Voices & VenturesFoundation
Elevate Voices. Empower Futures.

We strengthen the voices that build peace.

Voices and Ventures Foundation is a support foundation. Wherever people choose dialogue over division and participation over silence, we strengthen the platforms, media voices, and civic actors already doing the work, helping them reach further, stay safe, and counter the hate and misinformation that fuel conflict. Our flagship work is underway in Somaliland.

How We Support The Daljir Initiative
V&V
Conflict SensitiveStrengthening trust, never division
Do No HarmApplied across all engagement
Locally LedBuilt on what already exists
InclusiveWomen, youth, and underserved first
Who We Are

We do not replace the voices doing the work. We strengthen them.

Voices and Ventures Foundation backs the people and platforms working to keep societies open, peaceful, and connected. We support the media voices, civic actors, and young leaders who inform the public and hold space for honest conversation, and we help them do it more safely, more credibly, and at greater reach.

Our mandate reaches wherever division is spreading and voices are at risk, from everyday civic life to the harder work of building trust across communities and nations. Our name reflects how we work. Voices means we lift up the credible voices that build trust and counter harm. Ventures means we invest in the partnerships, tools, and capacity that let those voices last beyond any single project.

We build on what already exists rather than creating parallel systems. Our value is in what we add: capacity, safety, coordination, and a bridge to diaspora knowledge and resources. Today, our flagship work strengthens safe and inclusive digital civic engagement in Somaliland.

Inclusive by design

We expand meaningful participation for women, youth, minorities, and communities far beyond the major cities.

Safe by default

We apply Do No Harm and conflict sensitive practice across everything we support, online and offline.

Local and connected

We bridge local civic actors with diaspora networks and trusted partners, reducing misinformation rather than amplifying it.

Why We Exist

We were built in response to a hard lesson.

When verified voices go quiet, rumor fills the space. We exist to keep those voices strong.
Our founding belief

In 2023, the conflict in Laascaanood, in the Sool region, became a painful reminder of how quickly division can turn deadly. As fighting consumed the city, the online space filled with rumor, false claims, and incitement. Verified information was hard to find, partisan narratives drowned out calmer voices, and more than a hundred and fifty thousand people were forced from their homes. The harm on the screen and the harm on the ground fed one another.

Voices and Ventures Foundation was created from that lesson. We saw that the same platforms carrying incitement could carry verified, humane, and unifying voices instead, if those voices were supported, protected, and amplified. So we set out to strengthen the credible local actors already trying to hold that line, and to give them the safety, the tools, and the reach to do it well.

Our purpose is steady and simple. We want digital spaces across Somaliland to bring people closer rather than drive them apart, and we want the people doing that work to be safe while they do it. This sits squarely within Somaliland's own priorities for peace, stability, and inclusive participation.

What We Do

We support media and civic platforms in every part of their work.

We partner with news platforms, media voices, social media creators, and youth led civic actors, and help them publish credible information, counter hate speech and misinformation, and create safe, inclusive spaces for civic dialogue. Our support is practical and provable, built on real relationships with the people we work alongside.

Publishing and counter speech

We help partner platforms produce and amplify verified information, civic education, and counter speech that pushes back against false and divisive content.

Information integrity

We support fact checking in Somali and local dialects, digital literacy, and the verification practices that protect the public information space.

Online safety and harm response

We help platforms and their teams stay safe, with online safety practices, harm monitoring, and support against harassment, including online gender based violence.

Capacity building

We strengthen journalists, creators, and young civic voices through training in conflict sensitive content, digital safety, and responsible engagement.

Coordination and reach

We connect platforms with each other, with youth organizations, and with diaspora networks, helping credible content reach rural and underserved audiences.

Accessible communication

We use accessible, low bandwidth, and locally grounded approaches so participation is never limited to those with the strongest connection.

