Program

This transformative session features a pastor, program implementer, and global expert. You'll learn about strategies to start with less than a dollar and evolve into programs that foster financial independence. The NDEIPI program helps uplift the underprivileged through pragmatic business training, enabling them to generate income with minimal resources (Matthew 25:14-30). We will explore how to creatively adapt effective programs across cultures and contexts. Finally, we will learn about creative income-strengthening models that bear fruit for families, promoting dignity and meaning, helping people discover the gifts within and around them, and allowing them to become the people God is calling them to be.

As we strive toward a world where every child lives in a safe and loving family, we must mitigate the problem of parents becoming overwhelmed with the post-trauma recovery needs of children. This workshop will present tools for providing biblical support to sustain parents in the journey of foster care and adoption. Proven approaches for support groups, biblical resources and family strengthening will be presented from a diversity of cultures. Attendees will receive a list of resources as well as other materials to implement these strategies.

Building a collaborative team starts with commitment to the WWO vision, and seeing the WWO vision become reality starts with building a collaborative team. What are the vital elements of a collaborative team? Explore the role of WWO facilitators in collaborative initiatives toward the WWO vision. Learn how to be an effective contributor to a WWO team. Meet facilitators of family-based care movements from around the world who will share their own real examples of collaborative, family-based care movements. Create your own practical next steps to build or develop your own collaborative team so that the WWO vision can become reality where you live and serve.

This session will help participants learn more about how to build collaborations with all types and sizes of congregations. You will discover how to collaborate with youth to advance the WWO movement and how to involve practitioners, government, and other stakeholders. We will share the collaboration framework, resources available, and best practices in these areas.

This session will provide rich insights into the value of pursuing an inclusive learning community with sustainable values and a shared vision. Learning as much from mistakes and failures as from successes, you will hear how a shift toward community, collaboration, and collective impact has the potential to transform not only individual lives but communities and nations for the good of families and children.

Often, working with the orphaned, the vulnerable, and families in crisis includes a spiritual battle, as the apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12. So we need to put on the full armor of God and to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. In this workshop, you will learn about the authority we have in Christ to fight spiritual battles in our work with children and families, practical skills for the battle, and how to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus so that we remain aligned with God and his Kingdom purposes.

God has wired in all of us the deep and essential need for connection with other people. Sadly, not everybody experiences meaningful relationships. Those who don’t will suffer the consequences of isolation. Those who do will enjoy real friendships and the long-lasting fruit and satisfaction of human connection. In this session, we will look at the different levels of friendship so beautifully modeled by Jesus himself. We will explore different types of relationships and what each one brings, and we will take time to identify where our greatest need in friendship might be (1 Peter 1:22).

Children with disabilities are often overlooked and disadvantaged. Even within the OVC sector, this population is vastly underserved and often left behind. Serving children with disabilities is possible for every organization. We have been supporting children with disabilities in Uganda for over a decade, and we want to empower other organizations around the world to do the same. Our goal is to deliver specialized training to meet the needs of children with disabilities. In this workshop, we will talk about:
• Where to start … how your organization can best help children with disabilities
• Reintegration of children with disabilities
• Helping parents find value in their child with disabilities

Child sexual abuse is all around us. If you are working with children, statistically you are almost certain to be working with youth who are vulnerable or have already experienced sexual abuse or exploitation. This session will bring you closer to understanding this abuse, and it will teach prevention and evidence-based strategies that help when working with a child who has been abused sexually.

Are you conducting a camp or any other type of program for children? This session will help you ensure that you are trauma-informed in all activities and strategies you use for the program. We will answer the following questions, among others: What do I do to ensure that an activity is trauma-informed? How do I train my staff prior to an event? What does a child protection policy have to do with an activity or a game we play with children?

Having a safeguarding policy is imperative these days. Persons who victimize children are drawn to places where they can find victims — hence the vulnerability of your own organization. This session will address the importance of a safeguarding policy and what goes into an effective policy. Examples will be shared.

