• These seasonal collectives aren’t for you. You practice sustainable care work so you don’t burn out and become someone else’s problem.
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• If you keep setting yourself on fire to keep others warm, you’ll end up a crispy mess.
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• If you keep running on empty, you’ll let people down in catastrophic ways.
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• You’re already causing damage that you don’t even know about yet. But it’s not too late to change course.
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• Whether it’s your kids, those you show up for, or others who follow in your footsteps – you’re leaving vulnerable people who rely on you to deal with the consequences of showing up to run on fumes.
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• Everything Raising Luminaries creates (particularly our seasonal collectives) is to help progressive caregivers stop harming those they care for under the guise of performative activism, saviorism, and martyrdom.
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• Stop raising incels. Stop prioritizing comfort over community well-being. Stop doing saviorism, martyrdom, and performative busywork. Stop ignorantly upholding the kyriarchy. 
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• If you only want to join us for the appearance of getting your shit together, then this isn’t the space for you. But if you genuinely wish to reorient how you show up for others from the roots up, invest the time it takes to be the change you want to see in the world.

• We run for 6 weeks every winter, starting in early January and continuing through mid-February.
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• Upcoming Winter Incubator Dates:
• 2026: January 4 – February 14
• 2027: January 3 – February 13
• 2028: January 2 – February 12
• 2029: January 7 – February 17
• … and so on

• After you register, we ask you to share your availability and the ways you’d like to be supported.
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• Based on your needs, we’ll pair you up in a 2-6 person cohort of like-minded caregivers to connect in a way that works for you.
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• Regardless of which group you belong to, you’re welcome to drop in for our weekly virtual hangouts – helpful when life gets chaotic and you find yourself scrambling to stay connected.

• Life with kids can get chaotic; we all get sick, and many of our members are managing multiple disabilities. 
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• Not only are you welcome to take what you need and leave the rest for next year (which you’ll be invited to at no cost) – you don’t need to wedge any live sessions into your schedule if you don’t have the time. Just show up as you are and get the support you need.
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• After registering, you’ll be paired up in small cohorts based on how you like to connect (via Zoom, asynchronous video chat, and/or text chat) and how often you’d like to engage.
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• In addition to your caregiver cohort, we host a live drop-in session once a week on Zoom for extra support.
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• If you ever feel like this is all coming at you too fast, remember that we’ve designed the Winter Incubator specifically for overwhelmed caregivers. So if something comes up and you need to step away, you can join us again next year at no additional cost.

• The winter incubator is for caregivers who feel overwhelmed by the demands of caring for everyone else.
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• We’re disrupting toxic hustle culture because scrambling to keep up, consume, and produce upholds the kyriarchy we’re fighting to dismantle.
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• But we’re not doing that here. With our cyclical approach to growth, there is no such thing as ‘falling behind’ here.
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• Attending at least four of our live virtual gatherings may help you connect and develop supportive relationships. However, we also offer a 24/7 asynchronous chat group and written portal discussion threads for members who need accessibility support, play at a different pace, or can’t attend live gatherings.
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If you ever feel like this is all coming at you too fast, remember that we’ve designed the Winter Incubator specifically for overwhelmed caregivers. If something comes up and you need to step away from active participation, you can defer to a future winter session at any time for no additional cost.

You’ll have online access to the winter portal and all downloadable bonus resources for as long as our portal exists. Year-round access means you can download the discussion guides, guidebooks, and resource library materials at your own pace and access them forever.

• Our cohort discussions welcome you into a brave space to pause, reorient yourself, and refuel. These spaces help caregivers who feel frustrated, isolated, and overwhelmed practice and allow us to connect with others who understand our challenges and provide real-time support.
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• These live or asychronous hangouts are a warm and cozy place to explore advocacy tools and how these strategies help us juggle caring for others without burning out.
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• Returning members revisiting these strategies are welcome to join our 24/7 chat group. If you need to talk out a problem at 2 am, we’re here for your chaotic schedule.

• We don’t record our weekly drop-in sessions. Not worrying about being ‘observed’ helps our members share personal stories and challenges without feeling self-conscious.
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• If you’d like to leave personal messages in your cohort’s video chat group, these recordings last one year before being automatically deleted. You can remove your personal messages from the group anytime, no questions asked.
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• And at the end of the winter, we retire our cohort discussions to start fresh for our next session.
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• Most importantly – there is no need to perform, stay anything brilliant, or be charming. We have a ‘no itchy underpants’ rule where you’re encouraged to show up as you are, messy and wearing your coziest stained and threadbare pajamas.
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• We’ll ask a few questions when you register to tailor our group norms, level of engagement, and the ways you feel most comfortable connecting to your preferences and availability. 
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• We’re aiming for cozy and intimate conversations to get to know each other. Of course, our kids will interrupt us. We’ll make space for each other’s chaos, and our sessions are not recorded or shared beyond the group.
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• We use automatically generated live captions on Zoom. Unfortunately, we can’t afford a live ASL interpreter at this time.
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• If you miss a live hangout, you can still connect with us using the 24/7 chat group whenever it works for you.
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