Conference 2023 Breakout Sessions
Conference 2023
Breakout Sessions
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MONDAY - Session 1 (8:30 am)
Seeking Balance Between the Urgent and Important
Allison Langford, ABL Wise Consulting
Most of us are quite adept at being busy! Our list of tasks is often longer than the time we have each day, so prioritizing items and maximizing efficiency is important for our well-being. In this session, we will explore a time management process that seeks to balance a short-term and long-term view, while helping you achieve urgent and important (and not so important!) tasks.
Learning Objectives:
Attendees will understand and differentiate between the urgency and importance when prioritizing tasks. Attendees will also learn a simple organizational system for time-management that provides a balanced approach for achieving both short-term and long-term goals.
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel, Volunteers, Development/Marketing Staff
Client Texting, Text-Based Relationships
Brandon Monahan, Heritage House ’76
Reaching clients in the moment of decision has become more important than ever; and client texting has created that opportunity. Learn to use texting procedures that keep professional procedures, emphasize relationships and truly reach clients where they live…on their phones.
Learning Objectives:
- Learn HIPAA requirements on SMS texting
- Learn best practices to keep texting professional and medically accurate
- Learn methods of creating relationships to decrease client no-shows
Audience:
Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel
Improve ALL Your Messaging: Speaking, Meeting, Writing and Fundraising with Purpose
Keith Ferrin, Keith Ferrin Ministries
Communicating with clarity and simplicity will help increase your effectiveness, efficiency, and your donor relations! In this session we will look at a simple, 4-step system for thinking through any message. It will make every meeting better. It will increase the reading – and responding – to your email. It will improve every donor letter and help you raise more at your banquet. This is the same system Keith developed – and has taught for 15 years – to executives, sales people, entrepreneurs, authors, pastors, and business leaders. The beauty is – it’s simple. After all “Simple gets applied. Complicated gets set aside.”
Learning Objectives:
The 4-step system for improving all written and spoken communication.
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel, Volunteers, Development/Marketing Staff
Marketing to the Red & Blue States: Reaching the Abortion-minded in this ever-changing climate of the abortion pill & abortion tourism.
Emily Schmeidler, Choose Life Marketing
With the reversal of Roe everything changed and continues to change. We will discuss new marketing techniques, responding to abortion tourism and the abortion pill, effective public relations and the power of collaboration to better help you reach HER – the abortion-determined woman caught in the middle.
Learning Objectives:
- Learn how to adjust your marketing strategies to reach abortion-minded women in this ever-changing landscape of abortion tourism
- Learn new tactics to combat the competition of the abortion pill providers
- Discover how to respond to media inquiries and understand the impact of legislative change while communicating your mission to your community at large
- Discuss ideas for collaboration for greater impact
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel, Development/Marketing Staff
Healthy Helping: How to Ensure You're Giving from a Full Cup
Ivy Almon, Support After Abortion
Have you ever struggled with a client interaction? Has a client’s story triggered a painful part of your own past? Have you felt so tired and drained that you couldn’t give another minute of yourself to one more person? It is so important, if we are going to help people, that we fill our cup and unload our own baggage. Take a deep dive into your own healing. We’ll address why we serve and whether we are giving from an empty or full cup. We’ll talk about signs and consequences of pouring from an empty cup and filling your cup through self-care in body, soul, mind, and spirit. We’ll look at how the baggage we bring into our interactions impacts our conversations and the effectiveness of client care, how to identify what’s in our baggage, how it distracts, setting healthy boundaries, and unloading our baggage. We will also discuss collaborating, transformation, finding purpose in your pain, and how healing happens. We’ll present a self-assessment tool for helping ourselves become healthier helpers, and we’ll practice applying the tool by working through scenarios together. Workshop will include discussion and Q&A. Enhance your effectiveness in helping your clients by taking the time to care for yourself and your own personal growth.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify the why behind our what
- Unveil places and spaces where we are not serving from our best selves, learn how to unpack our baggage so we can be healthy, and find purpose in our own path
- Identify the consequences of skipping self-care and not pouring from a full cup
- Apply training in order to be a healthy helper, set boundaries, and empower clients to be the heroes of their own stories
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel, Volunteers, Development/Marketing Staff
Chemical Abortion in 2023
Teresa Tholany, Heartbeat International
Since the Dobbs decision, abortion continues to change quickly. The location of an abortion is now wherever the women is and often that is not at a medical clinic despite the increased danger of the abortion pill. Women self-manage and complete their abortions in their bedrooms, bathrooms, dorm rooms, and workplaces and are often alone during the process. This workshop will explain the current state of chemical abortion and equip you to help women who have chosen the abortion pill to end a pregnancy.
