Collective Care Clusters: Call for Applications

We're inviting applications from cultural workers, researchers, scholars, and organizers to participate in our 9-week Collective Care Cluster cohorts

Applications are due May 7th, 2026

The purpose of Collective Care Clusters is to nurture small cohorts of disabled and chronically ill people who are involved in cultural work, research, access, organizing, and/or activism. Through Care Clusters, we aim to create structures of support for disabled and chronically ill community members, to exchange and build resources, and to support participants in developing their own collective care and access projects. We want to resource those who resource their communities! 

Each of the two Collective Care Clusters consists of four to six participants. Each Cluster will include organizers, artists, writers, and scholars who are working at the nexus of disability justice and chronic illness justice. The clusters will be led by skilled facilitators and meet once a week for nine weeks with a break in the middle, from the week of June 29 to August 31. 

You can read the full call for applications here!

The Basics

We will organize two clusters from the application pool. Each cluster will:

  • Have 4 to 6 participants

  • Meet weekly for 1.5 hours at a time

  • Run for a total of 9 weeks, from the week of June 29 to the week of August 31

    • If you cannot attend the June to August round of clusters, be on the lookout for another call for applications for a second round of clusters in August-October; the second round will be the final round.

  • Have CART (live captioning) available, as well as other forms of access

Opportunities

Each participant receives a $500 honorarium (participants can be paid via gift card as needed).

Additionally, each participant will have opportunities to:

  • Become a UC Davis affiliate (which includes library access)

  • Have access to a fundraising platform, grant application resources, and potentially a small amount of seed funding for their project

  • Join co-working sessions with The Nest Collab (the larger project that’s running the clusters)

Expectations

  • We invite you to participate as fully as possible in each of the 9 cluster meetings, understanding that our bodyminds’ capacities may change week to week

  • Each participant will make a post about their project seed and/or Cluster experience for our website

    • This can take a variety of forms: a graphic, video blog, song, photography, visual art, or written blog post

    • If written, recommended length is about 300-500 words

Care Cluster Components

Collective Care Projects

If accepted, you’ll be asked to nurture the seed of an idea for a collective care project meant to support community accessibility, education, organizing, art-making, or mutual aid. Examples could be: writing poems-as-image-descriptions for a larger project you’re working on; setting up a visiting or social schedule for a few people who are housebound; creating support structures for people trying to sort through insurance claims, SSDI, or applications for emergency grants; petitioning your city to fix a busted sidewalk; experimenting with a new type of accessibility for a creative visual art piece; or building a resource documenting past care work you’ve done that might help others to do the same.

Weekly Meetings

Every week, Disability Justice facilitator Elliott Fukui of Mad Queer Organizing Strategies will help you develop a different collective care skillset. Examples include: figuring out where your project sits in the robust history of disability and chronic illness organizing; improving your skills in moving through conflict; and creating maps of where care work is most needed in your community. You’ll receive multi-media resources for growing your practice, building community connections within your cohort, and supporting each other in developing your collective project seeds into emerging sprouts! 

Applying

We want each cluster to be a community where members hold diverse experience and knowledge, and where you’re able to learn both with and from one another. We value the deep expertise and knowledge that people bring from their experiences in the world. We especially encourage disabled and chronically ill people who are marginalized in multiple ways to apply: for example, those who are on Social Security Disability Income (SSDI); Black, Indigenous, and People of Color; immigrants; have significant family care responsibilities, including care for disabled adults; or experience housing and food insecurity.

The next part of the application process will involve participating in an informal interview. We will reach out to selected applicants to schedule an interview by mid to late May. Interviews will take place between 5/25 to 6/5.

Selection criteria

Participants will be selected according to:

  • The extent to which the Cluster program will benefit your work and the communities you belong to

  • Your current and past engagement with disability justice and chronic illness community OR your potential and desire for growth in this area

  • The quality and creativity of your project seed idea

  • The alignment between your project idea and the 10 principles of disability justice

  • How you might learn from and support other Cluster comrades

Please apply at: https://forms.gle/fxs9X5xyJzMZVj3y8

Our team is dedicated to co-creating an accessible application process. We encourage all applicants to further reflect on and share their specific accessibility needs through our application form.

You are welcome to email us at thenestcollab@gmail.com with any questions.