Top 3 Reasons to Attend ETC Conference!

 

 

Still thinking about whether or not to attend 

Empowered to Connect? 

 

Read this blog from an adoptive mom who attended last year! 

"Top 3 Reasons to Attend Empowered to Connect"

 

Willow Creek Community Church,
Holt-Sunnyridge, and Show Hope

Proudly Present

 

The Empowered to Connect Conference 

(live simulcast at Willow Creek/South Barrington)

 - A conference featuring the director of TCU's Institute of Child Development, Dr. Karyn Purvis, and other guest speakers. 

The two-day experience will take place in
Nashville, Tennessee on April 8-9, 2016
and will be broadcast live throughout the U.S., including Willow Creek.

 
Watch the trailer and then 

 

REGISTER TODAY!

 

The Empowered to Connect conference is designed to help adoptive and foster parents, ministry leaders and childcare professionals learn to connect with children who have experienced grief or trauma - children who come, as Dr. Purvis says, from "hard places." The conference will offer hands-on, practical tips to engage with and support at-risk children.

 

Conference Schedule

Conference sessions will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Pacific & Central time zones) both days, with a break for lunch.

 

CEUs and D.C.F.S. training credit hours available.

Webinar: Talking to Children About Adoption

When talking about adoption, we often use language that is positive, loving, and spiritual as to provide adoptees with comfort and resolution. These messages shape how adoptees think about themselves, their parents, and God, but may also dismiss adoption’s complex realities. For instance, might adoptees feel less understood and supported when their adoption-related feelings include loss, anger, and confusion if they only hear adoption being celebrated?

This webinar will address how we can use language to acknowledge, support, and respect the full range of an adoptee’s history and experience. By the end of this session, participants will:

• Know common phrases about adoption that may give confusing messages to adoptees
• Learn strategies for how to talk with children about loss and the realities of adoption

Presenter:  Tara Vanderwoude, social worker, advocate, educator

Date: Thursday, April 14, 2016

Time: 8-9:30 p.m. EST

Fee: $15/household

REGISTER NOW

Book: "In Their Voices: Black Americans on Transracial Adoption"

While many proponents of transracial adoption claim that American society is increasingly becoming "color-blind," a growing body of research reveals that for transracial adoptees of all backgrounds, racial identity does matter. Rhonda M. Roorda elaborates significantly on that finding, specifically studying the effects of the adoption of black and biracial children by white parents. She incorporates diverse perspectives on transracial adoption by concerned black Americans of various ages, including those who lived through Jim Crow and the Civil Rights era. All her interviewees have been involved either personally or professionally in the lives of transracial adoptees, and they offer strategies for navigating systemic racial inequalities while affirming the importance of black communities in the lives of transracial adoptive families.

In Their Voices is for parents, child-welfare providers, social workers, psychologists, educators, therapists, and adoptees from all backgrounds who seek clarity about this phenomenon. The author examines how social attitudes and federal policies concerning transracial adoption have changed over the last several decades. She also includes suggestions on how to revise transracial adoption policy to better reflect the needs of transracial adoptive families.

Perhaps most important, In Their Voices is packed with advice for parents who are invested in nurturing a positive self-image in their adopted children of color and the crucial perspectives those parents should consider when raising their children. It offers adoptees of color encouragement in overcoming discrimination and explains why a "race-neutral" environment, maintained by so many white parents, is not ideal for adoptees or their families.

Reminder:-Attachement:Why It Matters Workshop!

Join us all year long for Empowered to Connect workshops, every 4th Wednesday of the month! 

These workshops are video-driven, and facilitated by an adoption professional from Bethany Christian Services.

This month we will present
Attachment: Why It Matters, Part 2
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
7:30 - 8:45 PM
Willow Creek Community Church
67 E. Algonquin Road, So. Barrington, IL 60010
Room: Guest Central (off the main lobby)


Please Note: There will be NO CHILDCARE available at this session because there is no Mid-week service or Mid-week For Kids.  
Childcare will resume at the April session.

 

This video explores the critical role of attachment in a child’s development. Most of us think of attachment as a loving bond between parent and child. But what happens if a child doesn’t receive nurturing, consistent care from a loving parent early in life? Can a parent love a child or a child love a parent, but still not feel securely connected? And what are the consequences of insecure attachments? In this video, adoptive parents share their struggles and successes in pursuit of these answers and experts will share fascinating and encouraging research that reveals how secure attachments can help counter the effects of early trauma.

***Registration for this event is not required. This workshop is offered FREE of charge.

***Training Credit Hours are offered for licensed foster parents.

Questions?  E-mail vulnerablechildren@willowcreek.org

Help Spread A Vision for Orphan Care in Columbia!

Hope for Orphans just learned about a special opportunity to host lunch and a 2-hour workshop for up to 800 evangelical pastors and their wives in Medellin, Colombia. Please help then share their vision for orphan care with these leaders!