Learning Objectives:
State the process of a chemical abortion
Discuss history of chemical abortion
Discuss current changes to chemical abortion
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel, Volunteers
Monday, 8:30 Practice Scans
Sharlette Anderson, MHS, RDMS, RVT, RDCS
Audience:
Medical Personnel
MONDAY - Session 2 (10:10 am)
Ethical Implications for Case Management
Matt Loehr, St Mary’s Home for Mothers
As case managers working with Moms the importance of building rapport and connection are emphasized. How we can best assess our own selves in relation to our clients is addressed. Consideration of own values is emphasized.
Learning Objectives:
Reflect upon your own values in a case example. Review research done by the presenter on effective case management. What makes for best outcomes? State directly how you can engage Moms in their work.
Audience:
Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Volunteers
The Church-Pregnancy Center Connection
Carol Fouse/Bob Hershey, Love Life Ministries/CareNet
This workshop will focus on the kingdom perspective of building bridges between pregnancy centers and churches. This workshop will describe the ministry of a Life Team in a church and Care Net’s Making Life Disciples program and how the two complement each other in serving women in the community.
Learning Objectives:
- Learn how to create a culture of life in and around the church through a Life Team ministry.
- Learn how a Life Team can foster a partnership with the pregnancy center to deepen ministry with women who choose life using the Care Net’s Making Life Disciples program.
-The presenters will share specific information from two different perspectives showing participants how these two programs enhance one another.
-Each participant will be provided with a Life Team Basics manual which can be used as a resource in helping a church start a Life Team and a Making Life Disciples book with access to video training.
-Participants will have an opportunity to ask questions and problem-solve situations with churches in their community.
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Volunteers, Development/Marketing Staff
How to Rejuvenate YOUR Bible Reading
Keith Ferrin, Keith Ferrin Ministries
We all know we “should” read the Bible consistently. But how do we turn the “should” into “want?” That’s exactly what we’re going to explore. We’ll look at both “mindset” and “process” for reading, studying, and ENJOYING God’s Word!
Learning Objectives:
The mindset you need to transform your Bible reading. The process for reading and studying the Bible that lines up how you read the Bible with how God has wired our brains to learn and remember what we read.
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel, Volunteers, Development/Marketing Staff
Discovering the Freedom That Comes with Talking about Sex to our Youth!
Lynae McFarland, Lifeline Pregnancy Help Clinic
God’s Word describes a life of freedom and being whole. What does it look like to open up and talk freely with our youth, our students, our children, our grandchildren about sex? Join us in talking about how we can give that freedom and wholeness to our youth.
Learning Objectives:
What is the purpose of sex
Discuss the content for sex
Why might teens decide to have sex?
Teen reasons for having sex
Love vs. Infatuation
What affects our relationships
How to set boundaries?
Steps of Physical Intimacy
Deciding vs. Sliding
Refusal Signs
It is NEVER too late to change
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel, Volunteers, Development/Marketing Staff
Why Talk to Men About Abortion Healing
Greg Mayo, Support After Abortion
1 in 5 men will experience abortion by age 45 according to the National Survey of Family Growth. Support After Abortion recently published research shows that more than two-thirds of men report suffering at least one adverse effect after their abortion experiences. Therapists advise that these effects rarely manifest as a presenting symptom, especially for men. Rather these emotional wounds can be underneath anger, relationship and trust issues, difficulty bonding with children, and even substance use, porn addiction, and other dysfunctions. Reproductive losses, especially abortion, are often disenfranchised grief – a loss that is not acknowledged or accepted by friends, family or society. For those whose lived experiences include abortion, the change that comes from transformative healing brings hope, freedom, and restored well-being. More than half of men impacted by abortion start looking for help, but 82% don’t know where to go. Talking about abortion healing openly and compassionately, and becoming equipped to help men heal, is essential to making a difference in the lives of men and families.
Learning Objectives
- Recognize that abortion is rooted in trauma and creates trauma.
- Explain the most recent consumer research on the impact of abortion on men.
- Implement tools to create a safe space for clients to share their abortion experiences and engage in abortion grief conversations with confidence and sensitivity to yield better outcomes and healing.
- Execute a plan to take back to their organization, church, or community to address clients’ abortion healing needs, including men.
