• Events

Upcoming events

    • Thursday, January 16, 2025
    • Thursday, November 20, 2025
    • 6 sessions
    • Online


    Come meet other CCDA practitioners who are working on the front lines of economic empowerment ministries. We’ll connect with other practitioners who are working in this space for the purposes of sharing ideas and encouragement that helps us grow together in the area of economic empowerment ministries. This peer-to-peer support network will brainstorm new ways to tackle local challenges in your communities. Come be refreshed and enjoy the fellowship of others who get you!  

    Follow our network here: ccda.org/economic/

    Click here to register for the check-in

    • Thursday, January 30, 2025
    • Thursday, December 25, 2025
    • 12 sessions
    • Online

    This is a space for WOC in CCDA to come together and share their stories, be encouraged, receive prayer and also have a moment to inhale and exhale. We hope to reflect on who God has called us to be and share our hopes and dreams for the future. We desire to champion each other for years to come.

    Register here for meeting link.

    • Thursday, May 22, 2025
    • Thursday, April 26, 2035
    • 120 sessions
    Register

    CCDA Member Office Hours are a monthly chance to connect with CCDA staff and other members. It's your time. Share what you are working on. Ask questions. Have conversations. Build community. It's an open forum to spend some time together with a few other members and connect. 

    For the month of July, we have invited Derick Jackson of Small Business Concierge to talk about Grant Readiness and Business Growth.  Derick will teach you how to identify grant opportunities for profit and non-profit businesses, walk you through grant readiness training, and share helpful resources around grant opportunities.

    This is a session that you do not want to miss.  Join us, July 24, 1:30pm EST.

    Join us!

    • Wednesday, July 23, 2025
    • 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
    • Private Zoom Link
    Register

    Community transformation doesn’t happen by chance—it requires intentionality, strategic planning, and capacity building. Join Chanda Epps for this interactive class which equips community leaders, faith-based practitioners, and organizational teams with practical tools to design sustainable, impactful engagement strategies that foster long-term community change.

    Through a structured strategic planning framework, participants will explore how to move beyond reactive engagement and build proactive, vision-driven initiatives that align with their mission. This session will highlight key principles in capacity building, leadership sustainability, and effective community partnerships, ensuring that engagement efforts lead to real transformation.
    Participants will leave with a customized strategic engagement roadmap to apply within their own communities, ministries, or organizations.

    *This class requires at least 10 registered participants. If minimum enrollment is not met, the class may be rescheduled or canceled.

    • Wednesday, July 30, 2025
    • 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
    • Private Zoom Link
    Register


    Embodied Shalom: How Our Well-Being Fuels Collective Flourishing, explores the vital connection between personal well-being and community restoration. Through personal stories, interactive activities, and teachings, Adam Vanderwell will lead the class on reflecting on how caring for our spiritual, emotional, and physical health empowers our ability to serve others. The session covers the importance of vulnerability, rhythms of rest modeled by Jesus, and practical steps for holistic self-care. By acknowledging the need for self-restoration, we empower ourselves to lead more effectively in our communities, ultimately contributing to collective flourishing. The session will include time for Q&A and resources for further growth.

    *This class requires at least 10 registered participants. If minimum enrollment is not met, the class may be rescheduled or canceled.

    • Wednesday, November 05, 2025
    • 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM
    • Safe Haven Ministries, 2627 Birchcrest Dr SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49506
    Register


    At Safe Haven Ministries, we work to prevent and end relationship abuse and human trafficking. Our work of serving and caring for individuals and communities has healing, wholeness, and flourishing (shalom) at its center. Our dedication to shalom brings together individuals and organizations with very different worldviews to a united mission of preventing and ending relationship abuse and human trafficking.

    Experience case studies, best practice demonstrations, and guided application for your own community from Safe Haven Ministries’ practitioners. We intend that our stories of practice will inspire and suggest possibilities for CCDA practitioners who join the conversation. 

    In Luke 13, Jesus asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” (v20-21) Join us in learning as we seek to work the yeast of violence prevention through our communities, to see them safe and flourishing.


