ANNUAL
6-WEEK
VIRTUAL
COLLECTIVE

Parent Activist Accelerator

Our next summer collective starts July 2023

If we want to ignite the next generation of leaders, we've gotta be the change we want to see.

In a few short years, our kids will be grown. Somehow, we have to keep them alive, raise them to be courageous and kind, and maintain society long enough to keep humanity from imploding.

So how do we do ALL THAT with zero spare hours each day?

Raising Luminaries Parent Activist Collectives are virtual, seasonally-oriented 6-week experiments where radically progressive parents reflect, assess, and transform our discoveries into concise action with a rippling impact.

Unlike single-issue workshops and online groups, we work together in small, private, interdependent cohorts to process & reflect, take accountability, and tailor action plans to carry us forward.

Who
We Are

What
We Do

What
We Get

Our
Moderator

Tailored
Objectives

Pricing
& FAQ

WHO WE ARE

Parents Who Just Won't Settle Down

We're connected by a shared vision of a future where our kids can feel safe, inspired, and motivated to shape the world they want to live in.

We are a motley collective of community organizers, self-advocates, accomplices, coordinators, engineers, writers, dog walkers, social workers, librarians, volunteers, educators, troublemakers, care-workers, and circle keepers.

We're the folks who change the world in small, invisible ways - raising kids, influencing industries, and showing up for our communities.

The world needs ALL KINDS of contributors who show up & make space for mutual aid and community interdependence.

We get up to such wonderful and weird cahoots together.

AAPI parent activist self-advocate

Self-Advocates

community organizer parent activism

Organizers & Volunteers

ally parent activism

Accomplices & Conspirators

Join the waitlist

Get email updates when enrollment opens

* indicates required
WHAT WE DO TOGETHER

Let's Explore This Summer

Whether we're maintaining long-term initiatives or just figuring out our role in the revolution, we're all juggling pandemic-shocked kids, spinach recalls, and a bottomless inbox.

No wonder we're frazzled and distracted.

As we weave our days integrating parenting and activism, our exhaustion will lead to shortcuts, auto-pilot, and dangerous oversights. We need perspective and accountability buddies to ensure our actions, goals, and values align.

During the Summer Accelerator, we develop a self-check assessment & action plan that fits within our everyday parenting + activist practice to keep us from harming those who rely on us.

We show up for each other to listen, share tools and resources, and get the inspiration we need to prevent burnout and stay motivated - even when dinner is burning and the dog barfed on your pillow.

Using videos & transcripts, ridiculous discussion prompts, rollicking reflection activities & weekly live virtual hangouts, we'll support each other in setting realistic objectives and create specific, actionable steps tailored for our core values and abilities.

01
Motivation & Accountability

Getting
Radically Honest

We refine the core values that drive us to take action, and design an accountability process to integrate our parenting & activism initiatives.

02
Centering & Roles

Finding
Our People

We identify our spheres of influence, create boundaries around toxic behavior, and connect with conspirators whom we are genuinely excited to work with.

03
Wayfinding & Resilience

Charting
A Course

We develop response strategies & recovery plans for when our initiatives face setbacks, derailment, and disaster.

04
Service & Skillsets

Growing Into
Our Power

We weaponize our unique skills and areas of influence, protect ourselves from soul-sucking busywork, and boost our contributions so our collaborators can rely on us.

05
Pacing & Reciprocity

Working
Within Our Capacity

We assess our bandwidth, adjust our pacing, learn how to ask for & receive help, and give each other permission to accept what we need to maintain long-term action without burning out.

06
Resistance & Tenacity

Raising
A Ruckus

We overcome getting-started anxiety, prepare for internal resistance, and launch action plans to carry us forward.

Let's show up for each other - and try this new thing together.

WHAT WE GET

Collective Experiences

Your existence creates some wild opportunities for this world.
Own it.

Ashia Ray

Hi, friends!

I'm Ashia Ray (they or she), Head Custodian of Raising Luminaries. This here is my face.

I've never identified as a 'leader,' but oh hey, here I am, caring for our lovely Raising Luminaries community since 2014. And now I'm the boss of this space! I can do whatever I want! Whooppeeee!