Audience:
Client Services Staff/Volunteers
The Hope of Abortion Pill Reversal
Teresa Tholany, Heartbeat International
Abortion Pill Reversal is the protocol used to reverse the effects of the first abortion pill (mifepristone). This teaching will provide the tools and information to understand Abortion Pill Reversal, educate your clients about Abortion Pill Reversal, and become part of the Abortion Pill Rescue Network to effectively assist women who have started chemical abortion but are wanting to continue their pregnancies.
Learning Objectives
- State the process of abortion pill reversal
- Illustrate how PHO can assist women in need of the APR protocol
- Know where to refer clients in need of APR
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel, Volunteers
Monday, 10:10 am Practice Scans
Sharlette Anderson, MHS, RDMS, RVT, RDCS
Audience:
Medical Personnel
MONDAY - Session 3 (2:45 pm)
Using Social Work Principles in a Pregnancy Resource Setting
Regina Singleton & Amy Davis, Advice & Aid Pregnancy Center
Though having a social worker on staff is beneficial, many pregnancy resource centers do not have this option. Whether a center has a social worker or not, many principles of social work can be adapted to any PRC setting in order to improve outcomes for clients
.
Learning Objectives:
- Demonstrate understanding of social work principles
- List 3 ways to adapt these principles to the pregnancy resource environment
- Discuss how to measure client outcomes
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel
Small Centers, Big Impact
Bryce Asberg, Helping Hands PRC
Small centers are different from large centers. Much of the discussion in the PRC movement focuses on pregnancy centers with large budgets in large population areas, but policies and strategies that work with a budget of $500,000 do not translate to a budget of $100,000. Small centers can feel left out of the conversation, but they have an essential role to play in our movement. This session will bring needed guidance for small centers by helping to define success and sharing principles and practicals for making a big difference on a small budget.
Learning Objectives:
Key principles for defining success in a rural pregnancy center
Principles that guide small centers to effectively serve their community
Practical steps to increase small centers’ effectiveness
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers
3 Things You Can Be Doing to Reach Clients at Exactly the Right Time
Melanie Bowman, Stone Creek Consulting
Every business that wants to grow in any way recognizes the need for a solid marketing strategy. Your center has an even stronger incentive to increase your reach – your message literally saves lives! This session looks closely at three tried and proven tactics that have helped other centers get their life message in front of the right person at the right time.
Learning Objectives:
- Geo Fencing: When does it work and when does it not work
- Facebook/Instagram Ads & Boosts: Reaching a larger audience for a small price
- Google Ads: Higher price tag with the best way to reach exactly who you need to reach
Audience:
Executive Directors, Development/Marketing Staff
Why Me, Lord?
Wally Long, Tri-County Pregnancy Resource Center
Every person deals with trials and tribulations. It is inevitable. In the middle of our darkest times, we often wonder why this is happening or why God is allowing it to happen. Born from personal experience, Wally will share biblical answers for those asking “Why me?”
Learning Objectives:
To encourage those going through afflictions and hardships in life.
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel, Volunteers, Development/Marketing Staff
Building Better Teams: A Tool Kit for Constructing a Healthy Organization
Ruth Tisdale, Advice & Aid Pregnancy Center
From hiring to onboarding, performance management to handling difficult conversations, to encouraging and developing your team, this session will help you with practical tools as you lead and build a healthy organization.
Legal Issues for Pregnancy Centers
Angie Thomas, NIFLA
We will explore risk management strategies for the most common liabilities in pregnancy medical clinic management. Topics will include general issues such as policies and procedures, HIPAA, employment law, and religious foundations. In addition, we will cover the latest threats to pregnancy centers by covering security measures, media requests, and the FACE Act.
Learning Objectives
Staff will understand the areas which carry legal liabilities as well as how to manage the risk involved. We will cover ectopic pregnancies, HIPAA compliance, advertising best practices, employment issues, and more.
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel
Monday 2:45 pm Practice Scans
Sharlette Anderson, MHS, RDMS, RVT, RDCS
Audience:
Medical Personnel
Special Note about Session #4 on Monday at 4:10
Session #4 is a round-table discussion and does not require registration
TUESDAY - Session 1 (8:30 am)
Effectively Using Delegation as a Leader
Allison Langford, ABL Wise Consulting
Delegation can be a challenge for supervisors in an organization. Sometimes we see delegation as simply giving work to others (which can make us feel bad!), and delegating can feel like more work than just doing it yourself. In this session, we will explore the concept of “delegation as development” and how delegation can be beneficial to everyone with planning, collaboration, and communication.
Learning Objectives:
Attendees will understand and differentiate between effective and ineffective approaches to delegation. Attendees will learn how to develop and implement a delegation plan.
