The Society for Global Flourishing, with World Vision International, Harvard University, the Institute for Global Human Flourishing at Baylor University and Gallup, plus a global coalition of leaders, met in Vatican City from the 3rd-5th June 2026 to shape a blueprint for bringing love-fuelled hope to children across the world. The summit addressed the transformation of the whole child: nurturing their physical, social, emotional, and spiritual worlds so that hope can take root and grow.
Signs of Hope were presented during the meeting as a tool to assess how children’s experiences of God’s love can be manifested through six interconnected dimensions, with hope as a measurable indicator of spiritual transformation. These dimensions include Compassion, Joy, Purpose, Resilience, Wisdom and Personal Faith.
Alan Charter, co-leader of the WEA Children Network was part of the event and moderated the session on adults working with children.
As WEA commits to unity for Gospel Transformation, discipleship of Families & Children becomes an important topic. For children, real transformation begins when we look beyond survival and invest in the whole child: nurturing their physical, social, emotional, and spiritual worlds so that hope can take root and grow. We are specifically called to protect and support vulnerable children through holistic care, integrating mission and social action. These new shared measures provide both tools and a collaborative community to champion change and measure transformation more effectively.
Moving forward, the WEA will specifically empower regional catalysts to bridge and act as a strategic anchor for contextual ownership, outcome-based advocacy with the use of validated data to advocate bolder and more effectively for the nurture and well-being of all children and finally find ways to embed Signs of Hope framework into seminary standards, ensuring future pastors are equipped to value and measure children’s spiritual flourishing.
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