Are the support skills you were taught healing or harming? Are you confident about your ability to act consensually and promote agency during crises? Join us for this four-part training program, including reading and reflection, facilitated discussions, tough questions, and skills practice.
Non-Carceral Collaborators are liberatory practitioners who are dedicated to moving beyond “just don’t call 911” and recognize that learning how to support the expertise of someone who is in crisis is an ongoing practice. Join our next cohort if you are prepared to dig deeper, question your understanding and practice, dialogue with coaches and colleagues, resist the mental health industrial complex, and equip yourselves and your clients with the skills to reduce harm in personally meaningful ways.
- If you aren’t yet ready for this dedicated practice, we invite you to take our self-reflective Non-Carceral Mini Course. We’ll look forward to working with you in the future!
Read below for full program details, to learn about the summer 2025 seminar, and to join our Non-Carceral Collaborators!
Spring 2025 Session sold out! Get on the waiting list for the upcoming program cycle, or join a Non-Carceral Collaborators Session!
Non-Carceral Collaborators: Discussion Group (now offering drop-in sessions!)
Every 2nd and 4th Saturday
2:00 – 3:30p ET / 11a – 12:30p PT
If you’re looking for like-minded care workers who resist carceral practices and the oppression of our community members, then our Non-Carceral Collaborator Discussion groups might be right for you!
Non-Carceral Collaborators gain access to:
- Private non-carceral coaching and consulting group
- Trauma-informed, conscientious facilitation
- Relevant case study discussions
- Caring collaborators, resisting, learning, and challenging their practices alongside you
- Facilitated by Ryder Fox, whose lived experience and over 25 years of professional services with vulnerable populations informs their non-carceral practices.
Cost:
- $55/week for professional practitioners
- $40/week for community caregivers
Non-Carceral Harm Reduction Seminar: Introduction to the impacts of carceral systems and how we can do better
June 22, 2025
It’s back! If you missed out on our Non-Carceral Harm Reduction Training Program in the spring, then this is your chance to dip your toes in. This 2-hour seminar will provide the basics of our Non-Carceral Harm Reduction Training Program, including:
- Confront the dangerous impacts of carceral systems and institutionalized practices such as 988, forced hospitalization, and other non-consensual interventions.
- Learn how to recognize whether your support is helping or hurting.
- Discover and define your own non-carceral framework, within your daily roles and scope of practice.
- Join a community of Non-Carceral Collaborators and begin your liberated practice!
- Gain lived experience insights into chronic suicidality, self harm, psychosis, and other stigmatized mental health experiences in multiply marginalized communities.
- Practice your skills with dimensionalized case studies.
Time: 3pm ET / 12pm PT
Location: fully virtual
Length: 2 hours
Pricing scale: $50, $65, $80, $110; Some scholarships available
Full Training Program Details
Dates for the next program cycle will be announced shortly!
The Non-Carceral Harm Reduction Training Program is an approximately 25-hour training program with a mix of asynchronous and synchronous training. All program elements are required to receive a Certificate of Completion. This program is designed to give learners from a variety of different backgrounds and lived experiences a common language and time for self reflection and self care prior to beginning weekly meetings with your cohort. Our synchronous sessions are participatory and require all Non-Carceral Collaborators to begin with the same terminology and be prepared for skills practices and cohort dialogue. Live training session times will be announced when the next program cycle registration begins.
Pricing scale: $300+ (exact pricing will be announced when the registration cycle opens)
*Please note that there are a limited number of seats available at our lowest two tiers, so purchase yours early! The top two tiers help us to cover the cost of registration for someone who can’t afford the full price. Top two tiers also include a free personalized one-on-one coaching session.
Final date to register: TBD
Purchase our Non-Carceral Harm Reduction Training Program, and receive:
Non-Carceral Harm Reduction Full Course Workbook
This course prerequisite will help you to re-evaluate carceral approaches to suicide, self harm, psychosis, and other stigmatized mental health experiences, all from a trauma-informed and lived-experience lens.
- Define your non-carceral values and align your practice within a healing framework.
- Discover the truth about 988 and other harmful practices.
- Grapple with common misconceptions and questions about how you can uphold non-carceral values within carceral systems.
- Learn how to implement non-carceral approaches consensually
- Prepare yourself for deeper collaborative dialogue and valuable insights from the THRIVE Lifeline and Stronger U teams
- Self-guided, asynchronous; ~8 hours; Materials will be emailed when we confirm your registration with you.
Group Training #1: Reframing Healing through Harm Reduction
Non-carceral support can feel murky without comrades who understand and mentors who guide your practice. Training 2 in this program will deepen your knowledge and skills through facilitated peer discussions and case scenarios.
- Do better during crisis periods
- Ask the tough questions
- Get answers that you won’t find elsewhere
- Differentiate between ‘savior complex’ and consensual, co-creative interventions
- Connect with other non-carceral collaborators
- *Training 1 is a required prerequisite and cohort participation is mandatory
- April 6; 3:00p – 6:00p ET (12:00p – 3:00p PT)
Group Training #2: Consensual Harm Reduction Skills Practice
The Non-Carceral Harm Reduction Program culminates in this dedicated skills practice. Collaborate with your cohort to implement consensual, non-carceral harm reduction approaches into hypothetical case studies rooted in common multiply marginalized crisis experiences. Discover how to use Stronger U approaches to uphold safer non-carceral spaces in nuanced crisis situations, such as when:
- Your mandatory reporter status conflicts with the details of what someone needs to discuss
- You realize that you cannot meet the conflicting needs when others are involved
- You recognize that the resources that someone desperately needs do not exist or are inaccessible to them
- *Trainings 1 – 2 are required prerequisites and cohort participation is mandatory
- TBD
5-Weeks of Non-Carceral Collaborators Discussion Group
- Deepen your non-carceral knowledge through hour-long group coaching sessions
- Dates TBD
Additional Details
- Facilitated by: Ryder Fox, M.S., a queer, neurodivergent, ommunity organizer, non-carceral wellness coach, and educator.
- Sponsorship: We appreciate the support of people who have the financial access to sponsor those who might not be able to attend this program otherwise. If you are interested in sponsoring a participant, please email our team to let us know at: info@strongeruwellness.com. We will invoice you separately.
Want to be notified of our next program dates? Sign up for our waitlist using the “I’m interested” button below! We will stay in touch with you with upcoming details.
Disclaimer
While we believe that affirming coaching and consultations can be transformative, Stronger U does not purport to prevent, cure, or treat any mental health, medical disease, injury, or physical condition. While our coaches are highly skilled and qualified, they do not provide licensed therapy, treatment (clinical or otherwise) or diagnoses. We coach members and clients through holistic wellness practices, which are not a substitute for counseling, psychotherapy, medical or mental healthcare, substance abuse treatment, or any other professional advice offered by qualified medical or legal professionals.
If you are in need of immediate support, various non-carceral options may be found at this link.