"Hello, I am calling from Children’s Conferences International about the possibility of offering a children’s program in conjunction with your upcoming event…”

This is the paraphrased beginning of a phone conversation that you may have had in the not too distant past. You are planning your event or conference when, out of the blue, someone suggests that you offer a children’s program and offers to run it for you. Just the phone call itself might have created stress in your life. In your mind, you may have had one (or all) of the following conversations with yourself…

We encounter these and many other questions just like these every day. And, believe it or not, we can almost always provide an answer that will satisfy even the most cautious minds as we explain…

…how Children’s Conferences International can provide an event for children in conjunction with your event WITHOUT ADDING ANY EXTRA WORK to you or to your planning committee.

Offering programs to children for 10 years, Children’s Conferences International (CCI) has become one of the leading children’s event providers in the country. Those years in ministry have provided us with the experience and knowledge to effectively run an event to enrich children’s spiritual lives. This page will address the questions and concerns listed below. Simply click on your question of choice to jump to that section. Ready…? Let’s get started…

I. Who is Children’s Conferences International?

Started eight years ago to assist Christian organizations with planning children's programming for their events, CCI operated a number of conferences for two years before we began our fulltime ministry. Our list of clients includes local, state and national home education conventions, state and national Baptist conventions, church sponsored Vacation Bible Schools and camps, and much more. Attendance of our conferences has been anywhere between 25 and 1200 children, and we often have over 300 volunteers. As an example, in 2002 we held 37 events in 21 states with over 15,000 children in attendance.

Before the children of Israel crossed into the Promise Land, they had many battles to fight. On one occasion, God instructed Moses to sit on a mountain overlooking the battle and raise his hands. As long as Moses kept his hands raised, God gave Israel the victory. But, as he tired and lowered his hands, Moses saw Israel begin to suffer defeat. That all changed when Aaron and Hur came alongside Moses and HELD UP HIS HANDS. Victory for Israel was then assured.

Hopefully, the information provided in this document addresses any issues or concerns you may have. At Children’s Conferences International, our goal is to be completely self-contained in our ministry so we can be like Aaron and Hur and hold up the hands of your organization in seeing an even greater victory in ministry take place.

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II. Where People Are Saying

“They display contagious enthusiasm and genuine love in working with our children’s program. Our children insisted that we have them back next year.”
- Todd Kangas, President, Midwest Parent Educators
“For the past three years, CCI has conducted a children's conference (ages 6-12) at the annual meeting of our convention. Even through a change in leadership, the organization remains very focused and organized and teaches the principles of scripture to a large number of children with great impact on both the children and parents.”
- John R. (Jack) Wilkerson Southern Baptist Convention, Annual Convention Manager
“This revolutionized our convention experience. We are definitely coming back next year…as a WHOLE family!”
- A grateful family from Indiana

Where We Have Served

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III. What is the content of a CCI event?

Our goal at Children's Conferences International is to provide quality, Biblically-based programming to Christian events both small and large. A Children's Conference is typically a two-day event, but can be adjusted to accommodate any length of time, from half-day to weeklong events. The conference combines songs, stories, crafts, games, and Bible verses to teach the children concepts from God's Word (see information on this year’s theme attached).

Biblically-based themes, created by CCI, including "Ye are the Light of the World", "Adventure Safari: Growing the Fruit of the Spirit in the Jungle of Life", "A Call to Arms: Basic Training in the Armor of God", and "Frontiers of Faith: Patrolling the Range of God's Law" have been a hit with parents and children alike.

A typical day at a CCI event is divided up into 8 segments, 4 large group sessions and 4 small group activities. The children are divided up into teams of 15 to 20 and move with this team through relay races, crafts, stories, and our always popular obstacle course (built on-site!). The large group sessions introduce the children to a variety of characters who are learning to apply God’s truth in a variety of unique (translate “funny”) circumstances. We also use this time to memorize God’s Word and learn songs that are written to support the theme.

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IV. Are there limits as to what children can attend (e.g. health concerns, age)?

Our typical age bracket is 6 – 12. At a host organizations request, that can be moved to 5 – 12. As far as medical issues, our general policy is as follows: if a parent is comfortable leaving their child with us, then we are comfortable having them. In addition, as referenced in the online registration section, each child will have a medical release form signed by his or her parent.

We have had the delightful opportunity to minister to both “the healthy and the sick”. The latter has included Spina Bifida, Autism, and blindness to name a few. While assigned to a team just like all the other children, we typically assign an additional volunteer to work one-on-one with such a child. We are continually blessed to watch “handicapped” children amaze us with their joyfulness, endurance, and fearlessness (All of the above went through the obstacle course with enthusiasm!).

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V. Who will actually be caring for the children and what kind of screening / accountability is used?

CCI has been the grateful recipient of many wonderful volunteer young people who are excited about the opportunity to minister to children. These volunteers make up the bulk of the CCI on-site staff. They are recruited during the months leading up to the event and asked to fill out on online application. This application asks several key questions that help us identify their qualifications for ministry AND their strengths/job preference.