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors
Grounding Techniques
Chloe Wallen & Sister Doris Engeman, St. Mary’s Home for Mothers
Seeking Safety is an evidence-based treatment model for recovering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Substance Abuse. However, the model can also be used to help many populations. In this breakout session, we will go over the technique of “Grounding.” Grounding is similar to mindfulness or centering. It can be used by anyone – patient or treatment provider. In this session, we will learn specific techniques from the Seeking Safety manual that can be used by providers to deal with their emotional pain or can be used when working with a patient who is struggling to manage their emotions.
Learning Objectives:
- Be able to describe the Seeking Safety treatment model in general terms.
- Describe the difference between grounding and relaxation techniques.
- Describe three main types of grounding.
- Use at least two grounding techniques
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel, Volunteers, Development/Marketing Staff
Improve ALL Your Messaging: Speaking, Meeting, Writing and Fundraising with Purpose
Keith Ferrin, Keith Ferrin Ministries
Communicating with clarity and simplicity will help increase your effectiveness, efficiency, and your donor relations! In this session we will look at a simple, 4-step system for thinking through any message. It will make every meeting better. It will increase the reading – and responding – to your email. It will improve every donor letter and help you raise more at your banquet. This is the same system Keith developed – and has taught for 15 years – to executives, sales people, entrepreneurs, authors, pastors, and business leaders. The beauty is – it’s simple. After all “Simple gets applied. Complicated gets set aside.”
Learning Objectives:
The 4-step system for improving all written and spoken communication.
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel, Volunteers, Development/Marketing Staff
Out of the Box Fundraising
Lori DeVillez, Trotter House
We live in a “new day” which requires out of the box thinking and planning. With this new day comes new opportunities for us to thrive.
Learning Objectives:
To be creative in reaching our communities and watching God bring in the funding and resources we need to fulfill our mission in the LIFE mission field.
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Volunteers, Development/Marketing Staff
You Can't Pour From an Empty Cup
Shelley Knight, Faith Maternity Care
How do you feel at the end of the week? Everyone needs something from you, right? Clients, staff, board members, church teams, children, family, errands, social media, and on and on. As a leader in a pro-life industry, it’s important to face the truth. If we don’t find a way to fill our cup, we will have nothing to drink from or to share with those in need. Let’s discover some keys to filling up and pray for each other.
Learning Objectives:
- What is Compassion Fatigue and why should you care?
- Self-Care, who’s got time for that
- Setting up a support team that makes an impact in your day to day.
- How prayer coverage impacts your success.
- If your cup is chipped, it’s ok!
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel, Volunteers, Development/Marketing Staff
Life and Hope After Abortion Attempts
Melissa Ohden, The Abortion Survivors Network
Chemical abortions have dramatically increased the incidence of failed abortions. Women experiencing failed, stopped and reversed abortions need your support more than ever. Learn more about how to identify and support these women in the short and long term, and how The Abortion Survivors Network is here for them and for you.
Learning Objectives:
Learn about the frequency of failed abortions and their impact on women physically, emotionally, mentally, socially. Learn about the impact of families. Learn about the high risk these women are for repeat abortions in that pregnancy, and how to best support her to prevent further trauma for her and the surviving baby. Learn how to assess, address and reduce stress. Learn steps you can take currently to identify these women coming in to your center, support them, and look ahead to long term research, model of care and take aways The Abortion Survivors Network will be providing to pregnancy centers. Learn about the support groups ASN offers that you can refer your clients to.
Audience:
Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel, Volunteers
Abortion Pill Reversal An Unwelcome Choice?
Rebekah Hagan, Vitae Foundation
Vitae Foundation’s abortion pill study revealed that hardly any respondents had even heard of abortion pill reversal. Even after they learned of it, many rejected the idea of another choice. Find out why from the first successful abortion pill reversal client in the U.S., Becky Hagan.
Learning Objectives:
After this breakout, participants will be able to more effectively communicate about abortion pill reversal with women by addressing common misconceptions about using Vitae’s research-backed strategies.
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Development/Marketing Staff
TUESDAY - Session 2 (10:10 am)
How to Engage with your Board
Angie Thomas, NIFLA
We will cover what a healthy relationship between Board and ED/CEO looks like, exploring everything from Board recruitment to onboarding to empowering board members to engage in fundraising and strategic planning. OPTIONAL: Have a few excellent local Board member join for a panel discussion.)
Learning Objectives
Participants will learn about the importance of good Board governance by understanding Board fundamentals including fiduciary duties and proper roles. We will explore the legal liabilities specific to the work of pregnancy medical clinics which will help centers with risk management. Participants will walk away with a list of important annual tasks for Boards.
