Next week, the staff of Believe Out Loud will join more than 4,000 attendees in Philadelphia at the 29th annual Creating Change conference, which is hosted each year by the National LGBTQ Task Force.

This year, the Believe Out Loud team will debut a new training: Digital Strategies for Faithful Action. 

This year’s workshop will unveil Believe Out Loud’s theory of change, which describes our innovative work to move online faith communities to take action for justice for LGBTQIA people.

Drawing from Believe Out Loud’s success as the leading platform for Christian faith and LGBTQ advocacy, participants will learn how to build a successful, values-based digital strategy on any online network.

Digital Strategies for Faithful Action will be hosted at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown on Saturday, January 21, 2017, from 10:45am – 12:15pm. Believe Out Loud’s four-person team will facilitate this session.

Believe Out Loud team members will share even more strategies and best practices in the following workshops.

Dr. Keisha McKenzie, the new program director of Believe Out Loud, will co-facilitate a workshop with the team of A Just Faith, a black LGBTQ multi-faith, multi-ethnic, and multi-generational coalition of people who speak, teach and organize to create a just world for all.

The Sacred Clapback: LGBTQ Justice Organizing in Local Faith Communities

This workshop empowers LGBTQ people of faith to engage laypeople and clergy in conversation and action for LGBTQ justice. Participants will map power networks, resources, and risks involved in their “just faith” work. They’ll learn strategies for dialoguing about faith, gender, sexuality, and civic rights. Through role play, participants will develop inclusive responses to common ways conservatives and progressives oppose or stall justice. Participants will go home with practical, faith-full tools for doing justice locally.

Saturday, January 21, 4:45 – 6:15 pm

Presenters: Keisha E. McKenzie, McKenzie Consulting Group & A Just Faith; Naomi Christine Leapheart, The UCC, TFAM, POWER, A Just Faith; Verdell A. Wright, Howard University & A Just Faith; Carol Lautier, National LGBTQ Task Force & A Just Faith

Reese Rathjen, Believe Out Loud’s Campaigns Manager, will co-lead two additional workshops featuring learnings from Believe Out Loud coalition work.

How to Create a 20K Person Faith Network in Your State

Basic fundamentals of organizing will be explored in relation to a specific very big goal – most people don’t realize that there are more people of faith supportive of LGBTQ people than there are opposed. The opposition is just better organized in showing their numbers in strategic places. We will connect social media action with on the ground in-person action. We will show how to connect geographical areas by asking people to do the same action in several places across a state. Using examples from Michigan, North Carolina and Georgia, we will introduce strategies and planning tools that get you to a stretch goal of 20K people!

Friday, January 20, 9:00am – 12:15pm

Presenters: Kathleen Campisano, National LGBTQ Task Force; Bri Sanders, National LGBTQ Task Force; Reese Rathjen, Believe Out Loud 

———-

Creating Shared Values for Faith Based Collaboration

Join us to improve your skills to create and grow diverse and inclusive faith coalitions working against religious exemptions legislation and/or religious based bigotry. Exchange skills to ground your faith based collaborations in shared values and identify the pitfalls or blind spots that leave those most vulnerable in our community behind. Leave with collective wisdom to begin or strengthen collaborative faith work in their local landscape.

Saturday, January 21, 9:00am – 10:30am

Presenters: Joey Lopez, More Light Presbyterians; Rodney McKenzie, National LGBTQ Task Force; Melissa McQueen, Many Voices; Reese Rathjen, Believe Out Loud 

If you’re in Philadelphia for Creating Change next week, we hope to see you there!

Click here to see the entire conference schedule.

Photo by Believe Out Loud