News & Updates

Upcoming Conferences

Webinars and Podcasts

Journeys of Faith: Guiding Principles for Church Global Orphan Care Partnerships [Listen and Watch Here]

Food for the Hungry Poverty Unlocked Podcast Series Interviews Faith to Action Initiative Coordinator, Amanda Cox

Best Practices in Orphan Care [Listen Here]

News

New member organization, Food for the Hungry, is also partnered with the Million Moms Challenge. Hands Across the World: One Church's Effort to Save Lives and Families describes Food for the Hungry's church partnership supporting children in Ethiopia. This story is currently a feature on the Million Moms Challenge homepage!

Learn more about ABC News' Million Moms Challenge...

The JLICA website is an excellent resource for anyone interested in working with children affected by HIV/AIDS. JLICA members include policy-makers, researchers, community-members, and people living with HIV/AIDS. This group has worked for the past 3 years to provide an independent and collaborative analysis of what is working for children and what needs to change.

Willow Creek Community Church, pastured by Bill Hybels in suburban Chicago, has been doing outreach in Angola, Zambia, Malawi and South Africa for several years. Their Global Connections projects bypass NGOs to work directly with small local churches already using their own resources and expertise. This Christianity Today article highlights Willow Creek's "nearly invisible" role in these partnerships and the importance that Willow places on strengthening the church and community to care for children and their families.

Archives

Over 750 people will gathered together at Redemption Church to explore the theme Missional Living, the Gospel and Orphan Care. The Faith to Action Initiative hosted an exhibit and presented the following workshops: Poverty and the AIDS Crisis: Responding to the needs of orphans and vulnerable children in Africa and The Power of Partnership: How to effectively engage the local church to provide orphan care in Africa (and beyond)

Summit Recordings Available Here!

Over 1,500 people from 46 states and 7 countries came together to explore themes of adoption, church missions, orphan care, HIV/AIDS, advocacy and the arts, economic development and leadership. The Faith to Action Initiative cohosted a booth with member organization, Visionledd, and launched a new orphan care ministry tool, Journeys of Faith, in the following workshops: The Power of Partnership: Engaging the Local Church to Provide Orphan Care in Africa and Beyond and Journeys of Faith: U.S. Churches and Their African Partners Share Inspirational Orphan Care Stories and Lessons Learned about Partnership.

The Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit brings together more than 1,000 leaders, advocates, pastors, and ministry entrepreneurs each year to share a passion for orphan care ministry. The Summit promotes best practice in orphan care and church-church partnership by providing inspirational and educational breakout and plenary sessions lead by leaders in the field of orphan care. More than fifty workshops are available on a wide variety of topics including domestic foster care, international adoption and global orphan care. This is an unparalleled opportunity to build networks for your church or organization.

Members of the Faith to Action Initiative will lead the following breakout sessions:

• Understanding Childhood Development of Overseas Orphans, lead by Jon Singletary
• Church-based Orphan Ministry 201, lead by Mike Douris
• Best Practice of Church-Church Orphan Care Partnerships, lead by Amanda Cox and Karl Mueller

The Better Care Network, in partnership with eight other organizations, is helping to organize this upcoming event. The conference theme is "Promoting Family Based Care for Children in Africa" and participants will take part in both plenary and workshop sessions designed for an international audience. Objectives include, but are not limited to, improving knowledge on family-based care for children through information and experience sharing, exploring the move from institutional to family-based care, and standards and the role of monitoring in family-based care. Conference participants will come from children's institutions, the UN, faith-based organizations, NGOs, government institutions and more. If you are an orphan care ministry working with children in Africa we encourage you to attend. More information can be found on the ANPPCAN website.

More than 750 individuals representing orphan-serving organizations and churches gathered in Dallas, TX for the Christian Alliance for Orphan's Summit V on April 30 and May 1, 2009.

The annual Summit is designed to galvanize and equip churches, organizations and lay leaders for effective and God-honoring service to the orphan. Adoption, orphan care and foster youth efforts all shared central focus.

More than fifty training sessions covered mechanics of starting church-based orphan ministries, creating adoption support funds, building regional networks or international church-to-church models, and much more.

Elizabeth Styffe, Director of Orphan Care Initiative at Saddleback Church, delivered a moving plenary speech calling for best practice in faith-based orphan care and a stronger focus on providing individual connection and family permanency for every child.

Close to 1200 people attended the Sojourner's Mobilization to End Poverty event in Washington, DC. 60 speakers and 15 workshops provided participants with information on social justice, global poverty, and political activism. World Vision distributed From Faith to Action along with materials on sponsorship and helped to educate participants on the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa through the assembly of 750 caregiver kits.

Join members of the Faith to Action Initiative, along with Lynne Hybels, for a 3-part workshop series on orphan care. Topics covered will include the HIV/AIDS pandemic and its affect on children in Sub-Saharan Africa, the African church response to the orphan crisis, and how U.S. churches are partnering with African communities to provide family-based care for orphans and vulnerable children.