For hours, I watched the sunset over the sea. Millions of shades of orange spread across the water, with a few small, barren islands sitting in the distance.

And somewhere between the sea and the sunset, I felt something I hadn’t felt for a long time.

Energy.

It was an inner strength I seemed to have misplaced sometime around the Hungarian election on April 12.

And I suddenly wondered:

Perhaps it is both.

For eight years, I found the fire to fight. When we started Unhack Democracy, we challenged Orbán’s supermajority through our investigations and helped put Hungary’s electoral integrity and electoral fraud on the map in the country and Europe. I reinvented myself. I started different projects combining art, entrepreneurship and neuroscience. I assembled teams. I convinced donors. I wrote proposals. I motivated people. I dealt with endless administrative demands.

And whenever the resources were nowhere near sufficient for the scale of the problem, I somehow found another reserve of energy.

Then, unexpectedly, the battle changed.

On April 12, Hungary voted Viktor Orbán and Fidesz out of power after sixteen years of constitutional majority.

For people like me, who had spent years working in resistance, this was supposed to be the moment. Except that something strange happened afterwards because I was emotionally exhausted in a way I had never experienced before.

And as I slowly emerged from the election, I began to wonder whether the exhaustion was telling me something…

Even though I had tried to move beyond resistance — at one point actively trying to launch REWIRE, a “hope-based mindset shift incubator” to support vision-building projects — resistance had nevertheless become part of my identity.

While Orbán was in power there was a clear villain and a clear moral imperative. You don’t need to spend much time wondering who you are when the answer is:

I am fighting this. And resistance is remarkably good at giving life structure. It tells you where to put your anger, your intelligence, your courage, your time and it gives you purpose. What’s more, it can even give you community.

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I think Hungary is facing a version of the same question after 16 years of Orbán’s autocratic rule. But removing one political order does not automatically produce a new national identity. What it does it creates a space in which one has to be imagined and perhaps that is the more difficult part.

The void after victory

We tend to imagine political change as a finish line as the new government arrives and the old system begins to crumble.

But then comes the inevitable question:

Because rebuilding a country fundamentally requires a different mindset and completely different muscles from opposing a government. The inner work needs to begin…

Resistance requires vigilance, urgency and the ability to identify threats. Transformation requires more imagination, patience, experimentation and the capacity to live with uncertainty. It requires you to dig deeper within.

And perhaps this is where both Hungary and I have some work to do. We have a narrow window of opportunity when we can really influence power from the ground up as things shape up.

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The cost of fighting with too little.

There is another part of my exhaustion that I don’t want to sugarcoat.

While Orbán and the likes tightened their grip on civil society the wider ecosystem around democracy work seemed to operate on an increasingly absurd equation in Europe:

The bigger the Goliath, the smaller the balls — and the smaller the pot — of the donors. We were made to bleed dry.

The problems were enormous, yet the resources were tiny and somehow we were expected to compensate for the difference through enthusiasm, ingenuity and personal sacrifice, which I often find border line abusive and difficult to accept. Begging for money, satisfying increasingly ridiculous administrative requirements, assembling teams with limited resources and keeping everyone motivated takes an extraordinary amount of energy.

There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from constantly having to convince people that something matters while you are already carrying the weight of making it happen BECAUSE YOU CARE.

At some point I started wondering:

Not:

Do I still care?

Yes, I do. But:

What if caring does not have to mean suffering BUT to work with more joy?

What if meaningful work does not have to be built on scarcity?

What if I don’t have to prove my commitment by how much I am willing to sacrifice?

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And then there is recognition

And there is another uncomfortable question.

What do you do when you don’t get the money, the power or the recognition when the regime around you finally falls apart?

What happens when you have spent years working towards a historic moment — and when that moment comes, you are not the person who scored the goal?

And there is another, more painful layer to this.

What happens when the very people who fought to get into power have actively kept you at arm’s length because they were afraid that being associated with you could make them vulnerable to being smeared by the propaganda machine or…?

Perhaps I had imagined that after years of pushing, fighting and sacrificing, something inside me or someone would finally say:

You did well. Your fight will be acknowledged. Your experience is needed. You have something to contribute to rebuilding what comes next.

Instead, I discovered a void.

And perhaps this is the most uncomfortable part of the whole journey because the recognition I was unconsciously waiting for may never come in the form I imagined and perhaps the void isn’t a failure.