Our goal is to have workers from 15 to 25 years old. They are utilized as small group leaders, small group assistants, security personnel, runners (younger students can serve in this position), section leaders, and activity directors. The section leaders assist DURING the event providing oversight and continued accountability to the small group leaders and assistants AS WELL AS addressing discipline issues with the children. Because they carry greater responsibility, section leaders are more thoroughly screened and trained.

In addition to serving on the days of the conference, we also ask the volunteers to participate in a training the day before the event begins. This allows us to share our heart for ministry, provide a brief overview of content and responsibilities, and answer any questions that may come up.

Click here to download our policy on abuse.

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VI. How secure will the children be throughout the event?

Over the years, CCI has developed what we feel to be a very safety conscious process for maintaining the security of the children entrusted to us.

Our process is simple. First, we work to ensure that all entrances to the children’s facility are locked. This allows us to direct traffic through ONE entrance. Upon entering, each child’s nametag is checked to be sure that his/her team number coincides with the numbered sticker on the parent’s nametag (both of which are mailed to the family in their registration confirmation packet). Only those with the aforementioned items correctly attached to their person are allowed inside. The family is then directed to their small group team station where the child(ren) is dropped off. The parent must sign their child in with the team leader or assistant and be THE SAME parent to sign the child out upon pick up (if the parent knows that either their spouse or an older sibling will be picking up the child, they must provide this information to the team leader).

The entrance/exit process is overseen by a volunteer security team. They are empowered to “maintain our borders” to the letter. Our goal is to err on the side of caution in all cases. This process has helped us to guarantee the safety of the children and the resulting parental peace of mind.

For trips to the restroom, each child is accompanied INTO the restroom (if it is a public facility) by 2 members of our volunteer staff. This helps to eliminate any extracurricular activities that may occur in the restroom (e.g. locking stalls from the inside, flooding sinks, and other pranks). Having 2 staff members with the child inside the restroom also helps to eliminate any perceived impropriety, a measure we unfortunately have to take in this day and age.

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VII. What responsibilities will our organization have in hosting a children’s event?

Facility & Support Equipment – Typically, you are responsible for securing a facility for the children’s program and the necessary support equipment for the event. The facility should be located close to other conference activities and be large enough to hold the anticipated number of children. Equipment needs include tables, chairs, staging, signage, etc. We also ask that you provide a merchandise area for CCI near the children’s facility. Cost responsibility for these items is based on which option you choose. Throughout this part of the process, CCI can be entirely responsible for all interaction with the facility including securing all the required support equipment.

Marketing – This could include, but is not limited to, space in host organization’s publications about the event, e-mail blasts OR access to e-mail and mail lists, etc. It is to both the host organization’s benefit as well as to CCI’s that the children’s portion of the event is well marketed. We have found that, in many cases, conference or event attendance goes up exponentially when attendees realize they can bring their children along!
(Note: Some host organizations choose to have a greater level of involvement and may even assign a local coordinator to work with CCI. Albeit a nice luxury, this is in no way a requirement.)

Important note: We have recently introduced a way for organizations to secure CCI with NO COST and NO RISK whatsoever. For more information about this option, please e-mail Stephen.

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VIII. Is the host organization required to provide registration for the children and insurance for the facility/event?

Registration - Our website has a complete registration process including medical release and payment. Once a registration is received, children are assigned to teams and a confirmation packet is mailed out to the family. This packet includes a letter with program details, nametags, and stickers for the parent’s conference nametag that assists in our security process.

As you can well imagine, many questions from parents arise during the registration process. We stay in communication with parents throughout the process right up to the beginning of the event (to assist with special requests regarding their children such as team placement, etc). Each parent will have several e-mail addresses and phone numbers at which they can contact us. Any questions that come to your office regarding the children’s program can also be directed to us. Again, we shoulder the entire burden of the children’s portion of the event including all questions. During this process we maintain strict confidentiality as well as keeping all e-mail addresses secure and private. No contact information received during the process of the event will be used, sold, or transferred to anyone outside of our organization.

Insurance - Children’s Conferences International carries a significant amount of insurance that meets the requirements of both host organizations AND conference facilities/convention centers. Again, it is our goal to provide for every detail so as not to be an additional burden on the host organization.

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IX. Isn’t offering a children’s event cost prohibitive?

The simple answer to this question is a resounding NO! Whether you choose to utilize the children’s registration process as a fundraising opportunity for your organization OR if you choose to simply provide CCI with a small guarantee and let us manage the revenue, you should see a positive financial number for the host organization once all is said and done. The reason is because, as we previously mentioned, overall conference attendance usually increases when the event offers options for the entire family. Not only will you see modest (or potentially significant) revenue from child registrations, the increased number of adult attendance will far outweigh any resources committed to a children’s event.

In addition, as mentioned previously, we now feature a NO COST/NO RISK option which you can find out more about by contacting our office.

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