If you plan to attend this weekend’s Group Kidmin children’s ministry extravaganza in Chicago, make a point of connecting with Katie Wetherbee and Harmony Hensley from our Key Ministry team.

Katie will be presenting a “Half-Track” session at the Group KidMin Conference, to be held in Chicago September 28-October 1. “Half-Tracks” are composed of two, two-hour sessions for a total of four hours focused on learning, discussion and application. Katie’s half-track will be Special Needs-A Church For Every Child, and is scheduled for Saturday the 29th. Her morning session is Understanding Special Needs, while in the afternoon she’ll cover Strategies For Including Families With Special Needs. Here’s the summary of Katie’s “Half-Track” session:

Families affected by special needs are significantly less likely to attend church on a regular basis. This half-track will help you turn that around. Discover how common disabilities affect faith development and cause obstacles for church attendance. Delve into family dynamics and discuss ways to communicate effectively with parents of children with special needs. Practice easy-to-implement strategies for welcoming and teaching kids with special needs; behavior management, classroom culture and modifying curriculum.

Harmony will be attending the conference and available for networking. Both of them would be delighted to help you in answering any questions you may have about ministry to kids with disabilities and their families. If you’re going to be at the conference, make a point of connecting with them. We have lots of great resources to share, but the resource we most want to share with our ministry colleagues is relationship.

For those who’ve never had the opportunity to see Katie present, here’s an interview she did for last year’s Inclusion Fusion on the topic of Advocating For Your Child at Church.

Inclusion Fusion, Key Ministry’s second annual Special Needs Ministry Web Summit is made available FREE OF CHARGE to pastors, church staff, volunteers and families everywhere from November 12th-16th, 2012. For an up to date list of speakers, topics, links to speaker blogs and a link for free registration, click here.