An Unexpected Opportunity In a few short weeks, Hope for Orphans has an incredible opportunity to share a vision for fatherless children with the church in Colombia. Hope for Orphans led the launch and birthing of The Christian Alliance for Orphans in the United States. Today, Hope for Orphans continues to bring vision and resources to help birth gospel-driven movements for the orphan where many of these children live—like in Colombia. On April 6th, Hope for Orphans has been given the amazing opportunity to host a lunch and 2 hour workshop for up to 800 evangelical pastors and their wives in Medellin, Colombia. This will be part of the Gospel Through Colombia Conference for pastors from Colombia and across South America. Paul Pennington and Brian Minnix from Hope for Orphans will present on “The Gospel, The Orphan, and Colombia.” Their presentation will bring a Gospel perspective to the connection between spiritual orphans and physical orphans and how the church is God’s answer for this crisis. We will challenge the Pastors that loving orphans in the context of the local church is not optional but an important part of the “visible gospel” to the nation. We will share practical next steps for how churches can make a difference and explore foster care and adoption for those in their congregations called to serve in this way. Your Help We have the funding for the Hope for Orphans team to get to Medellin, but we need help to maximize this kingdom-opportunity. That’s why we're reaching out to you! We need help with the expenses for the event, luncheon and ground costs since we will also be visiting two orphanages in Medellin and providing lunch to the pastors and their wives (upwards of 800). Some of these pastors—perhaps most—have never had such an experience. Will you consider investing in this strategic opportunity to honor and provide a vision-casting lunch to pastors representing an entire nation? We believe the churches represented in this one event could dramatically change the situation for at-risk children in Colombia. Please give today and be a part of making a difference for the Visible Gospel in Colombia. For more information about Hope for Orphans visit HopeforOrphans.org.

Safe Families Fundraiser!

REGISTER HERE!

Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit - Register Now!

SOMETHING FOR YOUR FAMILY

Rich teaching, needed connection, family experiences... 

There's something here for you!

PLAN YOUR FAMILY TRIP

REGISTER NOW

<< SHARE SUMMIT WITH OTHERS >>

CAFO2016  |  Orlando, FL  |  May 5-6, 2016

WWW.CAFO2016.ORG

Family Focused Workshop Tracks Help for Adoptive & Foster Families Loving Children with Special Needs Strengthening the Family Hague Training Workshops Just for You Connection Rooms Foster Moms Special Needs Attachment & Trauma Connection for You Who do you need to talk to for quality counsel and information? What hard questions do you need to ask a veteran? How can you refocus, refuel and renew for the road ahead? CAFO2016 is the place for you! AGES 0-3 CHILDCARE AGES 4-10 KIDS SUMMIT

Former Pastor Marries Science, Bible Studies to Heal Wounds of Childhood Trauma

It wasn’t your everyday experience, hearing Bible verses mixed with particulars from epidemiology and neurobiology in the same breath. But that’s what Dave Lockridge was doing as the 20 people in his Monday night ACE Overcomers class at Gateway Community Church in Merced, CA, busily scribbled in their workbooks.

Lockridge – a grandfather, former pastor and businessman – is executive director of ACE Overcomers, an organization he created to provide programs to “overcome addiction, depression, anxiety, and anger caused by a childhood filled with abuse, neglect and household dysfunction.”

He was pastor of a small church in nearby Atwater, CA, when his wife, Susan, director of medical staff services for Mercy Medical Center of Merced, invited a guest speaker to describe the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Adverse Childhood Experience Study (ACE Study). That got him thinking about the lifelong consequences of childhood trauma. What sealed his fate was a speech by Dr. Vincent Felitti, co-founder of the ACE Study, at a meeting sponsored by the Family Resource Council of Merced a year later, in 2005. Felitti did a presentation about his groundbreaking epidemiological research project, and related neurobiological research.

After Felitti’s presentation, Lockridge realized that in his efforts to help his most troubled parishioners, he’d been doing everything wrong. He decided that he needed to do something about it, not only for himself, but for other clergy.

“Over more than 20 years, I’ve buried way too many 35-year-olds and 40-year-olds who should have lived longer,” he says. “That’s what motivated me — the fact that I could go 20 years in the ministry and be ignorant about this.”

“This” was the research showing that early childhood trauma causes much of the adult onset of chronic disease in the U.S.

Read the full article HERE

www.acestoohigh.com

Attachment: Why It Matters, Part 2

Join us all year long for Empowered to Connect workshops, every 4th Wednesday of the month!  These workshops are video-driven, and facilitated by an adoption professional from Bethany Christian Services. This month we will present Attachment: Why It Matters, Part 2 Wednesday, March 23, 2016 7:30 - 8:45 PM Willow Creek Community Church 67 E. Algonquin Road, So. Barrington, IL 60010 Room: Guest Central (off the main lobby) Please Note: There will be NO CHILDCARE available at this session because there is no Mid-week service or Mid-week For Kids.   Childcare will resume at the April session.   This video explores the critical role of attachment in a child’s development. Most of us think of attachment as a loving bond between parent and child. But what happens if a child doesn’t receive nurturing, consistent care from a loving parent early in life? Can a parent love a child or a child love a parent, but still not feel securely connected? And what are the consequences of insecure attachments? In this video, adoptive parents share their struggles and successes in pursuit of these answers and experts will share fascinating and encouraging research that reveals how secure attachments can help counter the effects of early trauma. ***Registration for this event is not required. This workshop is offered FREE of charge. ***Training Credit Hours are offered for licensed foster parents. Questions?  E-mail vulnerablechildren@willowcreek.org