CARE in Community
Lab Lessons
Schedule of Events:
Note: All Lab Lessons will be released on-demand at the times listed below. The Synthesizing Workshop will still be live, online.
Strategies for Liberating Care from Ableism
Date: Tuesday, February 7, 2023
Time: 11:00am MT - 12:30pm MT (10am PT, 12pm CT, 1pm ET)
Location: On-demand webinar
Strategies for Liberating Care from Carcerality
Date: Wednesday, February 8, 2023
Time: 11:00am MT - 12:30pm MT (10am PT, 12pm CT, 1pm ET)
Location: On-demand webinar
Strategies for Liberating Care from Capitalism
Date: Thursday, February 9, 2023
Time: 11:00am MT - 12:30pm MT (10am PT, 12pm CT, 1pm ET)
Location: On-demand webinar
Synthesizing Workshop
Date: Friday, February 10, 2023
Time: 11:00am MT - 1:00pm MT (10am PT, 12pm CT, 1pm ET)
Location: Live, online interactive workshop
Lab Lesson Descriptions:
Strategies for Liberating Care from Ableism
Going beyond accommodations and accessibility, this Lab Lesson explores the white supremacist and colonial roots of ableism, how it manifests in the mental health industrial complex (MHIC) and paths toward abolishing its presence in your life and work. We’ll explore how ableism intersects with other systems of oppression. Participants will be invited to learn, adopt and elevate the mad, mentally ill and disability justice and liberation movement principles.
This Lab Lesson is designed to disrupt conditioned power dynamics, cure paradigms and “professionalism” inherent in the MHIC as we re-center client sovereignty, body autonomy, consent and wisdom.
We'll explore how ableism is the crux of how mental, emotional and relational "illness" and "wellness" are defined, acquired, treated and weaponized. We'll explore the notion that without ableism, the DSM would not exist, and how we can construct liberatory alternatives.
Strategies for Liberating Care from Carcerality
Prison Abolition, healing justice and liberation movement members have been mapping stories and incidences of the presence and impact of carcerality in our medical and mental health systems for generations. The prison industrial complex (PIC) and the web of carcerality is so tightly wrapped around the systems that authorize care providers it can feel overwhelming to determine our individual roles in liberating care systems from this web. Since carcerality is not just an external system we can address the carceral constructs we have in our personal and relational ideologies and dynamics as we partner with one another to identify how we can begin to detach our businesses, ethics and care practices from the carceral norm. We have a long lineage of past and present abolitionist practitioners to learn from and engage with. This Lab Lesson is intended to reveal the hard truths about carceral care tactics that have been normalized within the MHIC so that we can shine the light on the pathways leading us out. We will not engage in a historical accounting of carceral care, though participants will be given resources for learning more. We encourage folks to do a bit of research ahead of time if they are unfamiliar with carcerality and the role it plays in mental health care, healing and health.
Strategies for Liberating Care from Capitalism
Capitalism is more than an economic structure. Capitalism is a psychology with a specific set of relational norms that dictate how we situate ourselves and others in the larger context of a “functioning civilized society.” The goal of this Lab Lesson is to contextualize capitalized care with other systems of oppression such as colonization, white supremacy, classism and ableism. Participants will learn more about the psychology of capitalism, how it functions in the MHIC and liberatory alternatives. Since we live in a colonial capitalist society, it is important for participants that liberating care from capitalism is highly nuanced and will not be perfect. Radical imagination, flexibility and intentional adaptation are essential companions for the journey!
Important Details:
Registration fee: We offer a pay what you can pricing model for LAB WEEK of $75, $95 or $105. Our goal is to offer a high value and transformative service at a low barrier price. Those with greater access to wealth that wish to contribute toward the cost of someone else to join is welcome to pay the Redistribution Rate of $155. This would allow us to offer a $50 scholarship via mutual aid to those with lower access to wealth.
Each LAB WEEK! is capped at 60 participants
Cancellation policy: Full refund up to 7-days before the Open Lab Session begins. No refund is given if cancellation is made within 7 days of the session. However, we do know that emergencies and unexpected events do happen, so we are willing to allow people to transfer their payment (one time) to another LAB WEEK! for emergency situations if the refund deadline is missed. The cancellation policy supports the technology and labor of the LAB WEEK! facilitator, trainer, support team member(s) and other contributors leading up to the program, which is largely based on number, knowledge base and skill level of registrants.
Language access: Lab Lessons and Synthesizing Workshops are held on Zoom in spoken English with English automated captions. Any pre-recorded video content created by Ominira Labs or our contributors will have closed captions. Specific access requests can be made on the registration form.
Recording & replay: Each live Lab Lesson is recorded. Participants are not required to leave their videos on. Lab Lesson replays will be made available to registered participants for 90-days.