Ready to help a children’s home transition to family based care? Or wanting to start a new project caring for children in local families? Come ready to share about your project or idea. We’ll work to help you create a personal plan. Within the context of your country, we’ll think about family reunification, foster families, adoptive families, prevention of separation and family support services, and how you can create a plan to develop those services. We’ll focus on a spectrum of care solutions, discuss how to engage with government, churches, families and civil society. Let’s dream together about what your project could become.
(Philip Aspegren, Casa Viva)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
This coaching table will focus on the different facets of attachment and how these may vary across cultural contexts. We will discuss ways professionals can educate caregivers about and facilitate attachment in culturally competent and respectful ways.
(Mandy Howard, Samford University)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
One of the best things you can do to grow your leadership skills is to understand your personality and what naturally drives you. Come receive tailored coaching for your individual personality and team culture, strengthening your leadership for the long haul. When you recognize your strengths and weaknesses, you are able to give your best as you work with people around you, as well as, learn how to connect best with your listener. Join Dr. Sherri McClurg and learn your individual strengths & weaknesses through the DISC Method of personality. Walk away with tangible methods to better lead and relate to those around you. Take these principles back to your team and transform the culture of your office.
(Sherri McClurg, New Horizons for Children & John Maxwell Team)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
How will adoption and foster care affect your biological children? You may be considering or in the midst of figuring this out. Join Pam and her daughter Kristan to discuss common struggles and successes. Glean strategies for healing and helping all the children — adopted, foster, or biological — in your house to thrive. Learn from the experiences of Pam and her family who moved from an 11-year-old only child to a family of eight!
(Pam Parish, Connections Homes)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Talking adoption to kids is the #1 question of adoptive and foster parents. This coaching session will incorporate principles about how to enter your child’s world, tremendous opportunities to share, and a unique set-up for sharing that you’ll experience and then be able to use with your children in the future. Veteran adoptee, Sherrie Eldridge, will be ready to listen to your thoughts/concerns about this topic…and provide answers.
(Sherrie Eldridge, Author)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Learn practical tips and strategies for using your organization’s Facebook and Instagram accounts to motivate your supporters, share your message and expand your reach. Find out how to create effective content to get more likes, shares and overall engagement. (Hint: you do not need to be a graphic designer to create beautiful posts.) You will also learn how to save time by planning and creating a month’s worth of social media content in one sitting.
(Tammie Haveman, Together for Good)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
What if the home isn’t good enough? This question comes up a lot when discussing reintegration. Come discuss how Agape uses effective home assessments to find just the right home for each child. We can discuss how Agape uses the Child Status Index to determine placement options, effective interventions, and monitor the home to ensure the best interest of each child in our program.
(Jonathan Dowell, Agape Children’s Ministries)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Finding and preparing a family to receive a child into their home can be hard. Come discuss the challenges of family tracing and preparation and learn how Agape works to find the best placement for each child. No matter if it takes a week or years, this critical step in the process can set the child and family up for success.
(Andrea Dowell, Agape Children’s Ministries)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Seeing a child reconnect with their biological family, and go on to have a healthy and safe relationship, is always a fantastic win. Facilitating family reintegration well requires many moving parts to be successful, but it can be done with the right strategy and good organization. Come discuss your questions about team performance, financial management, and auditing of home visits to ensure each and every family receives the support they need.
(Chris Page, Agape Children’s Ministries)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Bring your current challenges and questions and come ready to discuss the key questions in successful reintegration. Our conversation will include topics like negotiating school fees, providing food security and helping struggling families with a community-based approach. Learn proven ways to work with established local culture and avoid dependency.
(Wesley Corbitt, Agape Children’s Ministries)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Every year, after a child passes eight-years-old, the odds for him/her to be adopted go down exponentially. If a foster child makes it to adolescence without adoption or a long-term committed foster home, his/her chances for success in any area of life – academic, vocational, social, personal, financial, spiritual – are almost zero without intervention. But, you can make a difference! This discussion will focus on principles and strategies for mobilizing mentors in your church and community who can help bring hope to an otherwise disenfranchised teen.
(Sharon Seeberger & Holly Stewart, Peninsula Covenant Church)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Rewiring the brain is possible! Have a child struggling academically, emotionally or socially? Walk away equipped with a basic understanding of how the brain works, tools & techniques to strengthen the brain & resources to implement these techniques.
(Ann Maura Hinton, Lifeline Children’s Services)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Our goal is to be messengers of hope in the midst of brokenness. But how do we share that hope in an authentic way when the stories are difficult, complex, or sensitive in nature? This coaching table provides more than a few quick tips. It’s a working session that will equip you with tools to communicate with compassion and without compromise.
