Are the Children Well?

In the foothills of East Tennessee, not far from Great Smoky Mountains National Park, lies the small town of Clinton. You may have heard of it before. It is the home of the Clinton 12, a group of twelve Black students, who in 1956, bravely integrated the local high school after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling two years prior. It was also the last place of residence of famed author and activist, Alex Haley, who gave us Roots: The Saga of an American Family.

But for the last 32 years—since Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) acquired Haley’s final residence, Alex Haley Farm, Clinton has been the home of the children’s movement, welcoming hundreds of faith leaders to realize the vision of a more fair, equitable, and just America that centers children every summer. The annual Prathia Hall-Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry offers space for retreat and sacred rest on the storied grounds that Haley once walked and challenges faith leaders to do more for our young people, centering them in the fight for justice, and carrying forward the same spirit as the Clinton 12.

While we acknowledge that advocating for and alongside our children and young people is necessary and holy work, we also recognize the heavy emotional toll it can take. CDF offers the Hall-Proctor Institute as a remedy. The Institute welcomes preachers, theologians, lay leaders, and advocates to Haley Farm to hear from leading voices ways they can practically reconfigure their ministry and theology to center the well-being of children. At last year’s gathering, a heaviness and despondence hovered just days after the signing of a harmful reconciliation bill that would ultimately gut school-based mental health funds and drastically reduce basic needs programs that millions of children and families nationwide rely on to survive. Faith leaders and advocates who attended Hall-Proctor in 2025 noted needing a space to rest, breathe, and heal. They trusted the Institute to provide that.

This year felt different, not that times were not heavy, but Hall-Proctor felt like a place to recharge spirits and gather the energy needed to respond to the obstacles threatening our young people today. It was more vibrant and action-oriented, channeling attendees’ desire to “do something.” At the same time, Institute leaders reminded us that it is in times of great despair that we must act.

Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, a Presbyterian Church (USA) ordained minister who also serves as founder and executive director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice, said, “Over and over again in our Bible, we learn about abundant life. We learn about community prosperity that God desires for all his children. We also learn how it’s the duty of the people to demand that abundant life and to organize to make it so for everybody.”

Actualizing the God-desired abundant life Dr. Theoharis references requires action. As faith leaders, it is not enough to acknowledge a lack of abundance and do nothing about it. As much as abundance manifests itself in the improvement of our material conditions, abundance also demands our mental health and wellness. And our mental health wellness impacts our children. It can affect our ability to raise, advocate for, and serve children, and it can affect our children’s ability to thrive and be well themselves.

Part of the healing properties of Hall-Proctor come in our efforts to help faith leaders position themselves at the intersection of worship and action. This year as a social action, we asked “Are the children well?” – a sobering question interrogating the mental health and well-being of our children not only for Hall-Proctor attendees but policymakers, community leaders, and parents and caregivers across the country.

We posed this question to all of our universe, but for me, it was important to ensure faith leaders saw their role in ensuring the mental health and well-being of all children.

As Christians, we cannot overlook the importance of mental health.

Jesus models for us that healing is always about more than treating ailments as isolated problems. In His miracles, Jesus restores the whole person, body, mind, spirit, and relationships. This is the meaning of shalom: not simply calm or peace, but wholeness, well-being, and restored life. To “go and be well” is therefore an invitation to experience healing physically, mentally, spiritually, and relationally. In Jesus, this holistic healing reveals the presence and redemptive work of God.

If you’re a Christian and you believe in Christ’s redemptive restoration of the whole person, and believe in the fullness of shalom’s complete well-being across all dimensions of life, then you cannot authentically live out those convictions without addressing mental health.

If we intend to achieve the fullness of shalom for all God’s children, that includes actual children.

What we believe God says about children, and what we know God says about children, is that they belong at the center. All through the Gospels, children are the example. Jesus lifts them up over and over again as examples of the Kingdom of God. Children are welcomed into sacred spaces, and they are among the first to join in the loud and boisterous praise of Jesus. They are not simply present to say or perform something for adults; their faith, voices, and experiences matter. Therefore, we know that children must be centered theologically in our congregations, not in a performative way, but as full participants in the life, worship, and witness of the church.

If we offer a remedy of wellness at CDF in the midst of many troubling moments affecting children and families, at the same we must also offer an invitation to spread wellness and make it communal. We organize the National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths® in response.

This observance asks for congregations across faith traditions to lift up the voices and needs of children through advocacy, gathering, learning, and impact. Our Children’s Sabbaths manual offers faith leaders a practical guide to integrating worship and action that centers child well-being. It’s a tool for all things to come together, helping congregations to explore issues – like mental health – through a divine lens. It is an opportunity to become well, share the remedy of wellness with others, and be what we are called to be for our children. You can learn more about how to participate here.

Rev. Y Trevor Beauford serves as the Faith Communities Organizing Manager for the national youth advocacy organization, Children’s Defense Fund. For over twenty years he has served in several pastoral roles in local church and denominational life. Rev. Beauford received a Bachelor of Arts in History from Winthrop University and a Master of Divinity from the School of Divinity at Howard University.