Activate Labs globally supports nonviolent social movements through training, facilitation, graphic services, digital and technological access and mobilization innovative workshops, and participatory media, creating a more inclusive, just and peaceful world.

Co-design: People-Powered Design™ and Peace Design™

Design thinking without a practice of embedding transformational principles, community, and creative empathy can be extractive while perpetuating oppressive human behaviors and unjust systems that can stunt social innovation. People-Powered Design™ centers the margins, develops affirmative agency, liberates creativity, and shifts power. People-Powered Design™ is a process used by frontline communities and organizations to co-design, plan, and co-create interventions for peacebuilding, human rights, gender justice, international development, and social impact.

Our experiential and participatory labs include four modules – Perspective, Purpose, Plan, and Power. Workshops usually have 20-30 participants and run between 3-5 days. Whether it is to create a campaign, transform conflict, co-design a strategic plan, team building, or get unstuck.

Cultural Organizing and movement building

Since 2017, we have organized and curated hundreds of events and actions where we take up public, often political, space for peace to memorialize, build power, and shift culture. To date, our activations have engaged thousands of communities through art, music, theater, dance, and more. Based on the People-Powered Design pedagogy, we have led activations to support inclusive and peacebuilding policies, which include artistic design, logistical organizing, and outreach to key constituents and stakeholders. We would love to connect with you on how we can help lead a peace activation for your issue or policy.

Participatory and Experiential Training Facilitation

Participatory Media is a methodology with a series of tools that provides any community members with enough technical skills to plan, film, edit and screen a video or photographic gallery on their own. We use participatory video and photography to shift power. With Participatory Media, frontline communities and those impacted by violence or injustice tell their own stories in a holistic and transformational way. In many ways the camera is a tool to spark up dialogue, reflection and build power for those directly impacted by today’s most pressing issues like gender justice, climate change, identity based violence, refugee crisis and many more. The ideal participatory media process involves trainees belonging to a group or community who have the commitment and willingness to pursue a change based on their communities’ needs and not only their own. Even though the product (final video or photography series) is important, participatory media is more about the process than the product. However the final product is a powerful way to increase knowledge, shift attitudes and change behavior towards peace, justice and transformation.

Our Team

 
 

Monica Curca

Founder and Director

Monica is a social movements strategist, facilitator, and process designer leveraging storytelling, art, experiential design, and human-centered design. She has led Activate Labs with the vision that we must “Shift Power to Share it - so we can together co-create shared futures.” She is the creator and designer behind the Peace Design Process™ and People Powered Design™.

As the founder and director of Activate Labs, she leads strategy, design, training, and development. Her experience as the Director of Nonviolent Action at the United States Institute of Peace, Director of the +Peace global coalition, community organizer, and communications manager at Faith in Action, and a consultant for Oxfam, Sojourners, GPPAC, and many more. Monica has led award-winning work and has recieved the 2019 Human Rights Educator O’Brien Award, Seeds of Peace 2019 Gather Fellow, Spirit in Action Award, and is a finalist for the Peace Direct: Tomorrow's Peacebuilders 2018. She holds two master’s degrees from the Heller School for Social Policy in Management at Brandeis University in Sustainable International Development and Conflict and Coexistence. Languages: Spanish, English, Romanian

 

Thor Morales

Director of Storytelling

 

For more than 15 years, Thor has conceptualized and facilitated storytelling processes and products. His expertise includes photography, videography, editing and research, facilitation, and creating stories from found footage. He’s been involved with participatory video & photography for a decade, working in North and South Mexico, West and East Africa, and North and South America, facilitating participatory media projects and experiences.

