Faith Community Organizing
Children’s Defense Fund’s faith community organizing programming aims to bolster people of faith in building power for children, youth, and families.
Current programming includes CDF’s beloved Hall-Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry, the annual Children’s Sabbaths® Celebration, Practicing Resurrection: Communal Transformation from the Inside Out, and Welcome Home: Young Adults Shaping Holistic Houses of Worship. Together, we work to nurture the pipeline of public theologians committed to contextually grounded theologies of child well-being.
As pillars of support, faith leaders have the power to inspire change. Discover resources that align with your mission, whether you’re addressing child and youth poverty, racial equality, or educational disparities. Explore ready-made materials to engage your congregation and spark meaningful discussions that drive positive action.
Mobilizing Opportunities
Children’s Sabbaths® Weekend
Children’s Sabbaths weekend engages places of worship across the country in focusing prayers, worship, education programs, and action on learning more about the urgent problems facing our nation’s children and youth.
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Hall-Proctor Institute
Hosted annually on the sacred grounds of Alex Haley Farm in Clinton, TN, the Hall-Proctor Institute refreshes and renews faith leaders to continue the necessary, hopeful, sacred work of pursuing justice for children and ending child poverty.
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A Little Child Shall Lead Them: Mobilizing Faith for Prenatal-to-Three Development
A Little Child Shall Lead Them helps faith communities deepen their understanding of early childhood issues and the role they can play in improving outcomes for children and families.
Cohort Programs
Practicing Resurrection: Communal Transformation from the Inside Out
Congregations need to connect deeply and authentically with the problems they see around them, and use their faith as a guide for creating a more just world and uniting in partnership beyond traditional boundaries like age, race, wealth, and geography. Together, 11 congregations embark on a journey to identify what's preventing them from thriving, identify the gifts they bring, expand their skills and capacities, and begin the difficult process of transformation from the inside out.
Welcome Home: Young Adults Shaping Holistic Houses of Worship
Welcome Home builds on our legacy of uplifting Black and Brown children and youth within the church by supporting congregations in becoming holistic houses of worship, welcoming in both invitation and practice to young adults. Congregations receive a curriculum created and taught by young adults and a framework for developing, launching, and evaluating programming. Participating congregations receive a $30,000 grant.
Theological Formation
Partnership with Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary
The CDF-Garrett Joint Partnership on Theologies of Child Well-being supports a movement toward theologies of child well-being that create the conditions for young people to thrive. Through this partnership, current Garrett students and alums pursue advanced graduate-level degrees and continue their theological education with a focus on child well-being; receive fellowship support and place-based learning at area CDF Freedom Schools® sites; and benefit from the emerging scholarship at the intersection of theological education and child well-being.
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