And what I want to do is hold space for parents struggling to find a place where we can show up as our full selves. Particularly those of us  who don't fit into the supremacist mold of binary identities: multiracial, class migrants, nonbinary, 'but-you-don't-look-disabled'-disabled parents. And all the folks who have grown tired of moderate activism spaces but don't feel quite ready to lead a decolonizing salt march.

Leaders like you, who don't realize you've been lighting the path this whole time.

Questions & Concerns

FAQs & What-Ifs

How we do things differently here

Family constellations are gloriously diverse – so any caregiver who ‘parents,’ regardless of whether you identify as a’parent’ is welcome.

Particularly folks who are often excluded from traditional social justice spaces through supremacist hierarchies and binary gatekeeping.

Members are expected to have a cursory understanding of systemic oppression (ex: oppression is systemic, and we are all responsible for dismantling it), have the self-awareness to be mindful of social power and our individual and group privilege.

If you’re not sure whether you are welcome in this space, join the wait list and let me know your hesitation so we can figure out if the collective is right for you.

Our 2023 Summer Collective starts in July and lasts six weeks.

Enrollment opens in May – or when we hit max capacity – whichever comes first.

If these dates don’t work for you – sign up for the wait list and I’ll let you know when future seasonal collectives are coming up. You can unsubscribe anytime.

Before I joined, I was worried: Do I actually have time for this? In reality: I didn’t have time NOT to do it.”

“I was operating at a completely unsustainable pace and this accelerator has freed up so much mental energy and time.”


– Alison L. Member since 2022

 

Expect to spend anywhere between 2-10 hours each week engaging with the resources and engaging in the group.

How much time you want to invest is up to you. But there’s no ‘falling behind’ since materials are designed to revisit at your own pace.

Example schedule:

  • > 8-15 minute videos released every weekday, which you can watch anytime.
  • > 1.5 hours each week in our optional live hangouts.
  • > Download a new PDF guidebook each Monday to reflect at your own pace.
  • > Daily or weekly check-ins in our asynchronous video chat app to catch up on messages from members and add your insight and reflections.

Our resources and reflection process are designed to be revisited each summer, or as needed to come back to and build upon what you’ve learned. You’ll have lifetime access to the resources, so there is no ‘falling behind.’

We’re gathering together because we feel like we’re constantly falling behind,  compelled to produce and go-go-go to uphold supremacy.

We’re not doing that here. There is no falling behind.

The only commitment we ask is to show up for each other and respond to the weekly topics in our asynchronous chat room – at your own pace.

While we do gather for a short 6-week summer season for live hangouts and group video chats, the resources are available year-round.

You’ll have lifetime access to the resources and summer portal if you need to take a break and come back to chill with us next summer.

We’ll have six live hangouts, an ongoing asynchronous video group chat, and a comments section to start discussions each day.

 

So – plenty of different ways to connect.

 

So as long as you can respond and share feedback once a week in a format that’s accessible for you, that’s how we show up for each other.

You’ll have online access to the summer portal all year-round, for as long as it exists – that means access to the videos, downloads, and reflection activities so you can enjoy them at your own pace.

The only thing that doesn’t last forever are our live hangout recordings. We leave those up for the year, and then clear them out each spring to make space for our next collective.

 

Our live hangouts are deeply interactive and not designed for passive consumption. We have to max out each collective at 6 members to build strong, interdependent relationships between the group. 

 

I tailor the resources for each collective to be accessible for every member’s accessibility needs and individual goals.

 

We grow through developing relationships and building trust – so it’s vital each member has ample time to share and show up for each other in our live hangouts.

 

For folks who need an accountability check-in, we meet for 1.5 hours via zoom once a week, for six weeks, to reflect and support each other.

Recordings of the sessions are available for active members who missed the hangout or would like to review it.

We use automatically generated live captions on Zoom and I send members transcripts from the video after our hangout.

Unfortunately we can’t afford a live ASL interpreter at this time.

Collective members get:

> Short daily video messages each weekday to kick off reflection & action

> Six downloadable & printable reflection & discovery guidebooks (each roughly 60-100 pages)

> Access to a private asynchronous group chat app to connect with members, share ideas, and ask questions via voice, video, or text.