Thor has a B. Sc in Biology but has devoted much of his career to supporting media initiatives in rural, urban, and indigenous communities in their quest for self-determination, autonomous narratives, and a better future. Through his work at Activate Labs, he is now developing participatory design methodologies that combine peace and media with helping collectives and organizations unveil viable, feasible, and transformational paths in a non-violent way.  Thor is also a professional photographer and videographer who has produced content for clients as diverse as World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) Languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese

 

Aseel Zahran

Research and Learning

Aseel is a peacebuilding practitioner with eight years of experience in instructional design, curriculum, and training development, covering a variety of cross-cutting themes. Including arts-based peacebuilding, CVE/PVE, Social Emotional Learning ( SEL), social inclusion & social cohesion, and child protection & safeguarding. She is currently exploring participatory M&E frameworks and processes in PSS programming. Aseel graduated from Notre Dame, earning a Masters's Degree in International Peace Studies. Languages: English and Arabic

 
 

Alan is a digital advocacy campaign expert with over ten years of experience in advocacy and policy analysis, mixed-method research, and data analysis. He has led policy and advocacy initiatives to advance human rights at different levels and has coordinated multiple coalition-building initiatives to strengthen organizations and networks from the Global South. He has significant experience in utilizing digital tools for campaigning and data visualization. He has experience in website design and development of research tools (survey design, FGDs, interview) and has experience working with indigenous peoples organizations. Alan has also conducted research on climate justice and indigenous peoples' paradigms. He received his JD from Oxford University. Languages: Spanish and English

Alan Jaramilllio

Digital Platforms and Organizing

 
 

Meghan is a seasoned project manager, strategist, and program designer with a special lens on feminist futures and disability rights. She has led processes and strategies for just futures within philanthropic, feminist, and disability rights spaces. She holds a Master’s Degree in Peace Operations and Humanitarian Action from George Mason University.

MEghan Corneal

Special Projects

Activate Labs unlocks the creativity and innovation of people-powered social movements by building community, facilitating co-design and activating collective action.

Our training and facilitation approach is based on People-Powered Design™. It combines behavioral science, peacebuilding, participatory Action Research, Social Action and Human-Centered Design. It is our belief authentic learning happens by doing and doing happens when power is shifted so it can be shared. People-Powered Design™ uses experiential and participatory cutting edge tools, processes and methodologies to build community, co-design and strategically plan collective action.

Principles:

  • centering the experience of those directly impacted by violence and oppression - because the ones who can name the world can change it

  • We designing for the margins - in so doing we design for the whole

  • our trajectory: head > heart > hands > feet

  • we are most powerful at our intersections

  • we will always choose curious empathy and hope… even in the darkness

  • radical inclusion in systems thinking is intersectional and interdependent

  • we learn by doing, playing and showing up - we are participatory and experiential

Thursday,February 9th 2023

Reviving the HIVE!

The Hive is Revived! After an extended break from flapping our wee wings, the bees are once again ready to pollinate! Register below to join our online zoom gatherings.  The Hive will gather on the second Thursday of each month at 1 pm EST for our global honey making happens.

What is the Hive?

The Hive is a monthly gathering of peacebuilders, activists, and change-makers to build resilience and solidarity across regions, issues, and movements.  It is a facilitated 1.5 hour zoom call (in person/hybrid convenings possible in the future) where participants share knowledge, skills, creative expression, art, music, stories and dialogue around a focused idea, topic, process, or exercise.  The space is hosted and facilitated by the Activate Labs team, with contributions and offerings from Hive participants and others.

Who is the Hive for?

The Hive might be for you if you are a peacebuilders, activists or change maker looking to connect with others, share experiences and grow through facilitated peer to peer coaching and mentoring. 

The Hive might be for you if you have a creative idea or a new approach to building peace through collective action you want to share, receive support on or even co-design with others. 

The Hive might be for you if you have been tired, defeated, lonely, weary, or burnt out, if you want a safe space to be heard, seen, and included, then the Hive might be for you.   

The Hive might be for you if you long for inspiration and connecting to all the parts of yourself through creative expression, art, story, music, co-design, co-learning etc.  

Who is the Hive not for?

If you are an actual bee or bear, we are sorry, we are using the word “HIVE” as a metaphor – as in a place where different people bring themselves, their experiences, skills, knowledge, ideas etc. so that together we can co-create something good …. Like honey.  Sorry if there is any confusion.

Thursday, March 30th 2023

TOPIC: The NGO Capture of the term “Decolonization”

Reviving the HIVE!