(Ronne Rock, Orphan Outreach)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
This session is for leaders and those who own donor fundraising. During the CAFO 2018 Summit, we learned one of the biggest challenges that CAFO members face is obtaining buy-in with donors and funding the journey of transitioning and expanding their continuum of care for children. Without donor buy-in, transitioning can come to a halt due to inadequate funding. Moreover, this can negatively impact the organization and the children in their care. The risk is that donors may disconnect because they do not understand the need for transition and change. Additionally, they have concerns for child safety that need addressing along with matters regarding the orphanage buildings and infrastructure. At our table, we will discuss/learn what’s working to transition donors – and the messaging used.
(Brian Carroll, markempa)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Those interested in how to build and strengthen community based support for children and families at risk of separation, should attend. Participants will share and explore successful ways to mobilize people in the community to support children, how to unleash the potential of informal community structures, and how to engage government institutions. Participants will walk away with new skills, tools and inspiring examples of successful initiatives.
(Delia Pop, Hope and Homes for Children)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
This is a time to explore how to best leverage your Core Elements results for your organization in programming, fundraising, and communicating with stakeholders. You should come with a copy of your core elements and specific questions. This session is best suited for program coordinators, advancement professionals, and organization leadership.
(Mandy Howard, Samford University)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
How can you equip your family to battle against the stereotypes and negative impact of society? How can you prepare them for challenges they’ll face beyond your home? How can you help them form a secure racial identity alongside a Godly identity that is larger than race alone? Join this interactive conversation and leave empowered with specific guidance and wisdom for your family’s needs.
(Clarkston Morgan, Our Daily Bread Ministries)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Working in the Shadows: Dynamics of Leading a Church-Based Ministry as a Volunteer, Non-Staff Leader; Explore the intricacies of leading a ministry when you’re not in charge. Discussion will include how to work with your staff leaders, strategic planning, and leadership development.
(Laura Mobley, Traders Point Christian Church)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Whether you’re launching a new ministry or leading an existing one, the goal is to engage as many people as possible in your church. This means your messaging has to be clear and your systems for engaging people in a variety of capacities in place. Join us at this table if you’re looking to engage a broad audience at your church. We’ll talk about strategies and principles that can help move us in that direction. Come with your questions and ideas!
(Jason Johnson, CAFO)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Whether or not we have any background in it, we all enter the world of child protection when we engage in orphan care. No matter the role we play, we are first responsible to prevent further harm to vulnerable children. What does that look like practically? Bring your child protection policies and questions for discussion and troubleshooting as we together explore what is required to keep children safe.
(Kristi Gleason, Bethany Christian Services)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
This discussion will be an interactive process were attendees will be guided to create a custom orphan care plan for their church. This process involves walking through a system that will produce mission-critical ministries that play to the strengths of their congregation and work within the bounds of their church’s current overall vision.
(Steve Gillis, Patch Our Planet)
This free coaching table session is being offered twice. One session is 75 minutes, and the other is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
This discussion is for leaders and staff working in children’s and student ministries, overseeing the recruitment and training of volunteers. We’ll discuss how to incorporate trauma informed training into children’s and student ministry volunteer pipelines in your church in order to help them feel empowered to service kids best. You’ll walk away with new connections and a plan of action for your ministry.
(Ryan North, One Big Happy Home)
This free coaching table session is 75 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
This coaching table will diver deeper into what participants learned in the workshop entitled “Developing a Ministry Action Plan (MAP)”
This coaching table will focus on how to successfully use a workable model for coming up with measureable, attainable goals for your foster care/adoption ministry. The participants will walk through a Ministry Action Plan (MAP) to guide them through the best goals for the coming year, and will learn how having measure goals that are simple to execute is a proven model for building, strengthening, growing, and maintaining an organized and fruitful ministry.
The MAP is a packet of easy-to-use worksheets whereby ministry leaders will have a chance to walk through the sections of the packet and understand the three key components for successful ministry including: dedicated people, available resources, and attainable goals. Walking the participants through this short, yet thorough, exercise using the MAP packet will help them begin to set the goals they see for their ministry before they leave the table that day.
(Ty Bryant, Promise686)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
This coaching table is perfectly designed for pastors and church orphan care leaders. Attendees will hear from a seasoned orphan care leader about engaging their whole church in orphan care, from children to senior adults. They will have the opportunity to share their experience in this space and will receive coaching and resources to take their orphan care ministry to the next level.
(Eric Porter, Backyard Orphans)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. It is being offered twice. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
This coaching table is ideal for pastors, particularly local and global mission pastors, as well as church leaders (volunteer or staff) leading church based orphan care ministries. At this coaching table, we will dialogue about what it looks like to develop a holistic approach to orphan care using the helpful frame work described in Jason Johnson’s blog post. Participants will walk away with clarity on how to effectively and strategically engage orphan care in a broader, more holistic way – from prevention, to intervention, to restoration.
