With this project, Lumos will resource and support organizations advancing rights worldwide. Our goal is to help small- to medium-sized organizations create sustainable, liberated ways of working. Through a combination of training in the Resilience Toolkit and facilitated practice support, we aim to resource organizations to move beyond a struggle-only mentality and toward a transformative vision rooted in collective imagination, sustainability, and connection.

The Resilience Toolkit is a framework developed by Lumos Transforms. Grounded in theory and evidence, the Toolkit’s embodied, trauma-informed approach empowers participants with the knowledge and skills to understand the language of their bodies and emotions in relationship to the people, places, and situations in their lives, including the impacts of racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression. The Toolkit teaches real-time, brief mind-body practices to regulate overactive and detrimental responses, coupled with support in navigating ambivalence and other obstacles to developing robust and regular habits of Toolkit practice. Over time, people are better able to maintain emotional regulation and return to equilibrium when they become dysregulated, effectively stabilizing the impacts of personal and collective trauma. Foundational stabilization organically aids people to build stronger, more enduring relational connections and to generate creative strategies for changing material conditions and circumstances in their lives, as well as deep-dive trauma healing and culture change work. 

Lumos invites small to medium-sized English-speaking human rights organizations with up to 100 staff members to apply. For the pilot round, eligible organizations should be headquartered in the United Kingdom. In order to assemble a diverse cohort, we are looking for organizations that advance rights in a range of sectors (e.g., rights for women, workers, immigrants, LGBTQIA+, etc.) and through a variety of approaches (e.g., legal advocacy, policy-making, direct community services, etc.).

Each selected organization will receive:

• Three weeks of foundational immersion in the Resilience Toolkit approach (weekly two-hour sessions for three weeks; six hours total) for all leadership and staff. 
• Eight weeks of facilitated practice groups (weekly 30-minute sessions for eight weeks; four hours total) to help leadership and staff integrate and sustain Resilience Toolkit skills, fostering an internal organizational culture of relational connection and sustainability.

Additionally, upon completion of the initial 11-week capacity building phase, organizations will nominate up to two staff members for the Lumos Resilience Toolkit Certification Fellows program, an in-depth 13-month training that equips participants with the knowledge, skills, and mentorship to deepen and disseminate embodied liberatory practices throughout their communities and across their fields. 

Participating organizations are asked to commit to having a minimum of 75% of their leadership and staff participate in a three-week foundational training and an eight-week community of practice (weekly facilitated group sessions to deepen and embed Toolkit skills). 

As part of this commitment, organizations are asked to provide a total of 10 hours of compensated time over an 11-week period, free of other work duties, for leadership and staff to attend sessions (two hours/week for the initial three-part Resilience Toolkit, plus 30 minutes/week for eight weeks of practice groups). 

Selected organizations must agree to send at least 75% of leadership and staff through the 3-week foundational immersion and 8 weeks of practice groups. Provided this requirement is fulfilled, you may also include members of your board of trustees and/or volunteers in addition to your leadership and staff. All participants must be 18 years of age or older.

• 5 March 2025 – Applications open
• 4 April 2025 – Applications close
• 5- 15 April 2025 – Applications reviewed
• 16 – 30 April 2025 – Applicant interviews
• 1 – 31 May 2025 – Selected organizations notified and onboarded to the project
• June 2025 – Resilience Toolkit cohorts begin on a rolling basis

Lumos can accommodate up to 150 individuals for the pilot launch of this project. We anticipate selecting approximately 3-5 organizations to participate in the initial phase. The exact number of selected organizations depends on the staff size of the organizational applicants.

No. This project is generously funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and individual supporters from the Lumos community. All capacity building activities are provided free of charge to selected organizations.

Organizations use the Resilience Toolkit to cultivate a more supportive work culture by helping staff manage stress and build resilience in a sustainable way. Through structured, trauma-informed practices, the Toolkit empowers employees to recognize and regulate stress and trauma responses, promoting both personal and collective well-being. Staff develop tools for navigating complex organizational dynamics with greater ease and emotional stability, ultimately fostering an environment of trust, connection, and empathy that ripples out to the work they do in the world. 

By foregrounding the development of individual embodied resilience—the capacity for self-awareness, self-regulation, emotional intelligence, and empathy—people are better equipped to understand how trauma manifests in ways that impact mental, emotional, and social functioning personally and professionally. These skills not only reduce unnecessary interpersonal conflict but also increase effective, compassionate communication, fostering an improved workplace culture and more sustainable ways of working. These skills support people to actually embody, rather than perform, trauma-informed values such as trustworthiness, mutuality, and cultural humility, in their professional behavior and the policies, procedures, and programs they develop and implement.

For rights organizations addressing systemic challenges and working toward social justice, the Toolkit also provides a framework to prevent the replication of oppressive dynamics internally, allowing teams to shift from solely reactive problem-solving to proactive, visionary thinking.

Organizations will gain:

• Practical, sustainable skills to build resilience, manage stress and trauma, and navigate complex relational dynamics more effectively;
• A deeply embedded culture of relational connection, resilience, and embodied awareness, freeing teams to move beyond constant struggle and toward creative, collaborative change;

The opportunity to train select staff as Resilience Toolkit facilitators through the Certification Fellows program, enabling them to share these skills more broadly within their organization and communities.

After the initial program, participating organizations will select up to two staff members to join the Lumos Resilience Toolkit Certification Fellows program. This fellowship deepens their understanding of embodied resilience and equips them to train others, including their colleagues, partners, and the communities with which their organization works. Certification Fellows will become essential resources in sustaining a culture of sustainable, liberatory practices within and beyond their organizations. 

Staff who are selected as Certification Fellows are expected to participate in the following program requirements: 

• Certification Training: 
  • 18 weeks
  • Average of six hours per week, plus an additional three 4.5-hour workshop intensive sessions
• Post-Certification Mentorship: 
  • Eight months
  • One 90-minute session per month

For more details, please visit our Certification page.

Yes, the Resilience Toolkit is designed to be accessible to people of all body types and movement abilities. Its practices are adaptable to various physical capacities, so participants can engage at their own pace and comfort level, regardless of fitness level or mobility needs.

Details on the application process, including deadlines and submission requirements, are available on our website here. 

For questions about eligibility, the program, or the application process, please contact program manager Juliana Nocker Ferry at juliana@lumostransforms.com.