Creators and influencers

We partner with trusted social media creators and influencers, including on TikTok, to model healthy online behavior and carry credible, peaceful messages to the audiences platforms reach most.

Safer spaces for youth

We make online spaces safer for young people, helping them recognize manipulation, resist hate, and take part without fear of harassment or harm.

How our support works

Funding and subgrants to partner platforms, creators, and youth groups
Training and capacity building for journalists, creators, and young leaders
Verification and fact checking support in Somali and local languages
Online safety, harm monitoring, and rapid response to threats
Amplification, coordination, and connection across the civic ecosystem
Mentorship and a bridge to diaspora knowledge and resources
Keeping People Safe

Safety is not a feature of our work. It is the foundation of it.

Civic voices, journalists, young creators, and especially women often pay a personal price for speaking up online. We build protection around them so they can take part without fear, and so that harm online does not spill into harm offline.

Rapid response to threats

A clear pathway to act quickly when a partner, journalist, or participant faces harassment, threats, doxxing, or coordinated attacks.

Protection for women online

Dedicated support against online gender based violence, with safe reporting channels and a trusted, confidential response.

Early warning and monitoring

We watch for spikes in incitement and dangerous narratives, so harm can be calmed before it spreads from the screen to the street.

Digital safety training

Practical training for partners and youth on account security, privacy, and recognizing manipulation and false content.

Platform escalation

Working relationships with platforms and telecom actors so harmful content and accounts can be reported, escalated, and addressed.

Care and referral

Connecting people who have been targeted with trusted support, including psychosocial and legal referral where needed.

Our Programs

Five pillars, one connected civic ecosystem.

Our digital civic work is the spine. Around it, these pillars connect safe online engagement to real offline dialogue, inclusion, and peace.

Pillar One

Voice

Inclusive participation and dialogue. We open and sustain safe channels for people to engage across divides, connecting local conversation with diaspora voices through constructive exchange that builds trust.

Pillar Two

Integrity

Credible media and counter speech. We support Somaliland's news platforms to publish verified information, counter hate and misinformation, and build public resilience against digital harm.

Pillar Three

Ventures

Youth civic innovation. We back youth led initiatives that use media, arts, storytelling, and digital platforms to strengthen civic engagement and social cohesion.

Pillar Four

Inclusion

Women's leadership and social inclusion. Women shape our work as leaders, conveners, and content creators, alongside minorities and underserved communities.

Pillar Five

Dialogue

Dialogue and peace. We convene safe forums, support reconciliation, and build the skills that help communities talk through tension before it turns to conflict.

Dialogue and Peace

Safe online voices and real dialogue, working together.

Our digital work does not stop at the screen. We pair it with the offline conversations that actually hold communities together, so that calm online becomes calm on the ground. This hybrid approach is at the heart of how we prevent harm and build trust.

Community dialogue and forums

We convene safe, structured spaces, online and in person, where communities can talk through tensions before they harden into conflict.

Social reconciliation

We support locally led reconciliation that rebuilds trust between communities after disputes, working alongside elders and trusted institutions rather than replacing them.

Conflict prevention and early de-escalation

We pair our online early warning with offline dialogue, so a dangerous narrative on a screen can be met with a calming conversation on the ground.

Capacity development and training

We train civic actors, youth, women leaders, journalists, and creators in dialogue facilitation, conflict sensitive communication, and digital safety.

Peacebuilding support

We support and convene locally led peace efforts with dialogue spaces, trusted communication, and coordination with elders and community institutions.

Flagship Initiative

The Daljir Initiative

Strengthening safe and credible civic media in Somaliland. Daljir supports a coalition of news platforms, media voices, social media creators, and youth led civic actors to counter misinformation and hate speech, publish credible and inclusive content, and create safer digital and hybrid spaces for civic dialogue.

Platform support layer

Direct support to partner news and media platforms to publish verified information and counter speech, with safety and conflict sensitive practice built in.

