32nd Annual Fulfilling the Promise Conference

Submit your proposals now!

Submit your workshop proposal!

Sample of the proposal survey.

Proposals are due by November 16, 2026!

32nd Annual Fulfilling the Promise Conference:

The Ripple Effect

When: April 19-21st, 2027

Where: Wilderness Resort, Wisconsin Dells

511 E Adams St, Wisconsin Dells, WI 53965

Theme: The Rippling Effect

Every monumental shift starts with a single, quiet drop. While people often look for grand gestures, this year’s conference focuses on something simpler and much more powerful: the momentum born from everyday acts. A kind word, a timely resource, or an act of advocacy might seem small at the time, but these actions spread outward. They help families grow closer, make work teams stronger, and lift up whole communities. We want to explore how these little acts of support can add up to something huge. We are looking for proposals from people who want to share practical ideas, stories, and strategies for helping others in meaningful ways. Whether you work directly with families, run programs, or study how communities change, your experience can help show others how small steps lead to big wins. Come join us to learn, share, and see how simple acts of care can change lives.

Possible presentation topics connected to this theme could include:

• Small Steps, Big Results: How simple, everyday actions help children and families make real progress. 
• Support in Action: Easy ways to bring helpful habits into your daily work and home visits. 
• Building Strong Support Networks: How to help families and professionals stay strong and bounce back from hard times. 
• Working Better Together: Simple ways for teams to support one another so everyone feels valued and motivated.

Fulfilling the Promise is an annual conference for a wide variety of professionals supporting families, including home visitors, parent educators who provide home-based, group-based, and center-based support and education to parents of young children, early interventionists, public health and many others along with their supervisors and managers. Participants work in Family Resource Centers, Head Start, and Early Head Start, private agencies, health departments, hospitals, Birth to 3 programs, Even Start Family Literacy schools, county and tribal social service departments, and Early Childhood centers.  Annually, the conference averages over 300 participants from across the state.

Conference Structure:

NEW IN 2027! We will be in-person ONLY and will not be offering a virtual option.

We are continuing with a 3-day conference format, with Day 1 offering full and half day institutes, and Day 2 and 3 with an AM Keynote and 1 late morning session and 2 separate PM sessions each day.

The Fulfilling the Promise Conference seeks to provide participants with a rich learning experience covering a wide variety of topics that provide participants with evidence-based practices and programs and best practices within the field of parent education and family support. Participants generally are experienced and educated and will benefit from a more in-depth look at topics. Participants appreciate tools, resources and ideas they can take back to use in their work right away so please be sure to spend some time on how your information can be transferred into application in the field.

We request that all presenters plan a minimum of 10 minutes of discussion time at the end of their session to allow participants to ask questions and help participants apply the new knowledge to their work. We are asking presenters to think about including an action form/plan that allows participants to check in at 30 days and use the knowledge you presented to refresh themselves in practical application.

Proposals are due by November 16, 2026!

Thank you,

The Fulfilling the Promise Planning Team

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions at ftpconference@uwm.edu