Work/life balance is a myth - between parenting, work, and striving for justice, we need a holistic approach that weaves our principles into every aspect of our daily lives. Get the strategies and support you need with a community of caregivers ready to listen and hold space for your unique challenges.
"...where we fit in, or what our next step should be. We care about showing up in the world in the way that creates most benefit and the least harm - rather than appearing perfect."
Tricia L, Community Organizer, Music Therapist & Parent of 5
You're ready to ramp up advocacy for youth in your community - and want to model interdependent collaboration without becoming a doormat.
You want to make space for others to shine, and are ready to set boundaries and practice what you preach to empower others.
Supporting everyone has left you too exhausted and burnt out to model healthy activism for your kids. You're ready to step into your power - while acknowledging your limits.
Workshop enrollment opens in May.
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If you're not sure whether you'd be a good fit for our community - ask us!
Let me know your hesitations so we can help you figure out if we're the right community for you.
“Caregivers who raise children to fight for social justice – but are unwilling to leave our generation’s mess for our kids to clean up later – you’re welcome here.”
“I had very little idea what to expect! What kind of people are going to be able to pay for this kind of thing? Is everyone going to be obnoxiously rich and privileged? I loved getting to know my collaborators, an intimate group of delightfully thoughtful, honest, and down-to-earth parents.”
“If you can’t show up a little messy, then maybe this isn’t the spot for you. This isn’t for the parents on Instagram who are like, ‘Look how perfect I am, I have won.’
It’s really hard to be vulnerable in a space where people are perfect. Or with people who can’t recognize that they have flaws and more to learn and grow.”
“Parents helping their kids navigate challenges they didn’t grow up with themselves – cisgender parents with gender-creative kids, transracially adoptive parents, white parents with biracial kids.
Folks who were raised to ignore power imbalance, but who don’t want to their own kids to get walloped with shame and defensiveness when they start to recognize thier own complicity in injustice.”
“We are committed to breaking down unjust systems – smashing white supremacy, sexism, etc. And we’re working from a framework of acknowledging and acting against the white capitalist patriarchy.”
The Summer Collective is for activist caregivers and parents who need a reboot! For when you know you need to recalibrate your work, but are not sure how.
Workshop enrollment opens in May.
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“This entire collective is the support I’ve been desperately needing for the past two years and could not find.
It’s this combination of really basic ‘how to human’ skills that I desperately needed and didn’t realize I didn’t have. Including specific ‘how to activism’ skills – but they’re also more broadly useful for how to collaborate. How to identify what you bring, and what’s complementary for this collaboration, and how to set clear expectations.“
“Doing it together as a group process really helps to spur me on, to have other people alongside even when they’re on different paths, at different paces. Having other people there was encouraging and motivating. This is not just like buying a workbook – it isn’t homework, and there’s nobody who’s beating up on you if you don’t do it, or whatever. But it IS self paced, and it IS flexible.”
“I love the way the chat group has helped each of us process as we come into crisis. I wish I had more of these kinds of conversations in my life.
I really enjoy the chat group videos. We’re always talking about things that are fun and interesting – even though they’re often things that are really stressful for people.”
I got sidetracked by a big work project, and was only able to give 20% of the attention I wanted to give in last year’s Luminator. And yet – it’s made a HUGE impact on every single day of my life. Like – every, single, day, I navigate something easier this year than I did last year, all because of what I learned here.
“I really admire the way you helps me loop back around to connect these insights to my faith. In so many places education is separated from parenting, separate from work, separated from faith – as if it’s all disparate stuff. But it’s not. I know Ashia doesn’t share the same faith – but they have this amazing skill of knitting these things together and making these connections so my parenting insights are cohesive with my faith and my social justice work.”
“The Summer Collective is different from other ‘don’t get burned-out!’ kinds of workshops for parents because of how it’s rooted in Ashia’s commitment to social justice and systemic change.”
Workshop enrollment opens in May.
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Ashia Ray [they/them]
Hi, I’m Ashia Ray—an Autistic multiracial (Chinese/Irish) settler raising two kids on Wampanoag land. I started Raising Luminaries because I couldn’t find a space for social-justice curious caregivers who feel like misfits in parenting & activism spaces.
Raising Luminaries has been a space for parent collaboration since 2014. Along the way, we’ve learned how to build honest, trusting relationships with our kids while equipping them to advocate for themselves and show up for others. Through workshops, toolkits, and thoughtful conversations, I support caregivers in untangling the pressures of modern parenting —providing for the overwhelming the needs of our community paired with the expectation that we must give until we're fried to a crisp. Instead, I focus on helping you care for yourself and your community without perpetuating cycles of saviorism, martyrdom, and burnout.
In Raising Luminaries spaces, we root our learning and advocacy in transformative justice, disability justice, and relationship-based collective liberation. As a multiracial, neurodivergent class migrant who’s navigated life at the intersections of targeted and privileged identities, I know how to hold space for complexity: for parents who are powerful in some ways, targeted in others, and still trying to figure out how to survive. Together, we’ll focus on working within our capacity and focusing our scattered floodlight into a laser-beam of sustainable action.
Still curious?
©2025 Ashia Ray of Raising Luminaries™. All rights reserved.