For Lumos, our sliding-scale model has always been a living practice of class solidarity. It allows people to contribute at levels aligned with their access to social, mental, economic, emotional and physical privilege so that more people can participate in spaces of healing and collective transformation. But over time, we saw that something important was not being said clearly enough.
We want to be more honest and transparent with everyone about how we’ve functioned as an organization in the past and how we’re functioning as an organization today. Lumos once operated through a funding model that allowed us to be “the rock” for our community: steady, accessible, always there. We had large government contracts doing equity work across the U.S., including significant partnerships like our work with the Los Angeles Department of Health Services. Those contracts covered our salaries, which meant we could offer pro bono and low-cost community programs without asking much of the people we served. It worked, and we genuinely felt as though we were inching towards living in the kind of world we dream of. But with rising fascism in the U.S. and globally, things are changing fast. We need to strengthen our armor and our skills in resource redistribution, and we want to be real with everyone about what this looks like for us at Lumos.
Under the Trump regime, we have lost three-quarters of our annual revenue. Three-quarters, y’all. Our contracts have been blocked, and organizations that would normally have federal funding to hire us are now prohibited from doing equity work at all. It’s a direct hit to our funding and an indirect depletion of the resources we need in the trauma healing ecosystem we work within. We cannot meet our bottom line and our team is struggling. For the last seven months, salaries for facilitators and directors have been cut by 25% in order to shield our team members who earn lower hourly rates from enduring any cuts that would threaten their financial survival. Our founder Nkem has not been paid in 13 months. We are not settling for this model of exploitation.
It’s time we start getting real with ourselves and each other in ways that will certainly feel uncomfortable but that we believe will actually move us towards creating the world we want to live in, right here, right now. And it starts with all of us here in the Lumos Community.
Choosing a tier is not just a financial decision. It is a relational one. We are choosing to be a part of this community. We are choosing to help sustain each other and our livelihoods as liberation soldiers doing the damn work.
This isn’t just about money. It’s about refusing to dehumanize ourselves by pretending we don’t need support to sustain this work. We’re inviting you into right relationship with us, rooted in a shared sense of mutuality and care. We’re asking you to look honestly at your access to resources, your privilege, and how you’re showing up in this community and in the world at large. If you have the means to pay at the Partially Supported or Actual Cost level for all of our offerings across the board, we’re lovingly asking you to do so. If your financial situation has shifted from when you first subscribed to our community, we invite you to consider upgrading to an Actual Cost or Sustainer Cost monthly subscription.
Liberation actually requires all of us to practice interdependence: to give what we can, to receive what we need, to respect each other’s humanity more fully, through our actions.
We’re inviting you into deeper reflection about yourself, how you navigate this world and how you can make more intentional choices about the ways you invest in the things that sustain you and others over time. To actually build the interdependent systems of liberation for the future we’re all reaching toward, brick by brick. This is the work. Not just the healing practices we teach, but the way we show up together, the way we resource each other, the way we refuse to silence our needs in service of an old story about who deserves support and who has the means to give it. We’re not settling for this myth of scarcity that would rather have us convinced we don’t have more to give each other when that is what is called for, and neither should you.
This is how redistribution becomes real.
This is how we strengthen our collective ability to create interlocking systems of liberation without collapsing into fear or giving into the myth of scarcity that big corporations profit from.
Here is the updated tier language that now appears on all of our offerings:
Important Note About Pricing
Lumos’ sliding-scale pricing model is class solidarity in practice, a commitment to redistributing resources based on ability and need.
We all exist within shared conditions of instability, inequity, and possibility, and our wellbeing depends on collective participation and mutual care.
Your contribution disrupts narratives of scarcity and grounds us in abundance and the knowledge that there are enough resources for healing when we redistribute them intentionally in service of collective liberation.
- Actual Cost – This reflects the actual cost of offering this program, including fair wages for facilitators and staff. Choose this rate if you have stable income, access to savings or family wealth, or if your registration is covered by your employer, organization, or personal network. Paying the actual cost sustains Lumos and makes supported and scholarship spots possible.
- Partially Supported – Choose this solidarity rate if paying the full cost would cause financial strain or if you have limited disposable income, irregular work, or are not sponsored by an employer. Paying at this level allows partial cost recovery while maintaining access for others.
- Fully Supported – This community care scholarship is for those experiencing financial hardship, including difficulty meeting basic needs such as housing, food, or healthcare. Scholarship participants are essential to the integrity of our community. Your presence ensures that this learning space reflects the realities of our wider world.
Reflect as You Choose Your Contribution
In addition to your current income, please consider the broader picture of your social and economic positioning. If you can answer yes to some of these questions, please purchase Actual Cost and Partially Supported tickets for our offerings:
- Your race and the generational impacts of racialized wealth and exclusion
- Are you white or non-Black? Consider your financial support as a form of reparations to Lumos, a Black-owned organization.
- Your immigration status and work authorization
- Are you securely employed and not at immediate risk of losing access to your job, family, or home due to ICE’s ongoing illegal deportations (kidnappings)?
- Your sexuality and gender identities
- Do you identify as straight and cisgender? Consider your financial support as a form of allyship to our queer and trans staff and members of the Lumos Community.
- Your physical ability and access to healthcare
- Can you lift 20 pounds without injuring yourself? Can you sit or stand for more than 15 minutes without being in excruciating pain? Do you have access to a vehicle? The truth is, many of us at Lumos are multiply disabled people who need more support than we’re getting.
- Your education level and inherited or family wealth
- Did you go to high school? Do you have a college degree? Do you have savings? Does your family own a home?
- Your economic and caregiving responsibilities
- Are you without children or any elders you need to take care of? Are you only providing for yourself?
- Your influence or power within your workplace or sector
- Are you a boss? A CEO? Director? Shareholder?
- Whether you are located in the Global North or South
- Do you reside in the belly of the beast (a.k.a. the USA / Indigenous Turtle Island) or any other colonial territories like England, Britain, or Germany?
Thank you for choosing your contribution with awareness, courage, and care. Your participation helps sustain a community where healing is not a privilege but a shared right, and where those who hold the work can continue to show up fully.
You will now see this updated language on all program and course pages. We invite you to rest with it, self-locate honestly, and participate in resourcing a community that makes healing possible for many.
We need each other. We get free together.
