15 JUNE 2023 10 AM - 4:30 PM
AT ELIM COVENTRY CHURCH
We would love you and your teams to join us for Belong Conference!
‘Belong’ is an additional needs conference for children and youth workers serving in a church context.
It is important to know that you don’t need to be qualified to be inclusive. When we begin to recognise the needs of our children and the importance of inclusion, God will give us all we need to love, care, teach and create spaces for our children and young people to ‘Belong’.
Our Aim.
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To equip leaders to create spaces of inclusion in their church settings.
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To give a greater understanding of different additional needs.
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To provide teaching that can help leaders recognise and support children with additional needs
BELONG 2023 HIGHLIGHTS
CONFERENCE HOSTS
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Tiana currently works at Elim Coventry as administer and leads the Student and young adult ministry. Prior to this Tiana was Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at the recruitment marketing agency TapIn.
Tiana graduated from Warwick University with a first class in Sociology specialising in Race & Politics, having completed an award-winning Dissertation; and excitingly was named the #6 future leader for 2020!
Tiana has a real heart to see inclusion in all spaces and has been involved serving in our additional needs Ministry at Elim Coventry Church, supporting children and parents.
She loves cooking for friends and family, going to the gym, road trips, and exploring how technology can be used to creatively solve issues of inclusion.
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Emma is the founder of the Belong conference; works as the full-time children’s worker at Elim Coventry and leads the Elim Coventry additional needs ministryEmma has a level 3 diploma in Childcare and Education and a diploma in Popular Music and Worship; both of which have contributed to her years of working with children who have additional needs. Emma has a massive heart for inclusion, and her work is centred around ensuring that all children have equitable access to church life. She is passionate about seeing all kids encounter freedom in Jesus through worship.
She enjoys spending time with friends and family, watching movies, being creative, being by the sea and travelling to new places.
SPEAKERS
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JASON SHIELDS
KEY SPEAKERS
Jason is a researcher and trainer in race, social justice, and theology and is also a youth and community leader. Jason is interest in the link between neurodiversity and disproportionality of black boys in the criminal system and home educates their children.
Jason also leads a family play space called Philo with his wife Tasha. Philo is for children and families from the local community, or all needs.
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DR BEVERLEY SAMWAYS
KEY SPEAKER
Dr Beverley Samways is the founder-director of the social enterprise Unique Connections, which exists to improve the lives of individuals with learning disabilities who self-injure or are distressed. They work with schools and care organisations to find bespoke relational, trauma-informed and emotionally-literate ways forward with people who self-injure or are showing signs of distress.
All of Unique Connections’ work starts with supporting teams to find the unique point of connection with the individual they are supporting.
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YVONNE SANDZI
KEY SPEAKER
Yvonne is a Christian and a S.E.N teacher with experience in teaching and supporting students with Autism. She is passionate about engaging young people with autism through sensory play.
She is also passionate about making churches more accessible for young people with autism by developing resources for church workers and youth ministry leaders and also creating awareness of autism in the community and showing compassion and care for parents/ carers of children with S.E.N.
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DR PATRICIA BRITTO
KEY SPEAKER
Dr. Patricia Britto is a qualified Educational Psychologist and a mother with practical and research experience.
Her qualifications include a Doctorate in Professional Educational, Child and Adolescent Psychology from UCL, an MSc in Mental Health in Learning Disabilities and a BSc in Psychology.
Dr Patricia works Independently at the prestigious Harley Street and within Local Authorities Educational Psychology Services to promote children and young people’s learning and social, emotional and mental well-being across public and private institutions.
She empowers parents and professionals to utilise practical solution-focused strategies for mental health difficulties and other special educational, developmental and neurodiverse needs.
She hopes to support and inform government policies that would make a systemic change.
TESTIMONIES
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Testimonies are powerful to hear, as they give us hope that if God has done it once, he will do it again! At Belong we love to share testimonies and pray that those hearing will be blessed and stirred by what they hear. Belong 2024 Testimonies TBC
SESSION TITLES
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Radical inclusivity calls us to move away from ideas of inclusion that are optional, discretionary and nice to have extras, and compels us to adopt a Christlike posture of inclusion. We will explore how our God of the oppressed calls us to take those who are at the margins of social and religious life and bring them into the very centre. This practical theological reflection will open our hearts to a radically inclusive vision of God’s beloved community.
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Living in a time where there is an increase of people being diagnosed and in a world where so many labels are being placed over our children and young people, how do we as leaders navigate this. Do our children and young people need a label or a diagnosis in order for us to support them? What is our role as leaders in the diagnosis process? and how can you support parents through this. Dr Patricia Britto will be joining us at Belong this year to share some of her professional experience and her heart in this area and answering some of these questions for us.
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Sensory overload can often be viewed as behaviour which is not desirable or not favourable. This leads to the function of the behaviours we see often being misunderstood. In our church spaces there might be several things which could be triggers for our children and young people and therefore lead to sensory overload. These can present as meltdowns and young people/children not engaging or wanting to be in spaces with other people. Yvonne will be bringing her experience of working with children with Autism and other needs to discuss what strategies, methods and activities we can implement to regulate and support and help manage their sensory needs. She will also provide strategies on how we can work with parents and caregivers to support them and provide a holistic support for our children and young people.
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Making connections is so important and is a key role for us as leaders.
In this session Bev will talk about how we make connections with autistic people, particularly those who may predominantly use non-spoken communication.