RAD(ical) Care

Interpretive services are available for this session upon request.

We want you to join us in our conspiracy to create an anti-oppression curriculum that actually works.

Through storytelling, we will gather the experiences of organizers within oppressive systems. We will explore RAD Care: Radical – solutions that address the root of problems, Accessible – disability justice and inclusivity beyond the state, and Decolonizing – internalized oppressive methodologies. Examining historical and current failures or successes will help organizers heal and transform the Non Profit Industrial Complex through mutual care/(aid). We want to build intersectional spaces in media and organizing for people who don’t have spaces: those of us who are queer, trans, disabled, people of color, drug users, sex workers, PLWH, undocumented, refugees and immigrants. Ultimately, RADical Care aims to collaboratively propose some ways we can create change in our work, ourselves, and social media. We are having an in person gathering in the Pacific Northwest and will be interactively livestreaming to those who are registered. The in-person gathering and interactive components will be limited based on our facilitator capacity which is based on our fundraising so please consider donating.

We are currently recruiting for participants and have some mini-grants available for participants. Also we have space for one more organizer/facilitator/planner for the event which includes a stipend of $300 and free registration for the whole AMC conference. CoG centers indigenous/native two-spirit and trans people with disabilities. Partial funding comes from SERO and thus we are specifically interested in recruiting folks who are at risk for acquiring HIV or PWLHIV. Attendees and organizers can apply using the same form and apply to get a mini-grant to attend.

Link to sign up to apply to attend and/or to participate more:
https://forms.gle/6RjsuonFZaAH9E4S7

*Attendees will have different levels of engagement based on applications. Anyone is welcome to attend as a viewer but we will have a limited supply of seats for folks to actively collaborate. The sooner you sign up the more likely you will be chosen to participate. More info and/or letter to recruit facilitators is below. Please reach out to us if you have any questions.

ISO: AMC Lead Facilitator ($300 stipend)

We are looking for someone who experiences intersectional identities (most of the folks we engage are qtpoc with disabilities, who because of these intersectional identities are usually also survivors) and has skills and/or interest in propagating the following skill sets:

Help facilitate day of activities
Help plan day of activities
Outreach and Recruitment of participants
- May include Press Release and other copy editing
- Correspondence with participants
Fundraising – actively spread the word about fundraising activities
- Help as needed with production, grant writing, and etc
Help create Rad Care Manual

If you are interested in joining us please send an email to admin at conspiracyofgeniuses.org with some information about yourself and what you would bring to this project. You can send a resume if you have one but since “we” often have experience that is outside of normal resume building experiences, we recognize that resumes often do not actually tell us much. Also this is not a “job” but a collaborative labor of love, an opportunity to co-create something magical… that also has a stipend. We do not have a deadline as finding the right person is most important to us but it is better to send us a simple email now letting us know you are interested as we will be reviewing on a rolling basis.

We also have a position open for someone dedicated to fundraiser(s). To apply for this position please reply with a sentence or two on how you would do fundraising. We currently have a small budget ($1000) to use for fundraising and are seeking proposals from someone who wants to manage fundraising for this event. If you are in Seattle/PNW then we can utilize the CoG Screen Printing Press, Sewing Machines and Spiral Bindery (paper).

Maybe you are asking yourself what exactly does that initial description even mean? It is hard to describe a dream in short. In other words, we are bringing voices together to discuss the ways activism, organizing, and the NonProfit Industrial Complex (NPIC) has harmed many of us. Moreover we are working on creating a living document (or website or training or something) that can be used to teach our communities. We want this training to be intersectional and expansive. In other words, often trainings are based on just one identity and are easy to not internalize because they are passive trainings. So we now have people running around saying they were trained in this or that so they can’t be stigmatizing people when really they never changed their attitudes and behaviors.

We will work together through May and June to put together a preliminary document for attendees to give feedback on. Additionally we will have time and space for participants to share their experiences and how they wish things would be different specifically to develop a training. There will also be a few slots for people to be interviewed prior to the conference if they have a lot to say and/or the conference is not accessible to them. We have limited $75 Fred Meyer Gift Certificates available for interviewees.

We will have pre-registration for individuals who want to share and participate. These moments are to elicit feedback; not to be a social support group type sharing. We recognize that the NPIC has harmed many of us even more progressive and radical organizations. We are working to build tools to help those who wish to build competencies. Our focus is on disability justice (primarily for this event) because that is the type of justice that we rarely are offered but everyone we are trying to recruit for the gathering would likely have intersectional identities, one of which being disabled.

Even More information:

We will use Storytelling and Theatre of the Oppressed for social change so participants can embody the feeling of healing and find solutions to burnout and resisting oppressive bullies and white dominator culture. We want to begin the work of creating a queer and trans living history through our discursive storytelling. When we discuss radical care it will be through a lens of accountability and mutual care (aid). This should enable us to move beyond surviving to sustained thriving movements and holding onto joy even during burnout. We want to imagine organizing principles without a revolving door scenario in leadership, and we believe that we need to explore trauma informed care, harm reduction and transformative justice to heal our leaders and communities. As we explore these methodologies we aim to discuss the issue of appropriation, its effects and how to avoid it by utilizing oral history.
https://amc.alliedmedia.org/network-gathering/radical-care

Recruitment Letter:

Hello Magical Friend,

We believe you would be an amazing addition to our Network Gathering at the AMC this year. We want to hear from you asap. If you know of others who would be a good fit, please share this with them. While we do not have a large budget we can offer free registration to the whole AMC and a base stipend of $300, possibly more depending on availability and contribution. For this position we ask that you can make yourself available for our whole network gathering (about a day/six or so hours) and all/most of our pre-planning meetings. We ask that you share outreach and fundraising posts/email to your social media and forward them to your networks so we can have the most magical gathering ever.

Even More information:

CONTACT LEAD ORGANIZER:

smitty[@]conspiracyofgeniuses.org