The Hive is Revived! After an extended break from flapping our wee wings, the bees are once again ready to pollinate! Register below to join our online zoom gatherings.  The Hive will gather on the third Thursday of each month at 1 pm EST for our global honey making happens.

What is the Hive?

The Hive is a monthly gathering of peacebuilders, activists, and change-makers to build resilience and solidarity across regions, issues, and movements.  It is a facilitated 1.5 hour zoom call (in person/hybrid convenings possible in the future) where participants share knowledge, skills, creative expression, art, music, stories and dialogue around a focused idea, topic, process, or exercise.  The space is hosted and facilitated by the Activate Labs team, with contributions and offerings from Hive participants and others.

Who is the Hive for?

The Hive might be for you if you are a peacebuilders, activists or change maker looking to connect with others, share experiences and grow through facilitated peer to peer coaching and mentoring. 

The Hive might be for you if you have a creative idea or a new approach to building peace through collective action you want to share, receive support on or even co-design with others. 

The Hive might be for you if you have been tired, defeated, lonely, weary, or burnt out, if you want a safe space to be heard, seen, and included, then the Hive might be for you.   

The Hive might be for you if you long for inspiration and connecting to all the parts of yourself through creative expression, art, story, music, co-design, co-learning etc.  

Who is the Hive not for?

If you are an actual bee or bear, we are sorry, we are using the word “HIVE” as a metaphor – as in a place where different people bring themselves, their experiences, skills, knowledge, ideas etc. so that together we can co-create something good …. Like honey.  Sorry if there is any confusion.

 

our wisdom

(the board)

 
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Eva Armour

Eva Armour has spent the past 20 years in peacebuilding, working with communities in conflict to envision and work towards a more just and peaceful reality.

She has created every job she has ever held, each one born from seeing and being willing to meet a pressing need. Eva currently serves as the Director of Impact and Strategy with Seeds of Peace, a non-profit working at the intersection of leadership development and conflict transformation with communities in the Middle East, South Asia, and United States. In that role, she gets to ask and test hard questions about what works, what doesn’t, and how we know. Previously, she spent 10 years as the Director of Global Programs, where she built a theory of change and programmatic framework to support teams leading local programs with youth and educators; the years before that were spent living in Israel/Palestine, bringing young people together throughout the Middle East to deepen relationships and develop leadership skills.

Eva believes deeply in non-hierarchical structures, collective liberation, and building community as the foundation for social justice organizing. She gets the chance to actively practice that by organizing for prison abolition through her involvement in Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) in Boston.

She has published in The Christian Science Monitor, been featured in Le Figaro and a best-selling book featuring rising social entrepreneurs and serves on the Board of Directors of Empathy for Peace and the podcast, This American Teenage Life. She lives in Cambridge, MA, and finds herself at home in London, Israel/Palestine, and New York City. She lives for her two children, Annie and Amos; writers like June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Arundhati Roy, and Shailja Patel who expand and evolve her imagination for a better world; and the pursuit of all things hygge.

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Robert Haferd

Robert "Roman" Haferd is a restorative justice practitioner, civil rights lawyer, organizer, and cultural innovator. He has focused his career on advocating and building capacity with marginalized families. Roman serves as the Restorative Justice Coordinator for the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, where he has helped build a first-of-its-kind restorative justice program inside Washington D.C.’s justice department.  In this role he is the team’s primary point of contact with system stakeholders, speaks regularly on restorative justice, while also facilitating a full caseload of restorative justice conferences referred by local prosecutors and other community partners in the District.

An active community organizer, Roman is a co-founder of Catharsis on the Mall, a nonprofit arts and advocacy community dedicated to facilitating community art in public spaces and demonstrations.  Prior to joining the AG’s office, Roman worked as a senior program associate with the Restorative Justice Project at Impact Justice, an Oakland, California-based research and innovation institute. A lawyer by training, Roman has represented plaintiffs in cases around the country involving deprivations of Constitutional rights and official misconduct.  While earning his JD, Roman represented juvenile and adult defendants in the Boston Municipal and Juvenile Courts through the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute, interned at the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa, and served on the editorial board of the Harvard International Law Journal.  After law school, Roman served as a law clerk for the Hon. Algenon L. Marbley, United States District Judge for the Southern District of Ohio and as a Voter Protection Coordinator for Northeast Ohio during the 2012 national election. He also worked in the Washington, D.C. office of WilmerHale LLP as a litigation associate.  Mr. Haferd is a native of Akron, Ohio, with roots and relatives in the farming trade across the mid-Ohio region.  He spends as much time as possible enjoying nature and making moves to good music.

