The Catalyst Program is the result of more than 14 years of learning as a network in Rising Voices. We have listened to hundreds of speakers of Indigenous, minoritized or low-resource languages who have expressed their interest in using the Internet and digital media to promote and revitalize their languages, and we have put them together in one program. 

Across regions, this program gathers participants with projects related to the use, strengthening, revitalization and/or promotion of an Indigenous language through digital media and tools. Just as importantly, projects that involve and benefit their communities. 

What does the Catalyst Program look like?

• Peer learning – Relationships and peer support are the heart of this program. The program involves convening spaces for people who participate to meet, share, and exchange experiences and learnings among peers.
• Providing needed resources – Each participant receives a stipend to support their community-based digital projects. This can be used for expenses such as travel costs, community activities, equipment, and honorariums.
• Peer mentors and accompaniment – Participants receive support from two peer mentors through individual online sessions during the program.By peer mentors we mean people who come from similar community contexts and are digital language activists themselves, holding a greater possibility to relate and best support the depth of the work, community processes, and efforts around Indigenous languages and digital spaces.We also hold monthly online group sessions to share processes and progress, and to listen to other people who are carrying out digital activism projects.
• Listening to and involving the community – All selected projects involve participants’ communities and this involves the participant’s responsibility to listen and share back the knowledge and skills gained or strengthened through the program.
• Indigenous-led decision-making – this is a program that is led by Indigenous Peoples, for Indigenous Peoples: Indigenous Mentors choose the participants that they consider could benefit better from the program, and Indigenous participants choose the focus and shapes of their projects, rooted in their community processes and contexts. 

By strengthening this community of support among Indigenous language speakers and digital activists, we are supporting Indigenous Peoples to exercise their right to create and access information and knowledge in their languages and on their own terms. We are also opening possibilities of dialogues and mutual understanding across territories, languages and worldviews.