2025 CDF Hall-Proctor Institute Tuesday Plenaries and Workshops

An expression of love as the governing ethic insists that every child, created in the image of God—is entitled to nourishment, healing, and wholeness. In the Beloved Community, wellness is a collective responsibility, where systems and structures serve the sacred worth of every young person. This panel will examine how public policy can embody this sacred trust, especially in the face of staggering disparities: more than 10 million children live in food-insecure households, and nearly one-third of youth report poor mental health. From expanding access to school meals to ensuring comprehensive health care coverage, from prioritizing youth mental wellness to advancing environmental justice, we must pursue healing that is systemic, sustainable, and soul-centered. Drawing from CDF’s health and healing agenda, panelists will explore how to move beyond crisis response toward policy rooted in prevention, dignity, and equity—so that every child may grow up whole in body, mind, and spirit. 

• Dr. Norbert L. W. Wilson 
• Rebecca Jones Gaston 
• Dr. Brandy Taylor-Dédé, Moderator  

Facilitator: Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, Senior Pastor, Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago, IL; Location: Chapel 

This workshop explores how storytelling through film and digital media can confront stigma, support mental and emotional well-being, and inspire systemic healing. Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III draws from projects like Otis’ Dream to show how narrative can be a force for cultural change and collective care. Designed for faith leaders, educators, and advocates, the session highlights how prophetic media can disrupt harmful narratives and cultivate spaces where children and youth are affirmed, seen, and healed. 

Facilitator: Rev. Dr. Norbert L. W. Wilson, Director, World Food Policy Center; Professor of Food, Economics and Community, Duke Divinity School 
Location: Lodge 

Amid federal budget debates and proposed SNAP work requirement expansions, this workshop explores the intersection of food access, moral responsibility, and child well-being. Rev. Dr. Norbert Wilson guides participants through the structural causes of food insecurity and how faith leaders can respond through advocacy and community-rooted action. The session supports CDF’s Children’s Health and Healing agenda by equipping leaders to build a Beloved Community where every child is fed, supported, and free to thrive. 

Facilitator: Rev. Kazimir Brown, National Director of Religious Affairs, Repairers of the Breach 
Location: Business Center 

This workshop explores how faith spaces can become centers for healing, formation, and leadership development for children and youth. It emphasizes that nurturing youth voice and agency is essential to building communities where every child can thrive—mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Participants gain strategies to foster youth leadership rooted in joy, justice, and spiritual wholeness—preparing the next generation not only to heal but to transform the world. 

Facilitator: Rev. Dr. Harold Dean Trulear, Professor of Applied Theology, Howard University School of Divinity; Director, Healing Communities USA 
Location: Fairfield Inn 

Healthy communities and families provide the context and relationships for healthy children and youth. How can they respond when youth enter the criminal legal system? How can communities of faith support individuals and families impacted by crime and incarceration? This workshop provides lessons from the field of restorative justice on how our communities can provide alternatives to incarceration and become advocates for radical reform in the legal system. 

Facilitators: Shailly Gupta Barnes, Policy and Research Director, Kairos Center and The Poor People’s Campaign; Ciara Taylor, Director of Culture, Faith and Organizing, Kairos Center 
Location: Orchard Tent 

As public support systems are dismantled, many communities are filling the gap through mutual aid, ministry, and community-based care. This session introduces “projects of survival”—organizing models that both meet urgent needs and build long-term political power. Facilitators draw from historical and current movements and use music and story to deepen participants’ commitment to structural transformation grounded in solidarity. 