    Agenda

    8:00am Shuttle departure from Amway Grand Plaza Hotel (meet at valet)

    8:30am Continental Breakfast

    8:40am Tour of Safe Haven Ministries (on site)

    8:55am Worked All Through: An introduction

    9:00am Translating with the Biblical Narrative: Tony Tendero, Brooke Holmes and Rachel VerWys

    10:00am Application for Local Communities

    10:15am Break

    10:30am Approaching Human Trafficking as a System with Law Enforcement: Holly Wilson, Becky Diffin, and Tara Aday

    11:30am Application for Local Communities

    11:45am Lunch

    12:30pm Finding Another Way with Youth Violence Prevention: Johana Rodriguez, Mykal Ward and Raquel Rodriguez

    1:30pm Application for Local Communities

    1:45pm Break

    2:00pm How Does Relationship Abuse Impact the Bottom Line of Your Workplace?: Tony Tendero, Yani Castro and Anna Bennett

    3:00pm Application for Local Communities

    3:15pm Working It All Through: online launch and press conference

    4:15-4:30pm Dreaming with Yeast


    • Wednesday, November 05, 2025
    • 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM
    Register

    2025 CCDA National Conference Go & Sees offer a great opportunity to experience amazing CCD ministries all throughout Grand Rapids. Go & Sees provide conference participants an opportunity to visit the neighborhoods and communities in the area.

    Options include:

    Bridge Street Ministries

    Bridge Street Ministries is a place-based youth development organization that runs several youth-focused programs with a CCD focus.

    This Go & See will visit our ministry headquarters, which is located in the heart of one of Grand Rapids’ historic neighborhoods and is home to our West Side Resurgence site and community cafe. This location was formerly a dilapidated liquor store and porn shop but was renovated into a beautiful multi-use community space.

    Visit Bridge Street Ministries and explore the power of relocation, presence, and longevity. We will also discuss the importance of youth development and collaboration in our CCD work.

    This Go & See does not include lunch, so be sure to grab something before meeting in the Convention Center lobby to take a van to Bridge Street.

    ICCF Community Homes and Madison South Hill Church

    In 2020, Madison Church: South Hill realized its vision of 24/7 'kingdom impact' by restoring the 415 MLK Building. Today, this historic school houses a CCD congregation, ICCF Community Homes (with 41 affordable housing units), and the YMCA's early childhood education program. Hear the story of this transformative project and see how a church can drive impactful community development.

    This Go & See includes lunch and transportation.


    • Wednesday, November 05, 2025
    • 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
    • Grand Gallery A, DeVos Place, Grand Rapids Michigan
    • 120
    Register


    Can people disagree and still belong to each other?

    This is the question at the center of Leap of Faith, a documentary featuring The Colossian Forum. This powerful film emphasizes what is possible locally among pastors and churches with significant difference when centering a strong commitment to our relationships with Christ and to our neighbors.

    Leap of Faith shows the beauty that can emerge in conflicted spaces, and demonstrate that faith communities have an extraordinarily important and positive role to play in a time of such deep national polarization.

    Attend a screening of the film and then engage in a conversation with some of the pastors featured in the documentary.

    Learn more about the film here: https://colossianforum.org/leap-of-faith



    • Wednesday, November 05, 2025
    • 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
    • DeVos Place, Grand Rapids, Michigan
    Register


    Feeling the Strain of Community Development Work? You're Not Alone.

    The weight of caring for others, especially in the face of injustice, exhaustion, cultural, and political tension, can take a toll on even the most resilient leaders. If you're feeling overwhelmed, weary, or worn thin by the demands of your calling, this workshop is for you.

    Join us for a 90-minute guided experience designed specifically for community development professionals and ministry leaders.

    Led by Rev. Dr. Alvin Sanders, President & CEO of World Impact, along with leaders from World Impact’s Trauma Healing program, this session offers a restorative space to pause, reflect, and find renewal.

    What You’ll Gain:

    · Part 1: Understanding the Caregiver's Heart

    · Part 2: Recognizing Overload and Secondary Trauma

    · Part 3: Naming the Struggles of the Caregiver’s Journey

    · Part 4: Practicing Sustainable Self-Care

    Based on Healing the Wounds of Trauma: How the Church Can Help, this workshop provides faith-rooted, research-informed tools to help you recognize when you're carrying too much—and what to do about it.

    Come as you are.

    Leave with tools to sustain your soul, strengthen your leadership, and serve from a place of wholeness because God sees you. God cares for you. And you were never meant to carry it all alone.

    • Wednesday, November 05, 2025
    • 7:00 PM
    • Saturday, November 08, 2025
    • 12:00 PM
    • DeVos Place
    Register

    Conference Location

    The conference will be held at DeVos Place, located at 303 Monroe Ave NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503

    Click HERE to learn more about the 2025 National Conference

    Registration changes, deletions, additions, etc.

