Villages & Special Events Notes

Couldn't attend one of the special events of Team CommUNITY? Find all the knowledge and resources shared during villages and other events with the IF Community. Check out our Calendar of Virtual Events, where you will find all the upcoming gatherings hosted by Team CommUNITY.

Event	Notes	Description	Date
Current Villages
	The Wellbeing Monthly 2023	Once a month psychosocial educational workshops for Digital Rights Defenders	June - December 2023
	Africa Monthly Meetups	The monthly meetups bring together folks from the African region to share, connect, seek help, and release stress by celebrating each other. In addition, its a time for us to find ways to support each other, and help us understand what is happening in our part of the world.	Ongoing, every month
	Latin American Monthly Meetup	We host regularly meetups for the Latin American community (and their allies) to share work and updates; strengthen friendships and collaborations; and tackle the biggest issues facing Latin American together.	Ongoing, every month
	MENA Monthly Meetups	The monthly meetups bring together folks from the MENA region to share, connect, seek help, and release stress by celebrating each other. In addition, its a time for us to find ways to support each other, and help us understand what is happening in our part of the world.	Ongoing, every month
	Asia Monthly Meetups	The monthly meetups bring together folks from the Asia region to share, connect, seek help, and release stress by celebrating each other. In addition, its a time for us to find ways to support each other, and help us understand what is happening in our part of the world.	Ongoing, every month
	Lingua Cafe	Lingua Café is an online language exchange open to anyone within the Team CommUNITY community who is interested in improving their language skills - for professional or personal reasons - and getting to connect with other community members in the process. The internet freedom space is multilingual and multi-cultural, however discource is still primarily in English. The language exchange will aim to create a more linguistically inclusive and diverse environment for community to collaborate in.	Ongoing
Past Villages
	Perspectives from the South Village 2023	The Village will feature five virtual sessions led by Team CommUNITY’s four Community Leads, and will incorporate their learnings from the last 18 months doing community building and research in their respective regions.	June 2023
	Welcome to the Digital Rights Village 2023	Hear from diverse experts on how you can break into the digital rights field, no matter what your background.	May 2023
	VPN Community Initiative Village 2022	The VPN Village is a two-week virtual series of events focused on VPN user education and solidarity. It will address gaps in user education around VPNs, the challenge of analyzing and selecting a VPN, and will show attendees how to set up their own VPN servers and proxies to support their communities and users combatting censorship globally.	November - December 2022
	Community Health Village 2022	The Community Health Village is designed to help defenders build healthy, sustainable environments in their movements and teams.	October 12 to November 10
	Community Health Village 2021	The Community Health Village is designed to help defenders build healthy, sustainable environments in their movements and teams.	November 2 - 23, 2021
	IFF VPN Village 2020	We are happy to announce the IFF’s virtual VPN Village, taking place this Fall. The Village, a combination of private and public events, will be hosted with ARTICLE 19’s Digital Team, and with the support of the following partners: The Calyx Institute, TunnelBear, and NordVPN, and various other allies.	September 8 - November 10, 2020
	Internet Measurement Village 2020	The Internet Measurement Village 2020 is an online event that aims to share the tools, datasets, and methodologies of projects that measure the Internet. This Village, organized by OONI, was going to take place during the 2020 IFF, but since it was cancelled in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was transformed in an online gathering.	June 10 - July 3, 2020
	Organizational Security Village	Internews hosted a virtual Internet Freedom Festival (IFF) Organizational Security Village. This event brought together security auditors, digital security trainers, and other experts and practitioners for a five-day program of over 20 community-led sessions exploring five major themes in organizational security.	June 8-12, 2020