The church is well positioned to help families in crisis. Based on our understanding that crisis can hinder parenting and that parenting challenges can accelerate crisis, the Church Leader Guide presented in this session will help you implement a better approach to helping people who struggle with the role of parenting a child.

We all know how important it is to strengthen collaborations between governments, faith communities, and NGOs. In this session, you will learn key principles and hear testimonies of leaders from Kenya, Sri Lanka, Romania, and the Viva Network about how to open effective doors for government collaboration where it is needed most.

This session will provide a complete one-hour orientation to the Parenting for Lifelong Health program. This program is the most successful one in preventing physical and emotional violence against children in the home — reducing it by about 50%! Learn from three PLH experts working in different cultural backgrounds and get connected to continue learning after you return home.

How can you use the WWO Roadmap and WWO roundtable to start collaborative efforts in your country? You will learn how at this session. Hear the lessons learned by others who have found success.

A special Sunday in your church focusing on the orphans brings attention to the vulnerability and needs of children and families in crisis. Come and experience the stories of those who have discovered the benefits of this practice. You will leave encouraged with ideas to make this initiative powerful in your own community and church.

Learn the main principles and impact of the WWO Learning Community approach. We will discuss simple, practical principles and discover how to integrate this powerful cross-cultural approach in your local or national ministry to the vulnerable.

In a world where appearances mean everything and image is maintained at all costs, this session will unpack the tremendous freedom that can be found when we learn to do life as our real selves. The power of forgiveness will be highlighted, as well as an array of tools that support our journey to living authentically, experiencing wholeness, and embracing the freedom available to us if we have the courage to pursue it.

We'll explore the three big paradigm shifts that help children's homes become care agencies that can offer a full spectrum of solutions, including family-based care. We'll review a five-step path to help move children's homes from where they are to where they can be. We'll also see examples of what successful transformation of services can look like.

Come and be encouraged by how much can be done to change life for vulnerable teens and youth. Learn from Stella how to implement the Good Schools Toolkit — an evidence-based, total-school transformation program in Uganda that is being replicated in many countries. Be inspired by Paola, who leads an innovative effort in Argentina to support teens and young women with vulnerable pregnancies. And hear how Tamara works innovatively to help bring healing and hope to displaced teens and their families in Poland.

When caregivers are equipped with self-care and emotional regulation skills, they are better able to find hope for their own well-being so that they can also support children. This session will introduce the 12 evidence-based Hope Group sessions being used to support Ukrainians and others impacted by war. The Hope Group program improves the mental health of parents in crisis, increases positive parenting, and reduces physical and emotional abuse. This session will be hosted by the original developers and evaluators of the program. Research has documented the power of Hope Groups in changing lives for children and their parents and caregivers.

This session will cover church-based models for responding to crises in our midst and meeting the basic, immediate and mental health needs of families and children in crisis. From the RECIPE for caring for orphans and people living with HIV/AIDS in Zambia, to Bible-based resources to guide the church’s help in times of crisis, to the art of survival during the pandemic in Kenya, we will learn what is possible with Christ's hope and love!

This session will show how to apply the Collective Impact Model — a tool that helps to equip national leaders to collaborate in solving their country’s orphan and vulnerable children crisis, — along with practical examples and case studies from our WWO partners who are using it. Build your skills to use this model at this session.

Do you want meaningful and effective interactions with partners? The key to effective partnership building is collaboration! The journey of collaboration starts at initial contact and develops through the relationship-building process. This session will enable you not only to understand collaboration, but also to know how to build a collaborative WWO vision with partners.

In this session, we will celebrate our God who revealed himself as our healer and look at promises He made to heal us. We will investigate what we can do to support our emotional and physical health practically, and we will then have a time of prayer and ministry together, trusting God for healing.

This session will explore practical and proven approaches for leaders who desire to lead and support their teams in the everyday principles and practices that promote a healthy and sustainable spiritual, emotional and physical life. Such practices are essential to enable us to “go the distance,” even in the most challenging of circumstances. From building friendships to honest communication, and from physical rest to spiritual disciplines, this session will equip you to lead and serve your team better.