Webinars
We kick off each term with a free webinar, followed by 3-5 more sessions on Fridays through the term. Our Webinars are low-cost community gathering spaces where we practice skills together and dig deep into core concepts. These are discounted or free for our Patreon members and retainer clients. The topics that we choose for these webinars are often representative of the growing edge of our work, resulting in highly generative discussions. Below are our upcoming webinars & you can access our archive of all previous webinars available on bluelight.academy
We also present private webinars! If you are interested and would like to request our collective members to participate in a panel or serve as a speaker for an event, please reach out to us with the event logistics.
How do we make decisions as a worker cooperative that is committed to sharing power and equitably distributing responsibilities? We are a diverse group with shifting capacity, navigating a wide array of access needs and neurodivergences so we need to utilize responsive systems that can meet our adapting needs over time.
In this free webinar we will share what we've learned about collective and collaborative governance, including highlighting core tools, systems, and practices that we implement as a group and share with our clients through out consulting and training services. We will also share about "Sociocracy," or "Dynamic Governance," a framework for collective decision making and internal structures for workload distribution grounded in circles, consent and feedback.
Join us on May 16th from 2-3:30 PT / 3-4:30 MT / 4-5:30 CT / 5-6:30 ET, to learn more and ask questions about our internal structures and governance practices. This webinar will also be recorded, so sign up even if you can't attend live and you will still get access to the whole presentation!
What are common challenges to effectively practicing shared decision making? What are the similarities and differences between consensus and consent based decision making? How can we collaboratively make decisions in a timely and efficient manner? There are the questions we will explore in the upcoming Consensus + Conflict Webinar.
Join us on May 30th from 2-3:30 PT / 3-4:30 MT / 4-5:30 CT / 5-6:30 ET, to learn more and ask questions about participatory decision making and generative conflict. This webinar will also be recorded, so sign up even if you can't attend live and you will still get access to the whole presentation!
How can organizations adapt to shifts in trend funding and evolving political landscapes? What does it look like to shift language in our materials, while remaining true to our core values and communicating those commitments to our communities? As our team has been holding internal strategy sessions to respond to executive orders in 2025, as well as supporting our clients to do the same, we decided to hold a more public space to share best practices and tools.
Join us on June 27th from 2-3:30 PT / 3-4:30 MT / 4-5:30 CT / 5-6:30 ET, to learn more and ask questions about adapting organizational strategy. This webinar will also be recorded, so sign up even if you can't attend live and you will still get access to the whole presentation!
Registration for this session includes access to a private strategy coaching session with a Spring Up consultant to support you in translating these tools to your organization's specific challenges and opportunities.
Join Spring Up collective members this 4th of July for a webinar on Indigenous Sovereignty and multi-racial solidarity strategies we can all participate in. Together, we will learn about Land Back and rematriation initiatives on Turtle Island, disrupting colonial ecologies, and transnational connections with Palestine and beyond. *A portion of the proceeds for this webinar will go directly to Native-led mutual aid efforts.*
This webinar takes place on July 4th from 2-3:30 PT / 3-4:30 MT / 4-5:30 CT / 5-6:30 ET and will be recorded, so sign up even if you can't attend live and you will still get access to the whole conversation!
How does our socialization into race in the United States shape our psychology, habits, and preferences? What can we each do to understand our own psyches, and intentionally shift our behavior toward more liberatory instincts and behaviors regardless of our background? This webinar will share core lessons from liberation psychology about the internalization of oppression and what tools, practices, and facilitation strategies can support us in working together across difference.
Join us on July 18th from 2-3:30 PT / 3-4:30 MT / 4-5:30 CT / 5-6:30 ET, to learn more and ask questions about race and liberation psychology. This webinar will also be recorded, so sign up even if you can't attend live and you will still get access to the whole presentation!
Access to this webinar is INCLUDED FOR FREE when you register for the paired daylong retreat on July 25th, Solidarity Strategies: Equitable Multi-Racial Collaboration.