Facilitator: Dr. Javian Baker, Scholar of Black Religion, Politics, and Culture 

Location: Middle Room 

In this workshop, Dr. Javian Baker draws upon the wisdom and witness of Marian Wright Edelman, framed through reading her as a public theologian, to explore how faith-rooted communities can lead systemic change to abolish child poverty. Grounded in his Georgetown dissertation, “And a Child Shall Lead Them: The Public Theology of Marian Wright Edelman and the Collective Responsibility for Abolishing Child Poverty,” this session reflects on how her public theology can shape policies, institutions, and moral imagination in ways that protect children’s full well-being. Participants will explore how spiritual and ethical commitments can equip communities to resist the structural causes of poverty and to organize toward justice, nourishment, and healing 

Facilitator: Rev. Dr. Wylin D. Wilson, Associate Professor of Theological Ethics, Duke Divinity School 
Location: Library 

Join Rev. Dr. Wylin D. Wilson to reflect on her morning session and engage in dialogue around theological ethics, sacred memory, and collective resistance. This informal and spiritually grounded conversation allows participants to ask questions, share insights, and build on the wisdom of the day. 

Facilitator: Rev. Dr. Timothy Adkins-Jones, Senior Pastor, Bethany Baptist Church, Newark, NJ; Assistant Professor of Homiletics, Boston University School of Theology 
Location: Chapel 

This workshop explores how the sacred act of preaching can become a vehicle for prophetic truth, communal healing, and justice-rooted imagination. Through a theological and practical lens, Rev. Dr. Timothy Adkins-Jones invites participants to reflect on preaching that disrupts injustice, inspires transformation, and amplifies the voices of children and youth. The session includes practical tools for sermon development and communal discernment rooted in the spiritual urgency of the Beloved Community. 

Facilitator: Rev. Moya Harris, Senior Director of Programs, Sojourners 
Location: Lodge 

 
The first 1,000 days of a child’s life shape everything that follows—health, learning, relationships, and future leadership. As Black faith leaders, we hold a sacred responsibility and a powerful opportunity: to protect this tender time, speak life into our youngest generation, and reshape the systems that influence their well-being. This interactive workshop invites participants to reflect on their relationships with babies and the world we’re building for them. Drawing on new research from Sojourners’ participatory action project, the session will help churches confront adult-centered norms and develop theologies that center flourishing for infants and their families. 

Facilitator: Rev. Dr. Christophe Ringer, Associate Professor of Theological Ethics and Society, Chicago Theological Seminary 
Location: Library 

This workshop supports participants in developing a theological rationale for their work toward child well-being in their local context. Significant attention will be paid to how leaders can facilitate this theological reflection in their congregational or ministry context. Rev. Dr. Christophe Ringer helps participants build theological frameworks that connect faith to child advocacy. 

Facilitator: Rev. JaQuan Beachem, Associate Dean of Community Development and Spiritual Formation, Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School 
Location: Business Center 

 
This interactive workshop invites advocates, educators, and theologians into a sacred space of self-exploration, embodied discernment, and reflection at Haley Farm. Grounded in Dr. King’s idea of “networks of mutuality,” the session centers healing as a shared responsibility and sanctuary as a spiritual practice. In alignment with CDF’s Children’s Health and Healing agenda, the workshop explores how story, song, and stillness promote social-emotional wellness and affirm each child’s sacred worth. Participants will explore moments of sanctuary found in self, in community, and in nature. 

Facilitator: Rev. Dr. Muriel Johnson and members of the Practicing Resurrection Cohort 
Location: Middle Room 

This reflective workshop shares key learnings from the Practicing Resurrection cohort, highlighting stories of growth, spiritual renewal, and communal transformation. Facilitated by Rev. Dr. Muriel Johnson and cohort participants, this session invites attendees to witness how faith-rooted congregations are reimagining church, centering healing, and activating young adult leadership in pursuit of Beloved Community. 

Facilitators: Rev. Dr. Yvette Blair-Lavallais, Womanist Public Theologian and Food Justice Strategist; and Rev. Vahisha Hasan, Steward of Care at WildSeed Society                                                         
Location: Orchard Tent 

A Little Child Shall Lead Them is the timeless theme for CDF National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths and this year’s inspiration is Beloved Community. Come learn more about the possibilities of National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths that centers the voices of children and advocates for and with them and the issues and policies impacting them. This will be a time of dreaming and designing National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths for your faith community or organization and how Children’s Defense Fund will support and amplify your vision and equip your efforts with an interactive manual that offers ways to engage your children and community.