Johanna+Mustafa

Johanna Mustafa

Johanna Mustafa is a Palestinian racial justice community organizer and movement builder. She led grassroots organizing efforts, as the Advocacy Specialist for the Campaign to Take on Hate of ACCESS, in Anaheim California. Her work was centered around the Muslim Ban, racial profiling, and hate crimes pertaining to the Arab and Muslim community in Southern California. Before joining ACCESS (Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services), she participated in the National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC) Transformative Leaders Fellowship with the Arab American Civic Council (AACC) were she led civic engagement programs in the Greatest Los Angeles area. She also served as a Field Organizer with the Arab American Institute (AAI), where she spearheaded the Yalla Vote initiative in California and mobilized Arab voters in the 2018 election cycle. She continues to work towards the advancement of marginalized communities through community organizing, advocacy, public policy, and leadership development. She currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors with the Arab American Civic Council. She is also a steering committee member with Transforming Justice Orange County, a local organizing group addressing conditions of injustice and harm carried out through the criminal punishment system and prison industrial complex, locally and broadly. Johanna received her B.A. in Political Science with a minor in Law and Society from the University of Southern California in 2016.

our partners

Activate Labs in the News

HRE USA is pleased to announce the winners of the 2019 Edward O’Brien Award for HRE.The O’Brien Award was established in 2015 in memory of Edward O’Brien, pioneer human rights educator, to recognize both an individual and an organization that has ma…

HRE USA is pleased to announce the winners of the 2019 Edward O’Brien Award for HRE.

The O’Brien Award was established in 2015 in memory of Edward O’Brien, pioneer human rights educator, to recognize both an individual and an organization that has made an outstanding contribution to human rights education in the United States. The 2019 Individual Award Winner was our co-director, Monica Curca.

Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG Documented a Peace Activation with Asylum seekers Activate Labs provided Protective Accompaniment. We held a baby shower for Erly Mother of Baby Alvin see full story here

Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG Documented a Peace Activation with Asylum seekers Activate Labs provided Protective Accompaniment. We held a baby shower for Erly Mother of Baby Alvin see full story here

The San Diego Tribune covered our Peace Activations on the US Mexico Border when the first Migrant Caravan from Honduras arrived in April 2018. The video shows our art, music and theatre based work which we have carried to more than 20 spaces since.

Telemundo covered our Families Belong Together work and -Peace Activations, providing creative trauma healing to migrant children and parents that had been separated in at Ursula, the colloquial name for the Central Processing Center, the largest U.S. Customs and Border Protection detention center which was the epi-center of family separations under the administration zero tolerance policies.

Orange County Register covered our Families Belong Together work and -Peace Activations providing creative trauma healing to migrant children and parents that had been separated in at Ursula, the colloquial name for the Central Processing Center, the largest U.S. Customs and Border Protection detention center which was the epi-center of family separations under the administration zero tolerance policies.

The Los Angeles Times covered our Refugees Welcome Guidebook - a 200 page hyper-local guidebook in Arabic and English to support refugees as they resettle in the Greater Los Angeles Area. The guidebook also included sections with resources and processes to heal trauma, gain coping skills in stressful times and understand how complex trauma affects the resettlement process for refugees.

NPR: KPCC-Take Two:Refugees Welcome Guidebook

National Public Radio local affiliate, KPCC 89.3 covered our Refugees Welcome Guidebook - a 200 page hyper-local guidebook in Arabic and English to support refugees as they resettle in the Greater Los Angeles Area. The guidebook also included sections with resources and processes to heal trauma, gain coping skills in stressful times and understand how complex trauma affects the resettlement process for refugees.