    Have questions you can't find answers to? Check  out the CCDA Help Center.

    Plan to arrive early for Go & Sees and Preconference events on Wed.

    • Thursday, November 06, 2025
    • 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM
    Register

    2025 CCDA National Conference Go & Sees offer a great opportunity to experience amazing CCD ministries all throughout Grand Rapids. Go & Sees provide conference participants an opportunity to visit the neighborhoods and communities in the area.

    Options include:

    Bridge Street Ministries

    Bridge Street Ministries is a place-based youth development organization that runs several youth-focused programs with a CCD focus.

    This Go & See will visit our ministry headquarters, which is located in the heart of one of Grand Rapids’ historic neighborhoods and is home to our West Side Resurgence site and community cafe. This location was formerly a dilapidated liquor store and porn shop but was renovated into a beautiful multi-use community space.

    Visit Bridge Street Ministries and explore the power of relocation, presence, and longevity. We will also discuss the importance of youth development and collaboration in our CCD work.

    This Go & See does not include lunch, so be sure to grab something before meeting in the Convention Center lobby to take a van to Bridge Street.

    New City Neighbors

    Get ready for an unforgettable experience with New City Neighbors, a dynamic youth empowerment organization on a mission to transform lives! We’re not just growing food; we’re growing future leaders.

    Join us for an exciting tour of our farmhouse and discover how we cultivate 60,000 pounds of fresh veggies every year! Then, take a seat at our farm-to-table café, where you’ll savor delicious wood-fired pizza from our outdoor pizza ovens. As you enjoy the flavors, we’ll share our groundbreaking approach to tackling food scarcity with sustainable agriculture—all while empowering a new generation of young leaders.

    You will ride the bus with a volunteer from New City Neighbors. Lunch will be provided.


    • Friday, November 07, 2025
    • 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM
    Register

    2025 CCDA National Conference Go & Sees offer a great opportunity to experience amazing CCD ministries all throughout Grand Rapids. Go & Sees provide conference participants an opportunity to visit the neighborhoods and communities in the area.

    Options include:

    Escape Ministries & Heights of Hope

    Escape Ministries peels the labels off "at-risk youth" by seeing youth through God's eyes, empowering them as young heroes alongside their families. Learn about our alternative suspension program, youth employment program, and after-school programs. During this Go & See, you will see how we strive for a trauma-informed approach to discipline, a culture steeped in joy and affirmation, and let relationships lead the way.

    From there, we'll visit Heights of Hope, a CCDA Neighborhood focused on championing community members' gifts, youth leadership, and walking with families through Circles. You'll learn about after-school programs for kindergartners to adults, fostering a dedicated mentoring program, and engaging a community that normally wouldn't open their doors.

    Lunch and transportation are included.

    ICCF Community Homes and Madison South Hill Church

    In 2020, Madison Church: South Hill realized its vision of 24/7 'kingdom impact' by restoring the 415 MLK Building. Today, this historic school houses a CCD congregation, ICCF Community Homes (with 41 affordable housing units), and the YMCA's early childhood education program. Hear the story of this transformative project and see how a church can drive impactful community development.

    This Go & See includes lunch and transportation.

    New City Neighbors

    Get ready for an unforgettable experience with New City Neighbors, a dynamic youth empowerment organization on a mission to transform lives! We’re not just growing food; we’re growing future leaders.

    Join us for an exciting tour of our farmhouse and discover how we cultivate 60,000 pounds of fresh veggies every year! Then, take a seat at our farm-to-table café, where you’ll savor delicious wood-fired pizza from our outdoor pizza ovens. As you enjoy the flavors, we’ll share our groundbreaking approach to tackling food scarcity with sustainable agriculture—all while empowering a new generation of young leaders.

    You will ride the bus with a volunteer from New City Neighbors. Lunch will be provided.


    • Thursday, February 05, 2026
    • Saturday, February 07, 2026
    • Los Angeles Area


    Save the Date!
    Border Southwest CCDA Gathering 2026
    Los Angeles Area
    February 5–7, 2026

    Every year, CCDA leaders and communities across the Southwest come together for a sacred time of connection, reflection, and renewal. In 2026, we’ll gather in the Los Angeles area—mark your calendars now and stay tuned for more details!

    Come be inspired and be in community.
    We can’t wait to see you there.

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