Five Years Strong: Celebrating a History of Hope

CEO of Lumina Alliance Jennifer Adams at the merger celebration in 20

This July marks five years since RISE and Stand Strong came together to become Lumina Alliance. While the name may be newer, our story began decades earlier.

For nearly 50 years, our community has worked to ensure that survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and intimate partner violence have somewhere to turn. What started in the 1970s with a small group of determined advocates, volunteers, and community members has grown into the county's only organization providing comprehensive, no cost services for survivors.

The merger of RISE and Stand Strong in 2021 was an important milestone in that journey. By bringing together two organizations with a shared mission, we created a single point of access for survivors across San Luis Obispo County. Today, one call connects survivors to advocacy, emergency shelter, transitional housing, therapy, prevention education, and other life changing support.

Five years later, that vision continues to guide everything we do.

To celebrate this anniversary, Lumina Alliance is launching History of Hope, a permanent timeline installation that chronicles the evolution of sexual assault and intimate partner violence services in San Luis Obispo County. Beginning in the 1970s and continuing through today, the exhibit highlights the people, organizations, legislation, and community moments that shaped survivor services over the last five decades.

A temporary collage installed in the SLO office

A temporary collage featuring pieces of the timeline is already on display at our San Luis Obispo office, offering a preview of what's to come. The completed installation will debut this fall, and we look forward to welcoming the community to experience this important piece of our shared history.

History of Hope is more than a timeline. It is a reminder that progress doesn't happen because of one person or one organization. It happens because a community chooses to stand with survivors, year after year, generation after generation.

As we celebrate five years as Lumina Alliance, we are also celebrating every volunteer who answered a crisis call, every advocate who stood beside a survivor, every donor who believed in this work, and every community member who helped build a safer San Luis Obispo County.

Thank you for being part of our history, and our future.

It Takes a Community

For nearly five decades, our community has made this work possible. Your support ensures survivors continue to have access to no cost emergency shelter, advocacy, therapy, prevention education, and the 24 hour Crisis & Information Line.

As we look ahead to the next chapter, we invite you to help write the future of this story. Every gift helps ensure that no survivor has to face violence alone.

Make your gift today at luminaalliance.org/donate.