annual Conference on Professional Issues – For the ultimate experience in face-to-face networking, you will not want to miss the CLC Annual Conference on Professional Issues. Each year, more than 900 child life specialists from around the world gather for a diverse array of high-quality conference sessions catered to all professional levels.
- CLC Member Directory – Have you lost contact with one of your former child life colleagues? Looking to connect with another child life specialist in your area? Our online Member Directory can help you to locate other members of the Child Life Council, using a name and/or location as search criteria.
- Volunteer Opportunities – At CLC, our progress is fueled by the vision of our leaders and the hard work of a dedicated network of volunteers. Each year, we ask members to partner with the CLC Board and staff to keep our organization vital and strong. Volunteering for a committee, task force, or work group is a great way to meet new people and to learn from established child life leaders.
In addition to participating in child life networking experiences offered directly through CLC, we encourage you to reach out to Regional and International child life groups, which may offer you further opportunities to connect with peers within designated geographic areas. Although CLC is not directly affiliated with any of these groups, we are pleased to share contact information and resources with our members, in the hopes that you will connect with one another on BOTH a local and national level.