Show Hope launched its Empowered to Connect Conference in 2010 with the aim of equipping parents, caregivers, ministry leaders, and care professionals to better serve children impacted by adoption and foster care. Over the past 10 years, the conference has grown to include research-based tools to promote attachment and connection in families such as Trust-Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI®) methods developed by Dr. Karyn Purvis and Dr. David Cross from the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development at TCU. At its core, TBRI works to promote trust, attachment, and connection between caregivers and children by addressing physical and emotional needs while also disarming fear-based behaviors.

Over the years, Show Hope has had the opportunity to hear from parents, ministry leaders, and professionals on the ever-changing, complex needs they face in serving children who have been impacted by early loss and trauma. Show Hope staff members also hold rich knowledge and experience with TBRI, and we continue to learn about new research, resources, and tools that align in scope with the concepts of connection, belonging, and security. And so, with this assessment of our Empowered to Connect Conference, we have also continued to return to our mission and see with fresh eyes that Show Hope does, in fact, stand in a unique place of resourcing the Church to serve families.

With these markers in place, guided by the vision set forth by Show Hope Founders, Mary Beth and Steven Curtis Chapman, the Hope for the Journey Conference will continue to build upon attachment-based knowledge and experience and introduce robust resources and share practical experiences of successes and failures of day-to-day parenting and caregiving. It is Show Hope’s aim that parents and caregivers will leave encouraged as they continue to journey well with their children.

The 2021 Hope for the Journey Conference—a one-day event—will be available for broadcast on Friday, April 9, as well as rebroadcast through May 31, 2021. Parents, caregivers, ministry leaders, and professionals will have access to these practical tools that help bring hope and healing to children who have experienced early childhood trauma.

Priced low, this simulcast event is an opportunity to provide support to families and communities that may lack the experience, expertise, or answers needed for those in desperate need of help and guidance. Contact your church staff today and tell them you’d like to host a simulcast at your church.

The Hope for the Journey Conference will premiere Friday, April 9, beginning at 8 a.m. CST.

As we watch COVID-19 continue to impact our daily lives, we know families need options for how they consume information and education. While we are hopeful for a return to gatherings within churches and different event locations, we remain realistic that this may not be feasible in the early months of 2021.

With that, we have developed a new pricing structure based on the needs and comfort levels for Hope for the Journey hosts and participants. We are happy to now offer both an Individual/Household Viewing Option as well as a Church/Organization Viewing Option for the new conference.

To learn more about these viewing options, please click here for downloadable PDF with comparable pricing structure and elements included with each option.

Show Hope’s Hope for the Journey Conference will premiere on Friday, April 9, with a rebroadcast through May 31 and includes the Trust-Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI®) model for caring well for children impacted by adoption and foster care. The conference also remains low-cost plus high-impact as Show Hope works to resource churches, agencies, and other organizations as they support and equip the families, caregivers, and the communities they serve.

While the Empowered to Connect Conference has historically been a two-day event, the Hope for the Journey Conference will move to one day, making the event more accessible to families and everyday caregivers. With a renewed focus on parents and caregivers, the conference will intentionally highlight everyday, practical help where hosts can choose how to best utilize modular sessions. The event could also be consumed in one day or shared over multiple training sessions or weeks.

Along with the structural changes, the Hope for the Journey Conference will include a brand-new learning module—TBRI and the Gospel—and will also highlight adult adoptee voices and experiences, offering parents and caregivers greater insight to the often complex needs of children impacted by adoption or foster care.

Post conference, Show Hope plans to provide practical application guides with thoughts, questions, and reflections as well as action steps and activities. These guides will reinforce concepts and teachings shared during the conference along with practical ideas for incorporating conference insights into the day-to-day. The aim is to further educate and encourage families impacted by adoption and foster care as they seek to provide hope and healing to the children entrusted to them.

Structurally (outlined below), the Hope for the Journey Conference will include five high-level learning modules based on the foundational principles of TBRI along with a new teaching component, The Gospel + TBRI. Embedded within each learning module will be a “Going Deeper” teaching video on a select topic, and also included will be two practical, encouraging “Practical Perspectives” videos featuring the voices of adult adoptees as well as adoptive and foster families. 

• Learning Module 1: An Introduction to Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI)
  • “Going Deeper” topic to include the importance of understanding ACES. 
• Learning Module 2: Connecting Principles
  • “Going Deeper” topic to explore biological and adoptive sibling dynamics.
•  Learning Module 3: Empowering Principles
  • “Going Deeper” topic to unpack the need to acknowledge one’s own limitations and implement self-care strategies as a care provider. 
• Learning Module 4: Correcting Principles
  • “Going Deeper” topic to feature a discussion of the challenges to and importance of finding rhythms to promote unity as parents during the day-to-day. 
• Learning Modules 5: TBRI and the Gospel 
  • “Going Deeper” topic to discuss the relational nature of God and the incarnation of Jesus as foundational cornerstones informing the efficacy of TBRI.

Show Hope is a faith-based organization and evidence of that faith will naturally be part of the Hope for the Journey Conference (as it was with the Empowered to Connect Conference). In an effort to further engage the Church in elevating trauma-competency, Show Hope will introduce a new supplemental module and additional resources to explore the gospel as foundational to TBRI.

It is Show Hope’s desire that the conference serves as a resource for the churches and organizations that host, allowing them to further open their doors and build relationships with families impacted by adoption and foster care in their communities.

Moving to a modular format gives hosts the flexibility to make decisions about which portions of the conference are most helpful in their context.

Hosts will have access to certificates of completion for adoptive and foster families to submit to their respective agencies.

Unlike previous years, professional continuing education will not be offered through Show Hope, but hosts will be able to submit information for approval with local or state accreditation organizations.