Great Lakes District Conference

Denny Wilson
Founding Pastor, Warsaw Community Church, Board Member Fellowship Missions, Warsaw, IN 

Tuesday, September 12

3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Registration - Magnolia Room

4:00 p.m. - 5:15 p.m.

Seminar 1

• Volunteering - Matt Furrow – Volunteer Coordinator, Kalamazoo
• Lilac Room
  
• De-escalation - Pastor John Simpson, COO, Kalamazoo
• Magnolia Room
  
• Helping Home Happen – Sharmin Hegenauer, Saginaw, Impact Designs Coordinator. This solution-oriented session focuses on reducing the number of guests returning to the mission once housed. Our program, Impact Designs, begins in shelter with life skills classes, etc. and then utilizes material goods donations and volunteers to attractively and efficiently furnish their rental situation. Each guest receives a unique design with their needs and desires in mind. An empty apartment is transformed into a Home. Then we do a big reveal!
• Wisteria Room
  
• Development – MDM
• Empress Room
  

5:30 p.m.

Dinner - Magnolia Room
Denny Wilson, Pastor Warsaw Community Church, Board Member Fellowship Missions, Warsaw, IN

Wednesday, September 13

7:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

8:45 a.m.- 9:00 a.m.

Breakfast

Devotions, Eric Lane - Magnolia Room

9:00 am

Free Time

12:30 p.m.

Lunch - Magnolia Room

1:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.

Seminar 2

• Development Seminar - Lilac Room
• Breaking the Cycle Through Supportive Parenting – Jill Bair, Saginaw Director of Education and Operations and Becky Miller, Education Coordinator
• Magnolia Room
  
• Developing a Supportive Parenting Program with the goal of showing parents how to nurture their children in an empathetic way, as a new lifestyle, is important to serving the homeless population. Although leading parents in stopping the cycle of generational addiction, abuse, and neglect can be tough, our goal to meet parents where they are, and offer the support they need during the challenging years of parenting, leads them toward a more positive and balanced family unit.
• Distracted Driving at Your Ministry – and What to do
• About It
• – Gallagher and Great American Insurance 
• The most frequent and expensive cause of  
• accidents/insurance claims at Citygate Network ministries is from car accidents. A loss control professional from Great American Insurance will take us through a Distracted Driving Seminar that could be replicated at your ministry. We will also discuss what it looks like to properly screen, train, and monitor those who drive for your ministry.
• Wisteria Room
  

3:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.

Seminar 3

• It's All In the Design: Creating Trauma-Informed Shelters – Warsaw
• Lilac Room
  
• Join us and learn the principles of trauma informed design and how our built spaces can help, harm or be a benign influence on a person’s mood, perceptions, and how they see the world, others and their own self. We will also discuss ways we can use trauma informed design to create spaces in our current or future facilities.
• Volunteering – Lori Taylor-Esposito, Joliet
• Magnolia Room
  
• Understanding Sexual Abuse and How to Respond
• – Gallagher and Great American Insurance

• Given the abuse that has surfaced in the Catholic church, Boy Scouts, USA Gymnastics, and other organizations, preventing sexual abuse has become a key topic in the human service industry.

• Wisteria Room
  

6:00 p.m.

Dinner - Pastor Denny Wilson
Magnolia Room

Thursday, September 14

7:00 a.m.- 10:00 a.m.

8:45 a.m.

Breakfast

Devotions - Eric Lane - Magnolia Room

9:15 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

Seminar 4

• Personal Development Plans for Staff Growth – Dick McMillian, City Vision University
• Lilac Room
  
• Rebranding - Lynn Russcher – VP of Advancement, Kalamazoo
• Wisteria Room
  
• Sustainable Food Service – Barb Streeter, Culinary Director, Saginaw
• Magnolia Room
  
• It can be a struggle to maintain a well-equipped and nutritionally balanced food service program when the labor pool is so shallow. But food service can be a particularly strong therapeutic outlet for work ready program clients. Learn creative ways to maintain quality meals while helping clients gain skills and providing volunteers opportunities to serve.
• Trauma-Informed Care 101 – Warsaw
• Empress Room
  
• Come together to talk about the basics of trauma informed care for those we serve and our staff. This will be a great time of sharing and learning new ways to work with individuals who have experienced trauma in their lives.

10:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.

Break

10:45 a.m.

Pastor Denny Wilson - Magnolia Room

11:30 a.m.

So long, Farewell, Goodbye...