This webinar explores how the invisibilization of feminized forms of labor (like emotional labor) contributes to burn out. We will learn about the larger economic patterns that these inequities are embedded in, and how they show up specifically in nonprofits and education. With the vision to shift these patterns, we will discuss boundaries and strategies to implement in our lives and organizations as we learn about the powerful movements that continue to address these inequities.
Join us on August 15th from 2-3:30 PT / 3-4:30 MT / 4-5:30 CT / 5-6:30 ET, to learn more and ask questions. This webinar will also be recorded, so sign up even if you can't attend live and you will still get access to the whole presentation!
This webinar is for you if:
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You are burnt out from offering unpaid labor at your workplace
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You are wondering how to reduce the harm perpetuated by the invisibilization of feminized forms of labor
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You are a parent and balancing reproductive labor with your job
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You are interested in how gender and gendering types of labor shapes our lives
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You have a vision for gender liberation and centering marginalized forms of labor!
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You are thinking critically about gendered forms of labor and how invisibilization can serve to both oppress those performing the labor as well as hide the reproduction of oppressive values
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You experience gender privilege and want to understand the inequities of gendered labor and participate in changing these patterns
WEBINARS & RETREATS
Daylong Virtual Retreats
Our public retreats take some of our most requested content from our work with groups and organizations, and make them available to a broader audience. Upon completing a one-day retreat, participants will leave with both theoretical frameworks and concrete resources to support their work within their community. You can book any of our retreat topics for your private org or group.
On access: these retreats are virtual, offered in English with closed captions. All of our daylong retreats take place on Fridays from 8:30am-2:30pm PST / 9:30am-3:30pm MST / 11:30am - 5:30pm EST with an hour break included. Written and captioned video materials to prepare will be shared in advance. Upon registration, participants will fill out a survey to share access needs. If we cannot meet those needs, we will reach out and offer a refund and alternate options.
This summer, we are offering retreats on Practicing Cooperation: Power + Consent in Decision Making, Liberatory Facilitation: Holding Space to be Free Together, Solidarity Strategies: Equitable Multi-Racial Collaboration, and Harm Systems Design: Non-Punitive Approaches from Organizing to HR. Daylong retreats are the perfect way to devote space and time to your learning and growth. All retreats come with a 1:1 coaching session with a Spring Up consultant as well as access to retreat materials on our bluelight academy platform.
What does it take to be free together? And, what is the role of the facilitator/educator in supporting that freedom?
Join the Spring Up Collective and peer facilitators in learning the 5 core principles in practicing liberatory facilitation.
The daylong retreat is great for anyone who facilitates learning experiences, whether they are teachers, trainers, community accountability facilitators, or leaders. Through dismantling notions of what ‘should’ happen in facilitated spaces and how people ‘should’ learn, participants learn skills to lead people and spaces towards differentiation and self-directed learning.
This fully virtual daylong retreat takes place on on Friday June 20th, 2025 from 8:30am-2:30pm PDT / 9:30am-3:30pm MDT / 11:30am-5:30pm EDT with a 1 hour break from 11:30am-12:30pm PDT/ 12:30pm-1:30pm MDT/ 2:30pm-3:30pm EDT.
This if for you if:
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You want to experience a liberatory space as a participant
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You have struggled to make virtual meetings or training spaces feel relational, engaging, fun and experiential
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You want to make your spaces more trauma informed / responsive
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You have felt frozen or anxious when something goes wrong while you are facilitating
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You have seen participants call each other or you out or say harmful things, and were unsure of how to respond
Friday, May 23rd 2025
How do we navigate power and difference equitably? What personal skills and collaborative tools can we each learn in order to practice consent with ourselves and one another? Are you curious to know more about sociocracy and practice consent based decision making in real time?