> Weekly guided live hangouts to reflect, process, and work through our obstacles integrating activism and parenting .

> 1-on-1 live wrap-up collaboration session with me (Ashia) via Zoom to streamline & simplify your commitments and help you convert intention into action.

> 12 months access to our habit-stacking accountability challenge group.

> 1-month, 3-month, and 6-month accountability check in after the accelerator wraps up.

> A certificate of badassery after following through on the commitments you create for yourself.

> Free access to the Luminary Brain Trust for 3 months.

> Year-round access to all the Summer Accelerator resources in our online portal for as long as the portal exists.

> A growing library of bonus resources that we add to each summer

For a 6-week collective, the enrollment fee is priced at a sliding scale starting at $1400 all the way down to $400 for multiply-targeted folks experiencing financial hardship.

Investing in deep work guided by disabled leaders of color is one way we distribute power, hold ourselves accountable, and participate in interdependent economics.

So your enrollment fee allows me to create accessible resources that tie this collective together while supporting my family.

Of course you can cobble together and create your own resources, coordinate accountability group meetings, and figure this out on your own – but knowing what to cover, in what order, and orchestrating trust-building for an entire group of people with varying accessibility needs on your own can be confusing and frustrating.

Our collectives are designed to carry us together through a relationship-building process, building upon each week from start to finish. So you don’t have to spend your scarce time, energy, and mental bandwidth figuring out how to do it yourself and facilitating group conflicts. 

The actual cost to keep the collective sustainable is $1400 for each member, and memberships below that price are limited.

Please read the full sliding scale guide to see if you qualify for a lower cost.

In the unlikely event that we’re WAY TOO POPULAR and get more than 6 members who want to join us, we can split a larger group into two smaller cohorts for live hangouts.

And you can always register now to save your spot before registration prices increase to get access to the resources, but delay your active participation in live hangouts until next year if you’re not ready to engage with the group yet.

Most importantly – we need you to show up if you can to make this project a success so we can continue to offer it to folks in future years. So if you want to join us – DO IT!

If by our sixth week, you have engaged with the resources and reflections to the best of your ability, you’ve shown up to the live hangouts, and it’s still not for you, send me all of your completed discovery activities before the end of the collective, and I’ll send you a full refund.

Since there is such limited space in the incubator, I can’t offer refunds if you just don’t engage with the work or show up to the live hangouts, since that’s a limited space we can’t retroactively replace.

For more info, check out the full return policy.

 

The resources I provide for each member are designed to be accessed by a single person only.

 

If you’d like to join the collective with a friend or a group, create separate memberships for each individual.

 

If you can’t afford the cost of enrollment, that’s why I offer a sliding scale.

 

Sharing locked content is a violation of the terms & conditions (and it’s stealing).

Enrollment is currently closed for the 2022 season. We open enrollment back up in spring of 2023.

Join the email list and I’ll send you updates when our next enrollment period starts.

If this experiment doesn’t work for you, get a full membership refund.

Learn more about refunds

Expendable income should not be the determining factor in whether we can access services, care, and community.

Learn more about sliding scale registration

Each seasonal collective is different because we tailor our discussions, resources, and plan of action around your schedule, values, challenges and goals.

Learn more about our process

By the end of this summer, you will

(probably not)

Reconcile with your long lost lover - Find the hat you lost in 1998 (the one with the flaps) - Significantly change the shape of your body or the number of limbs attached to it - Get rid of that rash - Get your kids to stop leaving wet towels on the floor - Convince your housemate to unball their socks before throwing them in the hamper - solve the energy crisis

BUT IF YOU JOIN THE COLLECTIVE & DO THE WORK

You can be the leader your kids are proud to follow

Enrollment opens Spring 2023. Join the email list to get notifications early.

Let's collaborate

Join the free Ignition Notes Newsletter and get monthly email updates when we publish new family action resources.

AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE

Ashia Ray & Raising Luminaries are participants in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. We’re also also an affiliate of Little Feminist Book Club and Bookshop, and you’ll find affiliate links for them on this site, too!

©2022 Ashia Ray of Raising Luminaries™. All rights reserved.

Raising Luminaries
Igniting the next generation of kind & courageous leaders
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