The R&R Network and Thriving Families CA Foundation are now accepting submissions for our 2026 Joint Annual Conference!

The California Child Care Resource & Referral Network and Thriving Families CA Foundation, along with our Joint Conference Committee, are excited to announce the 2026 Joint Annual Conference.

Please see the 2026 Call for Presentations Guidelines for more information about this year's conference. At the bottom of this document you will also find the links to complete the online Call for Presentations for each format. You can also be taken directly to the Call for Presentations online application for Here.

Workshop proposals are due Friday, June 5th.

Audience

This year, the CA Child Care R&R Network and Thriving Families CA Foundation, Joint Annual Conference will be back in person! We expect 600 individuals to attend this year’s joint conference in-person. Our attendees primarily come from the early care and education field including alternative payment programs, resource and referral programs, county welfare departments, and county offices of education. Attendees typically are public and private non-profit CEO’s, executives, subsidy child care administrators, family caseworkers, resource and referral and alternative payment counselors and trainers, food program administrators, and advocates. 

Proposal Guidelines and Review

We welcome individual as well as joint proposals and we encourage creative interactive formats for presentations. We thank you in advance for volunteering your time to present a workshop! We do not pay an honorarium for workshop presentations, and presenters must cover their own travel and printing expenses. Please provide appropriate handouts for all workshops; we will offer them online.


Proposals are evaluated and reviewed by the R&R Network and TFC Joint Conference Committee based on the following guidelines: 

• Timely or innovative topic
• Overall quality, well-defined focus and clearly identified outcome objectives
• Practical application of materials and relevance to audience
• Inclusion of participatory activities and engagement

No workshops will be allowed for the purpose of promoting and/or selling any product or company. We encourage workshops that include small group work, brainstorming, roundtable discussions or other networking-type activities. As the committee reviews the proposals, we may request presenters to form panels and we may edit proposal titles or request modifications to descriptions.

Conference Theme

The theme for this year’s conference is Partnering for Impact: Strengthening Families, Supporting Communities. We are encouraging presenters to create workshops that align with this theme in mind, as either the primary focus of the session or with the theme infused in some way. 

Presentation Formats

The conference schedule is October 7-9, 2026; beginning Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. and ending Friday at Noon. Workshop sessions are either 1 hour and 30 minutes, or 2 hours in length (limited slots).                                          

Please share this Call for Presentations email with others whose workshops would benefit conference attendees and in line with the guidelines and audience described in the document. 

Workshop proposals are due, Friday, June 5, 2026.  

Visit the Conference Web page  for more information and updates as they become available.