Integrity layer

Fact checking, digital literacy, and verification support in Somali language, building community resilience against false and divisive narratives.

Youth and diaspora bridge

A youth organization partnership at the core of delivery, connected to diaspora knowledge and resources through mentorship and civic education.

Daljir intentionally extends beyond Hargeisa toward underserved and geographically dispersed communities, so that participation is not limited to those with the strongest connectivity.

The Diaspora Bridge

Somaliland and its diaspora, one civic community.

The Somali story does not end at the country's borders. Some of the most active voices shaping public conversation in Somaliland live thousands of miles away, and nowhere more than in Minnesota, home to the largest Somali community in the United States.

Voices and Ventures Foundation is built on that bridge. We are rooted in both Somaliland and the Minnesota diaspora, so our work reaches diaspora audiences directly and partners with diaspora voices, creators, and organizations who care deeply about home.

The diaspora can be a powerful force for good, sharing knowledge, mobilizing resources, and amplifying calm and credible voices. It can also, at times, spread misinformation and deepen division from afar. We strengthen the constructive side of that influence and reduce the harmful side, through mentorship, civic education, and shared, conflict sensitive dialogue between local and diaspora communities.

80,000+
Somalis call Minnesota home, the largest Somali community in the United States.
Estimate. Community and Census based figures range widely.
Twin Cities
The heart of the US Somali diaspora
One bridge
Connecting Minnesota and Somaliland
Why It Matters

Somaliland's civic future is being shaped online. We help make that space safe and inclusive.

Online and offline civic life are now deeply connected. Alongside formal civil society, the digital civic ecosystem includes media voices, youth initiatives, social media creators, community networks, traditional leaders, and diaspora communities who together shape public discourse and accountability.

Too often, social conflict and even civil war are now driven from online spaces. Hate, rumor, and incitement spread first on social media, then spill into the streets. We work upstream of that harm, helping credible voices, trusted creators, and young people counter false and divisive content before it turns into violence.

That ecosystem is powerful, but fragile. It often lacks coordination, safeguards, and sustained support. Platform incentives reward sensational and divisive content over content that promotes peace, deepening misinformation, polarization, and the exclusion of the very voices that should be at the center.

Hard won peace and stability depend on trusted, inclusive, and nonviolent approaches to civic engagement. That is the work we exist to support.

  • Safer, more inclusive participation for women, youth, minorities, and underserved communities
  • Decision makers who engage with citizen feedback on policy and governance
  • Communities more resilient against misinformation, harassment, and digital harm
  • Stronger collaboration among civic actors, media, youth, and diaspora networks
  • More constructive civic discourse and improved trust across diverse groups
  • Young people who navigate online spaces safely and resist manipulation
Inclusion at the Core

Women and youth do not just take part in our work. They lead it.

We treat inclusion as a design principle, not an afterthought. We give particular attention to how women participate as leaders, decision makers, content creators, conveners, and influencers, with real opportunities to shape civic dialogue and collective action.

We reach communities outside major urban centers through accessible, low bandwidth, and locally grounded approaches. And we apply Do No Harm principles across all engagement, anticipating and managing political, operational, reputational, and digital safety risks before they cause harm.

Partner With Us

Built on real partnerships with the voices already doing the work.

Our partners bring local credibility, reach, and trust. We bring capacity, safety support, coordination, and a diaspora bridge. Together we strengthen the civic information space rather than fragment it.

News and media platforms
Social media creators and influencers
Youth led organizations
Women's networks
Telecom and technology partners
Public institutions
Diaspora and international partners

Are you a platform, creator, or youth organization countering hate and building peace?

We want to support your work. Let us build something durable together.

Partner With Us
Get in Touch

Start a conversation.

United States
+1 218 422 5847
Somalia and Somaliland
+252 63 702 7276
Based
Hargeisa, Somaliland and Minnesota, USA

We read every message and respond to credible civic and media partners with care.