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors
Wanted: Fathers
Michael Zaretzky, The Pregnancy Help Center South County
There is a difference between being needed and wanted. This workshop is designed to give practical guidance to building and growing a fatherhood program. It also seeks to give real insight to creating a space where a father receives the compassion, hope, and help he needs, while discovering he is truly a wanted man.
Learning Objectives:
- The importance of establishing a program for fathers.
- Creating a space and finding male volunteers.
- Understanding the range of men that enter and why they are there.
- Gain insight into the conversations that happen between men.
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Volunteers, Development/Marketing Staff
Successfully Plan and Secure Matching Gifts
Ray Pokorny, Masterworks
he purpose of this workshop is to help center leaders plan and secure matching gift to help increase response and revenue in a broad range of programs including year end media campaigns, events and special projects.
Learning Objectives:
- The two types of matching gift programs: true match and the matching challenge.
- ECFA guidelines for implementing the different types of matching gift programs.
- How to plan and set a matching gift revenue objective that can be successfully fulfilled.
- How to identify and qualify donors to fund the match.
- How to engage and ask donors to fund a match
- Reporting requirements necessary to manage the program and report back to donors
Audience:
Executive Directors, Development/Marketing Staff
Leading With Boundaries
Ashley Graves, Five Stone Mentoring
As teams grow closer doing ministry work effective boundaries are needed to avoid burnout and unhealthy relationships. This session will speak to the importance of boundaries in leadership.
Learning Objectives:
- God was the creator of boundaries.
- What do boundaries look like in ministry?
- How do we honor God with clear boundaries?
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel, Volunteers
How to Rejuvenate YOUR Bible Reading
Keith Ferrin, Keith Ferrin Ministries
We all know we “should” read the Bible consistently. But how do we turn the “should” into “want?” That’s exactly what we’re going to explore. We’ll look at both “mindset” and “process” for reading, studying, and ENJOYING God’s Word!
Learning Objectives:
The mindset you need to transform your Bible reading. The process for reading and studying the Bible that lines up how you read the Bible with how God has wired our brains to learn and remember what we read.
Audience: Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel, Volunteers, Development/Marketing Staff
Life and Hope After Abortion Attempts
Melissa Ohden, The Abortion Survivors Network
Chemical abortions have dramatically increased the incidence of failed abortions. Women experiencing failed, stopped and reversed abortions need your support more than ever. Learn more about how to identify and support these women in the short and long term, and how The Abortion Survivors Network is here for them and for you.
Learning Objectives:
Learn about the frequency of failed abortions and their impact on women physically, emotionally, mentally, socially. Learn about the impact of families. Learn about the high risk these women are for repeat abortions in that pregnancy, and how to best support her to prevent further trauma for her and the surviving baby. Learn how to assess, address and reduce stress. Learn steps you can take currently to identify these women coming in to your center, support them, and look ahead to long term research, model of care and take aways The Abortion Survivors Network will be providing to pregnancy centers. Learn about the support groups ASN offers that you can refer your clients to.
Audience:
Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel, Volunteers
Ballot Initiatives and Abortion Tourism: Client Services in Light of Changing Landscape
Gillian Evans, Her PLAN
Pregnancy help organizations realize better than anyone else that a pregnant woman’s needs are many and multi-faceted. Missouri is leading the way in protecting life and serving women, but we face the threats of ballot initiatives, chemical abortion, and abortion tourism in the Midwest. This breakout will cover the policy and abortion landscape and provide resources and ideas for expanding care to further strengthen the pro-life safety net. We will highlight the seven needs an expectant mom encounters that make her feel pressured to abort her baby, and we will offer corresponding ways that pregnancy help organizations can expand services to meet these needs. At the end of this breakout, you will leave with a comprehensive understanding of the resources needed and the ways we can work together to achieve comprehensive care.
Learning Objectives:
- Attendees will receive an overview of the guiding principles, concerns, and response for the landscape of abortion in Missouri and the broader Midwest.
- Attendees will learn the different facets of comprehensive care for pregnant and parenting women and how they can expand services to meet more needs.
- Attendees will learn the “dozen aspects of access” that influence whether a woman receives the help she needs.
- Attendees will learn the seven pressure points that lead women to abortion and how they can respond.
- Attendees will learn models of care that they can consider adopting to expand their service offerings.
Audience:
Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Client Services Staff/Volunteers, Medical Personnel, Volunteers, Development/Marketing Staff