(Gabriel Forsyth, Mosaic Church)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
This coaching table is ideal for pastors and ministry leaders, particularly those focused on local or global mission, as well as lay leaders focused on leading church Orphan Care Ministries. At this coaching table, we will discuss how to mobilize your church for mission using the framework of moving people from unexposed to exposed – and to involved to invested. Participants will walk away with a plan to mobilize their church into actively participating in local and global mission.
(Gabriel Forsyth, Mosaic Church)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
This coaching table is ideal for ministries or churches that are just getting started with their foster care and adoption ministry. We will discuss strategies for how to identify a leadership team and then guide them through a planning process that involves both dreaming and practical steps. Participants will leave with a step-by-step implementation process, following the Simon Sinek “Golden Circle” model, that they can utilize upon returning home.
(Blaine Hamilton, Southeast Christian Church)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
This coaching table is ideal for anyone who leads or organizes short-term mission trips, particularly youth and missions pastors. We will candidly discuss common pitfalls and errors made on the mission field and how to remedy these with best practices. The goal should always be to send and lead a short-term team that is truly a blessing and not a burden to those you are going to serve.
(Casi Young, Go Be Love International)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
The most important thing to do for serving vulnerable children and their families is to deliver effective programs. Programs that really work – that improve the child and families’ wellbeing. But what makes delivering effective programs possible? One key ingredient is having a strong monitoring, evaluating, and reporting system to make sure that you have the needed information or data to know if your program is being effective in creating the desired change for those you serve. Does your program collect data? Are you using it effectively to improve your program? Bring your data and your indicators, and we will talk more about how to use this information effectively. Make sure you also bring your program logic model with its vision, mission, and goals.
(Beverly Nyberg, Independent Consultant & World Without Orphans)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
The African proverb, “it takes a village to raise a child” is so true. Many of us serving in organizations with vision to see children grow up in safe and nurturing families would benefit from starting or joining a coalition with similar goals. Coalitions become our village.
Addressing the root causes for family separation and transforming residential care is too large and complex for any one agency or organization to tackle. In these circumstances, putting together a coalition of groups and individuals can be an effective strategy for changing mindsets and influencing or developing public policy in government, and other relevant sectors. Coalitions are better at mapping of resources (including services and funding). Tracking progress is more efficient and effective through collaboration and coalitions are invaluable in advocacy because they create structures for organizations and individuals to share ownership of common goals.
Join this coaching table if you have dreams to see your nation, state or community come together to solve its own problems. During this coaching session, you will share, learn, ask questions, and walk away with some clear action steps. Kimberly has pioneered a national coalition on alternative care and is a member of two other coalitions. She has seen first-hand how coalitions build consensus and create collective impact.
(Kimberly Quinley, Step Ahead)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Single adoptive parents (or those praying about or in process to be) are invited to register for this coaching table. Led by Autumn Kerr, COO of Go Be Love International and single adoptive mom, this is the place to connect with others who understand the unique journey of single parent adoption. Participants will receive practical guidance and will have the opportunity to ask questions, share ideas and encourage one another.
(Autumn Kerr, Go Be Love International)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Participants will learn how to harness team potential through a series of case studies that will provide a deeper understanding of team members, keys to optimal team interactions, and insights for peak performance. Attendance at the Building Stronger Teams through Empowered Communications workshop is recommended but not required.
(Dave Rudko, Providence World)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
One of the greatest opportunities for charities comes from engaging local business leaders in their cause. Yet many non-profits shortchange themselves by focusing only on fundraising and short term goals rather than long-term relationships. This meeting will be about better aligning your mission with the goals of the business executive. How to present the opportunities and how to engage them in a way that provides mutual benefits for both.
(Tony Mitchell, tmLeadership, LLC)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Many foster parents quit fostering because they’re overwhelmed and feel unsupported. Adoptive families struggle because they don’t feel understood by many of their friends and families. This discussion will be about how hurches can create support groups that provide some training, but most importantly the opportunity for parents to learn from the experts – those also on the journey. Come and let’s discuss how.
(Kim Botto, Crossroads Church)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Learn how you can give birth to your adopted child, and how the church can rescue the 1.6 Million orphaned embryos by giving them life. We will discuss the following topics about Snowflakes® Embryo adoption: What is it? What is the Christian’s responsibility and what does the Bible say about it? How great is the problem of stored embryos? How can we help solve the problem? Why do we use the term “adoption?”
(Daniel Nehrbass, Nightlight)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Learn how to create content for a blog or podcast. This coaching table provides outlines and insight on how to create content including how to interview foster/adoptive families and orphan care advocates.
(Kenneth Camp)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
It’s common to hear, “Ministry is about relationships and not numbers.” True, but every number represents a life. Lead your organization to consistently evaluate and analyze objectives, activities, and metrics to multiply its impact for children.
