Over the past few months, FabRiders has been busy collaborating, convening, and developing new resources to support civil society organisations and international NGO’s. Here’s a snapshot of our activities and some ways you or your organisation can join in:
- Safe and Inclusive Space: Sarah Allen and I co-convened a couple of sessions with the Event Strategies Network on ‘How Do We Create Safe Space?’ Our top-level takeaway from those sessions: creating truly safe and inclusive spaces, whether online or in-person, is a nuanced, evolving challenge. Drawing from the participant inputs from these sessions, we developed a new resource, Creating Safe Space: Insights and Practical Steps.
- The Collective Power Playbook: Our flagship network-centric resource continues to grow thanks to the diverse and gifted network of facilitators behind it. Together, we’ve been trialling A Starter Advocacy Play adapted from FabRiders’ stakeholder mapping and power analysis exercise. This social learning exercise will help groups and organisations kick-start advocacy campaigns with clear, achievable goals.
- Learn more about The Collective Power Playbook and get involved
- Capacity Building in Times of Crisis: We’ve been convening the Capacity Builders Convergence with Gunner of Aspiration. In April’s session, we focused on the challenge of helping organisations and efforts navigate severe external upheavals while also being impacted and needing to stay resilient ourselves.
- Stay tuned for our next convergence, “AI and Capacity Building: How Shall We Navigate?” on July 8th. Find out more and learn how to join.
- Remote Team Cohesion Lab: We’re preparing a tailored lab for the International Tibet Network, designed to enable team members to deepen their understanding of one another’s work processes, challenges, and aspirations by co-designing new strategies for enhanced collaboration and mutual support.
- If your team could benefit from similar support, contact us to discuss possibilities.
- RightsCon Reflections: After years of collaborating with the RightsCon Team on providing training and support to their session organisers, we attended in person for the first time in Taipei. It felt vital, especially given the Taiwanese’s acute awareness of their democracy’s fragility and the overall global urgency of supporting digital rights in a fast-evolving technological landscape. A question we’re exploring: How can an event at the scale of RightsCon, with over 500 sessions and 3,200 people in attendance, that also runs in an online mode, provide space for emerging issues in such a rapidly changing world?
- Website Update: We are currently refreshing the FabRiders website to better articulate how we can assist organisations in building collective power. New content has been added to the homepage, along with guiding principles and values. We welcome any feedback!
We’ve been inspired by:
- Knowing AI, Knowing U and AIKonic – Public Voices in AI from The People Speak. Margot Przymierska joined our Session Design Lab on Holding Space in Uncertain Times last February, and we were delighted when she recently shared the findings of this research project, which demonstrates how creative engagement and community workshops can empower people to reclaim agency over digital tools and articulate their concerns regarding technology’s impact on daily life. By bringing together diverse voices and fostering human connection through art and storytelling, the project provides an inspiring model for advocacy and inclusive policy-making in the AI era.
We’ve been watching:
- Twitter: Breaking the bird. Tracing Twitter’s evolution from the optimistic vision of microblogging to the hellscape that’s X, it offers an insight into why vital public online spaces should not be privately governed.
- BBC’s Race across the world. Pairs race across continents to reach a far-off destination without using air travel, smartphones, or bank cards, relying only on a limited budget and their wits. This year’s series sees teams journeying 14,000 km from the Great Wall of China to the southern tip of India, navigating Asia’s most diverse landscapes—a reminder of the value of resilience and adaptability.
We’ve been listening to:
- Dolly Parton’s America. The view of the United States from the UK has been somewhat bleak lately. It’s been helpful to spend time with a unifying force, not to mention the great music.
Work with us:
With nearly three decades of experience and expertise in fostering networks, developing strategic frameworks, and delivering impactful events across diverse contexts, we are an ideal partner for organisations looking to strengthen their capacity to harness collective power, drive social change, and build resilient communities.