Team CommUNITY (TCU) works to empower healthy, inclusive, and resilient networks worldwide that are at the forefront of fighting surveillance, censorship, and other critical challenges impacting civil society and journalism that sit at the intersection of human rights and technology.
Innovative Capacity Building Programs that Advance Digital Rights and Security Across Civil Society and Journalism Networks Worldwide
Through innovative services, collaborative spaces, and community-led initiatives, we have become one of the few organizations meaningfully address the digital threats and challenges impacting civil society and journalism on the local, regional and global levels. Our work has:
Strengthened global resilience of civil society operating under increasing digital repression by providing onboarding ramps, education, and networking opportunities to access critical resources and knowledge, enabling more sustainable civic action in restrictive digital environments
Shifted the field toward more collaborative, community-led approaches that prioritize cross-border and discipline collaboration,
Reduced fragmentation in the field by acting as a central connective node across regions and disciplines
Delivered ongoing knowledge-sharing, and threat intelligence exchanges that strengthen response capacity
Integrated security, psychosocial well-being, and community infrastructure into a unified support model for network spaces that has been replicated throughout the ecosystem, leading to safer, healthier and more inclusive ecosystem for all.
Delivered ongoing trainings, knowledge-sharing, and threat intelligence exchanges that strengthen digital security and response capacity
Our Impact
In 2020, Mozilla named us one of the top 100 healthier internet movements, recognizing our rapid and effective response to global challenges. The high-trust environments we build enable cross-border coalition formation and long-term collaboration. Meanwhile, our restorative community spaces strengthen long-term resilience and prevent burnout.
1,000+ civil society organizations and projects across 144 countries have improved their strategies and amplified their impact through our support.
Our Equity Fund has directly helped over 800+ defenders from marginalized communities step into leadership roles to advance important digital rights and Internet freedom work.
Our educational workshops and materials have benefited over 100,000 civil society and journalism defenders.
Our Code of Conduct, now used by hundreds of organizations, has strengthened ethical guidelines across the digital rights movement of what a healthy culture and event looks like.
Our Job Board and Weekly Digital Rights Newsletter are some of the most popular information services in our field, helping over 10,000 people a month stay updated on community news and jobs in the field.
The Global Gathering, our flagship event, is one of the largest trusted spaces for digital rights collaborations globally. It convenes over 1,000 digital defenders from 800+ organizations, representing 144 countries and spanning civil society, journalism, tech, and policy ecosystems. 51% of our members are from the Global Majority and 54% identifying as women or gender non-conforming.
Integrated trauma-informed and psychosocial support, including direct therapy for defenders under stress. To-date, we have provided ongoing wellness support and education to over 1,000 community leaders and managers.
TCU’s concierge service that has directly supported over 3,000 organizations, communities and groups, linking them to resources, expertise, and partnership, and helping them overcome specific challenges related to their work and protection.
“TCU was the first space to acknowledge how caste-oppressed people face cyberattacks and disinformation and helped us find tools and pathways for resilience and healing! Without this crucial space, we would not have a crucial space for strategizing and winning rights in insurmountable situations. Thank you! “
Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Equality Labs
“TCU has been essential in the Internet Freedom space to grow, connect and support a multicultural and diverse network of human rights defenders, and the people that support them. They cultivate communities with love and care. Gaba Rodriguez, The Tor Project
“We are currently conducting research on the internet freedom ecosystem and overwhelmingly, people who we surveyed and interviewed indicated that the spaces they felt the safest to collaborate and work together are Team CommUNITY's events, especially the in-person gathering.” - Berhan Taye, Internews
”It is the space that welcomed most of us from the global majority into digital security space. I finally felt like I belonged here, and this has been echoed by plenty others who have access through community.”
Xeenarh Mohammed, TIERs, Nigeria
“The team members behind CommUNITY have been foundational forces to grow the Internet Freedom and digital rights space. They serve communities with humbleness and care, thoughtfulness and leadership, and are brilliant at centering and amplifying voices that need to be heard. Most importantly, they’re not afraid of a challenge, and continue to pave the way in shaping radical discourse and community-building.”
Sarah, Privacy Enginner
It's rare nowadays to find truly committed people willing to genuinely support others in their endeavours for a greater purpose. Team CommUNITY helped me connect with individuals and orgs across the globe, share knowledge and exchange ideas to build collaborative networks. - Maya Ninova, Ph.D.
”As a technologist I get so much out of [TCU’s annual event] I get to network directly with end-users; I get exposed to new digital rights challenges in various contexts; and increase collaboration, and bond with others!”
Nick Merrill, Calyx Institute
“Drawing from a combined decade of experience in the digital rights community, the CommUNITY team has honed their unique approach to knit bridges between multiple sectors in open-source tech and grass-roots organizing. This team brings expertise rarely achieved in this space, primarily because they have participated at the global cross-sections of these sectors; and are in the strongest position to lead any organization towards their goals of engaging their audience with more inclusivity and impact.”
Harlo Holmes, Director of Digital Security, Freedom of The Press Foundation