(Stephen Robert, One More Child)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
How to take your start-up organization and raise funds to sustain your orphan care programs through major donor giving and events. This coaching table is designed to assist organizations struggling or just starting to raise support for their programs through major donors. This is an interactive coaching table so come prepared to share your experience, success, fears and walk away with tangible steps that you can take tomorrow to move your organization financially forward in 2019.
(Felix Gonzalez, Love Made Visible)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
How can you use, turn, and/or create a compassionate community where children are safe and families are preserved and transformed? Join this interactive discussion and planning hour with Safe Families for Children to start building a community of devoted volunteers to keep children safe and families intact. Learn the steps to host vulnerable children and create extended family–like supports for desperate families.
(Jim Whitfield, Safe Families for Children)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Have you been asking yourself, “Has anyone tamed the new frontier of the virtual office?” The very honest answer is probably not. However, there’s good news! Join this interactive small group to hear and contribute helpful tips and how-to insights on working remotely and managing remote employees/volunteers/interns. We’ll share learnings we’ve had with the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) team, who all work remotely and have mostly remote interns and volunteers. Come with your own “what works for me” ideas and questions.
(Ashley Otani, CAFO)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Government Relations: Anyone who is engaging the government cooperatively or in a significant partnership who has questions on how to best engage? Also in what challenges they will face and how to address those challenges and how to work in systems that most times are overly bureaucratic, in some cases corrupt and inefficient. Also those who are having trouble with government relations and how to address those issues.
(Mike Douris, Orphan Outreach)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Dr. Karen Hutcheson, Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Adoption Specialist will provide helpful information related to navigating the complicated land mines that our kids are facing in the digital age. Dr. Karen will provide tools for shepherding the hearts and minds of kids and teens related to technology as well as provide important information related to keeping your kids safe. Kids who come from different stories, particularly institutionalization, have a greater risk of being exposed to sexuality or being sexualized.
Learning Objectives:
1. Parents and caregivers will receive factual information related to technology risks as well as positive aspects of technology.
2. Parents and caregivers will have a better understanding of trauma related to parenting kids with histories of hurts.
3. Parents will learn essential aspects of healthy relationships, healthy parenting strategies, and specific ways to keep kids and teens safe related to technology.
(Karen Hutcheson, The Center for Family Connections, PLLC)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Dive deeper into creating a Fund Development Plan for your ministry with personalized coaching. Specific funding areas for coaching include grant writing, general donations, earned revenue and fundraising events.
(Shelly Radic, Project 1.27)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Bring your child protection policy and discuss with others what makes an excellent child protection policy. If you don’t have a policy for child protection but are wondering if you should, please join us and we will share sample child protection policies for you to examine.
(Beverly Nyberg, Independent Consultant & World Without Orphans)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
As you expand your foster care work in the community where you live, you are finding more and more opportunities for people in the church to serve children and families outside of foster parenting and adoption. Whether it’s mentoring, advocacy, or support, you have a growing group of volunteers that need to be trained to work with kids who have experienced trauma. The staff at Royal Family Kids prepares thousands of volunteers a year to interact with children in foster care. Come with your questions and learn from their experience in equipping people in the church to love children in foster care well.
(Kerry Rhodes, Royal Family Kids)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Are you interested in using Orphan/Stand Sunday as a tool to engage your church or community and don’t know where to start? Speak to seasoned lay leaders about the power of Orphan Sunday and get your questions answered about everything from seeking approval to available resources to implementation, for any size congregation or group.
(Jodi Lewis, Families of Promise)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Any church or organization working with kids from hard places will inevitably come across extended relatives caring for vulnerable children. Although these types of care settings may have characteristics and needs that overlap with foster care and adoption, there are also needs, advantages, and complexities unique to the special and layered relationship. Join us to discuss ways to best advocate/ prepare/ support, collaborate across all systems involved, and encourage kin to care for their relatives without parental care.
(Ian Anand Forber-Pratt, CERI & Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
Your child has joined your family and all is well in the home, but is openness with the birth family much more complicated than you expected? Join the conversation and gather information to help you navigate the hard stuff of openness in adoption.
(Donna K. Nicholson, Bethany Christian Services)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
You want to do something to help the foster care community. You don’t feel called to bring children into your home but believe there are other ways you can serve. And yet, when you’ve offered help, you’ve been told “We’re fine…” or maybe you’ve heard nothing back at all. If you identify with these questions, this coaching table is for you. Join Jami to talk through your questions, roadblocks, and ideas and leave with concrete action steps to help you and/or your church show Jesus to your foster care community!
(Jami Kaeb, The Forgotten Initiative & Lifesong for Orphans)
This free coaching table session is 60 minutes. Limited space available. Reserve your seat in advance on the Coaching Table page.