Join the Spring Up Collective and peer practitioners in learning the 4 core steps to practice consent based decision making and feedback across power lines.
This daylong virtual retreat is great for anyone who is interested in deepening their understanding of power and skills of consent based decision making. Within the retreat, participants will examine how both formal and informal power show up in our lives and unpack the 4 core steps to consent based decision making including internal consent, decision making tools, communication skills, and feedback practices.
This fully virtual daylong retreat takes place on Friday May 23rd from 8:30am-2:30pm PDT / 9:30am-3:30pm MDT / 11:30am-5:30pm EDT with a 1 hour break from 11:30am-12:30pm PDT/ 12:30pm-1:30pm MDT/ 2:30pm-3:30pm EDT.
This if for you if:
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You are curious about how the framework of consent can apply in everyday situations beyond intimacy
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You want to learn more about sociocracy and innovative internal structures and practices to better live into your values
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You often feel like your boundaries are being pushed or you are moving toward burnout and want tangible skills to self-advocate while still getting your work done
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Your organization or collective has informal decision making norms that you would like to make more codified to work effectively across power differences
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You want tangible ways to incorporate everyones voice in decision making without getting bogged down by process
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Your organization is thinking about moving from consensus based decision making toward consent based decision making
Friday, June 20th 2025
This retreat explores the 3 core binaries of race and white supremacy through the lens of settler colonialism and genocidal logics, xenophobia and war logics, and anti-Blackness and carceral logics. Together we explore the ways that these different frameworks reinforce separation and harm between people and communities of color, undermining collective struggles for liberation.
This fully virtual daylong retreat takes place on Friday, July 25th from 8:30am-2:30pm PDT / 9:30am-3:30pm MDT / 11:30am-5:30pm EDT with a 1 hour break from 11:30am-12:30pm PDT/ 12:30pm-1:30pm MDT/ 2:30pm-3:30pm EDT.
Registration for this retreat INCLUDES free access to My Liberation is Tied to Yours: Race + Liberation Psychology, a 90 minute webinar taking place on Friday July 18th from 2-3:30 PT / 3-4:30 MT / 4-5:30 CT / 5-6:30 ET (the recording of this webinar will be included in the platform and accessible regardless of if you can attend live or not)
Friday, July 25th 2025
Harm is pervasive in communities and institutions, how an organization responds to the harm is it's accountability in action.
Join the Spring Up Collective and peer practitioners in learning from our organizational accountability wheel.
The daylong retreat is great for organizational leaders, people from Human Resources or community accountability teams or entrepreneurs thinking about how to create systems in their endeavors. Through an examination of Organizational Accountability, what harm looks like in the participants’ context, and consideration of the legal liability requirements of organizations, participants will leave with examples and inspirations of how they can respond to harm given their unique context.
This fully virtual retreat takes place on Friday, August 8th from 8:30am-2:30pm PDT / 9:30am-3:30pm MDT / 11:30am-5:30pm EDT with a 1 hour break from 11:30am-12:30pm PDT/ 12:30pm-1:30pm MDT/ 2:30pm-3:30pm EDT.
This is for you if:
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You have been told that your organization or people within it have harmed folks in the community, their colleagues, or program participants
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The system designed to respond to a harm you've experienced did not comprehensively meet your needs
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Your organization keeps being pulled into controversies and conflicts in community and you are unsure how to set boundaries around what is your place to address
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You have heard about transformative justice and are curious how those philosophies and principles could be applied in your organization
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You want to think about accountability beyond task completion and deadlines
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You want to think about harm response beyond legal liability and HR
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People on your team are burnt out and overwhelmed
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Your team or community have experienced “incidents,” “DEI breaches,” microaggressions, anonymous social media accounts, or public call outs
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Feedback on your team tends to be either only positive or quite harsh
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Your organization's values conflict with your HR protocols
Friday, August 8th 2025
Private Webinars & Retreats
Interested in booking a retreat or webinar for your group?