Care with, not care for.
THE TRAMPOLINE PROJECT is for people who have dreams of building something different - independent businesses aligned with their values and access needs, mutual aid networks or other anti-capitalist entrepreneurial ideas. Folks who are seeking support, shared wisdom, and collaborative problem solving in their process of radically reimagining. People orientated toward an intentional sharing of resources and building of community.
Those who believe that autonomy and mutuality are not exclusive of one another, that caring with one another is both possible, and necessary.
Why is this called “The Trampoline Project?”
We thought about calling our project an incubator but that felt too corporate/agricultural. We thought about calling it a training program, but that didn't fit our value of mutuality. In the meantime we were having experiences of our knowledge and work being appropriated by others without credit, or without the respect for the revolutionary core of our work, which made us feel like "stepping stones" for other people. So we didn't want to be an incubator, a training program, or a stepping stone. "Project Trampoline" started as a joke about our collective energy being both silly and subversive, with variable levels of intensity and chaos and sometimes unpredictable directionality. Eventually we realized that it was also the name that felt most reflective of our intentions, which is to help others launch their projects or take them to a higher level and to develop a community for finding joy, resilience, and sustainability in the world of care work.
Current Employment + Partnership Possibilities
We accept and review applications on a rolling basis. We will reach out if/when we feel one of our openings might be a good fit for you based on the information you share here and schedule a time to chat further!
We are currently open to the following possibilities for partnership:
Independent contractor position: Mental Health Therapist. Flexibility with caseload and hours, in-person and/or telehealth, opportunities for individual and group counseling. Must be independently licensed or license eligible with experience.
Pay rate for pre-licensed therapists is $45, with free supervision toward licensure and monthly wellness stipend.
Pay rate for independently licensed therapists is $65 per session, with free individual meetings offered weekly for case consultation, and/or building Neuro-affirming and LGBTQIA+ affirming skills and practices, and monthly wellness stipend.
Collaborative partnership agreement: Independently licensed provider in private practice. A great fit for independently licensed providers who are ready to open their own private practice, or those already in private practice who are seeking the benefits of community, while maintaining full autonomy in their practice. You determine your own hours, caseload, rates - you do your thing! We offer use of our resources - comfortable office space, therapy materials, lending library, forms/templates, referrals, peer support - as well as provide weekly individual consultation/support meetings. These individual meetings can provide support and compassionate accountability to help you build your something, opportunities to lean deeper into neuro and LGBTQIA+ affirming practices, and/or develop new offerings within your practice like assessment, groups, or other community offerings. *Independently licensed providers of all kinds who feel we might be a good fit are encouraged to apply (including psychiatrists, psychologists, LCSWs, LPCs, and LMFTs, as well as Occupational Therapists, Speech Therapists, and more!).
Click here for an example of package options available through Collaborative Partnership!
Independent contractor position: Sensory Focused Occupational Therapist. Flexibility with caseload and hours, in-person and/or telehealth, opportunities to develop groups. Must be independently licensed, pay rate is determined collaboratively.
Independent contractor position: Diagnostic Autism Assessment Provider. Flexibility with caseload and hours, training and report templates provided. Must be independently licensed provider - LCP, LPC, or LCSW.
Collaborative partnership agreement: Group development and facilitation. For folks of lived and/or learned experience who are interested in partnering with The Properties of Light to build and offer educational and/or support groups.
This project is a work in progress...as are we.
A very brief history:
August 2011: The last two people to slip through the classroom door at 7:59 for the first 8:00 am class of their graduate program, Camille (now of Camille Rudney, LCSW) and Rachel (now of The Properties of Light) filled the final seats the universe had to offer that morning. Instinctively rejecting the norms of introductory ice breakers, we moved almost directly from sharing our names to a discussion of the depths of hope, grief, and rage in caring for others, and the feelings of alienation in the helping professions we each/both experienced.
August 2021: A decade of life and a pattern of chaotic + all-encompassing + life-sustaining walk-and-talks later, with a little help from the multiverse, we found ourselves sitting next to one another again, this time on new individual journeys rooted in values of community, interdependence, and mutual aid. Sharing the wisdom generously offered to each of us along the way, as well as all we had individually and collectively (un)learned, survived, dreamed, and gathered over the last decade, we set out to build something fundamentally different for ourselves, and an intentional practice of caring with others. Something that would allow us the autonomy to simply exist as we are and still experience belonging - something that would allow us the space, support, and accountability to grow/heal/evolve in hope + rage + joy + resistance…individually, and in community, as providers, and as people.
