Show Hope and Empowered To Connect are partnering to present the Empowered To Connect Conference on September 10 & 11, 2010, in Nashville, Tennessee. This two day conference will feature two tracks with sessions and workshops led by Dr. Karyn Purvis and Michael & Amy Monroe. All participants are highly encouraged to attend sessions on both days, and professionals will be eligible to receive CEU credit for their participation in the conference.
The Institute of Child Development has an all new website at www.child.tcu.edu. The new site includes new resources as well as a new video series for parents. You can also purchase DVDs produced by the Institute covering a wide range of topics relevant for parents and professionals.
As part of our ongoing Common Questions & Concerns series, we address behavior and discipline issues that many children from hard places often encounter at school:
Question: My child is struggling in the classroom and is being sent to the principal’s office on a regular basis. He refuses to do some of the art class activities, has melt-downs in music class and withdraws during some class activities. To make things worse, standing in the school lunch line today he punched a child in the stomach and was sent to the prinicipal’s office to sit for the rest of the afternoon (nearly 3 hours!). What can I do?
When complete the Healing Families Series will include nine professionally produced educational DVDs enabling professionals, families and caregivers to develop skills in dealing with children from hard places. This DVD series will address basic elements of the Institute’s work and include topics such as Sensory Integration, Facilitating Behavioral Change, Parent-Child Attachment and Nutritional Neuroscience.
Tapestry, the adoption and foster care ministry at Irving Bible Church, will host its annual adoption and foster care conference on October 24, 2009, in Irving, Texas. As in past years, the conference will include a great line-up of practical breakout sessions that are highly relevant to adoptive and foster parents. This year’s conference sessions include topics such as the practical benefits of play, sensory processing issues, talking with children about the difficult realities of adoption and foster care as well as two sessions focused on older child adoption – just to name a few.
Each of us in our respective work and ministries receive many questions from parents and parents-to-be. These questions deal with a wide range of topics and issues, such as fear, behavioral challenges, discipline, attachment, communication, lying, sensory processing, sleep habits – and the list goes on and on. While each situation has its own unique aspects, there are some fairly common questions and concerns that adoptive and foster parents ask.
In order to help these parents find some of the answers they need, we are launching a series called Common Questions and Concerns. Over time we will address various questions and concerns that parents are raising, and offer practical and proven advice to help parents respond in ways that build and strengthen the connections with their children.
Our first post in the Common Questions & Concerns series deals with the issue of fear, and how parents can help their children overcome their fears:
Dr. Karyn Purvis has been engaged in her work with adoptive and foster families for over ten years. But many people would be interested to learn that her passion for helping and serving at-risk children began early in her life and is deeply rooted in her personal faith.
Empowered to Connect recently asked Dr. Purvis questions on a range of topics including her work, her faith and her own personal experience in caring for children in need. Here’s what she had to say.
You may be wondering – what is Empowered to Connect? Simply put, it is our way of bringing you a wide variety of tools and resources that we believe will help you create and strengthen healthy connections with your children. It is also our hope that church-based adoption, foster care and orphan care ministries, as well as others who are committed to serving children and strengthening families, will find these tools and resources particularly helpful as they do the work they have been called to.