RE: Conference Wrap Up
Nationwide, nearly a half-million children live in foster care each year. The average amount of time they spend in foster care is 13 months. Foster families face a high-rate of burnout and while exact numbers are unknown, about half of all Kansas foster families drop out of the system.
Foster families face incredible challenges and often feel alone in their efforts to care for children in crisis. Recognizing the very real need for encouragement, connection and support, the RE: (REAL ENCOURAGEMENT) Conference was founded in 2018 through a collaboration of churches, organizations, and individuals.
Typically held in person over the course of a weekend, the conference offers connection, enrichment, and equips parents with the support they need to move forward. While the 2020 conference finished up just as the world was beginning to shut down, a new challenge arose for the following year as it looked less and less likely that RE: Conference could happen again in person due to the pandemic. RE: Conference wasn’t alone. Several other conferences around the country faced with the difficult decision to cancel their 2021 conferences. However, RE: Conference found another way… a way that reached and impacted more families than planners ever could have imagined!
“We were faced with a choice - to take a year off, or to try something new,” said RE: Conference Director Jen Decker. “We knew these parents needed support this year more than ever so it was NOT the year to back off or pass, but it felt like a risk.”
RE: Conference administrators decided to take the entire program online. Instead of being offered over one weekend, this year, RE: Conference attendees would receive new content and zoom breakout group opportunities each week over the course of a month. This new schedule would allow them to get all the equipping support they needed. Planners decided to leave the content up for a total of two months, allowing parents to watch and interact with it on their own schedule.
The plan seemed good, but what happened next could only be described as a “God-moment”.
“God gave us a verse: John 16:33 ‘…in this world you will have trouble but TAKE HEART I have overcome the world’,” Decker said.
This year, the number of states represented in conference attendees doubled from eighteen to thirty-seven. But growth didn’t stop there! International attendees logged in from Thailand, China, Australia, Canada, and Puerto Rico!
“We got an email about this [RE: Conference] from the Mississippi Foster Care Alliance and of course we jumped on it when we saw that it wasn’t just a place to receive CEU’s - but also a Christian conference,” said Amanda, a foster mom in Mississippi. “To be honest our cup is running dry…there are times where I just want to toss in the towel and give up. I needed this conference to help get my focus back on the mission He has called us to. To know that I am not alone… I feel prepared for the next chapter and can’t wait to keep watching and learning!”
“We are overjoyed with the response because we know there are parents who didn’t quit because of the REAL ENCOURAGEMENT they have received,” Decker said.
Another celebration of this year’s conference is the high number of scholarships provided through other churches to ensure foster parents who wanted to attend had the resource to do so. In fact, about one-third of the conference attendees received scholarships.
Another special element of the annual conference is the “NO WAY moments”. “NO WAY moments” are surprise blessings families receive throughout the conference. In the past, it might be a gift card tucked into a boxed lunch or a surprise left on a car. With the virtual nature of this year’s conference, leaders had to get a little more creative with gifts. Because of generous conference sponsors, the conference is on pace to give away more than $15,000 in gifts to attendees. Some of the surprises have shown up in the form of coffee-themed gift boxes, pizza delivery, gift cards, baskets filled with all kinds of goodies, bicycles, technology, flowers, and even financial help to finish or furnish a room for children in their care.
“It is unbelievably encouraging to know YOU ARE NOT ALONE,” said Jeremy, a foster parent in Fontana, Kansas. “It was a wonderfully helpful feeling of encouragement to have someone come alongside me and put an arm around me and say, ‘I feel your pain, I’m right there with you.’”