Perhaps it is space, an opportunity to push further and dig deeper into myself. It is space to ask what I actually want when I am no longer trying to prove that I am useful to the fight and perhaps, ultimately, space to discover a version of myself that could never have emerged while I was constantly in resistance. It’s a test of certainty and faith in myself that it will work out.

Hungary has a similar void

This is where my personal journey becomes strangely intertwined with my country’s.

Hungary is now facing a question that is much bigger than changing governments.

Who do we want to become as a country that has endured enormous pain since the beginning of the 20th century and do we have enough desire to transform ourselves…?

(END OF PART 1)

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Uncertainty is perhaps the hardest human condition to face. But there is something that makes it more bearable: when we stop trying to figure out the future alone and instead prepare for it together.

When we organised Hungary’s first election simulation exercise in early 2026, no one knew what would happen just a few weeks later. What we wanted to create was an opportunity to think collectively about the future and learn together.

Here are 5 key lessons from the experience from , co-founder of REWIRE, Unhack Democracy and co-organiser of the game:

1. The game begins long before the simulation starts

The spirit of the simulation must first exist within the organising team. You cannot design an exercise about collaboration if the designers themselves work in isolation.

Throughout months of preparation, we built on each other’s expertise, networks, and ideas, constantly refining one another’s thinking.

2. Shared experiences teach far more than analysis

You can read an analysis, but a rich, immersive simulation has to be experienced. The difference is profound.

Participants did not simply discuss legal, political, or communication dilemmas in theory. They experienced firsthand what it feels like to make difficult decisions when you have only twenty minutes to respond to a rapidly unfolding crisis.

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3. This methodology is not only useful in times of crisis

Most people associate simulations with emergencies. Yet I believe they are just as valuable when it comes to designing the future.

If we want to imagine the kind of country we would like to build, we must first dare to imagine the most optimistic scenarios.

How can we work towards a better Hungary if we constantly settle for the minimum and limit our own imagination?

The same methodology could play a valuable role during the constructive phase of a democratic transition, helping politicians, civil society organisations, entrepreneurs, researchers, and international partners work together to reimagine and rebuild the country’s institutions.

4. Collective thinking builds trust

Trust is built when people solve difficult problems together.

Throughout the nine-hour simulation, participants continuously responded to one another’s arguments, negotiated compromises, and made collective decisions.

By the end of the day, we had not only generated new ideas but also built new relationships and it’s fundamental when you are dealing with any transition or crisis.

5. We do our best thinking when we play

What surprised me most was how much we laughed, despite the seriousness of the subject.

Everyone fully embraced their role. When you create a safe environment where people feel free to experiment, make mistakes, and think creatively, they become more open and imaginative.

Participants encountered situations that none of us had anticipated beforehand. Some were so engaged that they did not want the simulation to end after the final round. To me, this demonstrated just how much people long for spaces where they can think together.

🇭🇺 As Hungary embarks on a new chapter following the 2026 elections, that lesson feels more relevant than ever. The next year or two will be critical as the country debates a new constitution and electoral framework. If these reforms are to endure, they must be shaped not behind closed doors, but through broad public participation, dialogue, and a shared commitment to rebuilding democratic institutions. The process itself will be just as important as the outcome.

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The Hungarian Simulation Exercise 2026 was a non-partisan event that took place in February 2026 with members of civil society and the free press. The podcast was recorded in June 2026. If you’d like to learn more, please listen to the full episode.

Moderator:
Szubkontra / Balázs Zsuzsanna – journalist, founder of @Szubkontra, and co-author of the book Orbán Viktor’s Affairs with Women.

Guests:
Ádám Sanyó – Chief Designer and Moderator of the simulation; data analyst, election expert, and editor of Taktikaiszavazas.hu.

Melani Barlai – Co-organiser of the Simulation, Co-founder of Unhack Democracy, and political scientist at Andrássy University Budapest.

Zsófia Banuta – Co-organiser of the Simulation and Co-founder of Unhack Democracy.

A special thanks to Andor Kelenhegyi, game designer and Peter Gönci for his strategic contribution.

We are looking for partnership opportunities and are open to collaborate with anyone who’d like to prepare for the impossible in a crisis situation or transition.

🤔 Do you know anyone who would be interested?

Leave a comment

✨ Stay tuned and until then happy listening.

See you soon,

Zsófi (REWIRE & Unhack Democracy)

Every scenario seemed possible. We genuinely did not know whether the regime would attempt to escalate its grip on power or whether it would accept an electoral defeat and hand over power. We certainly did not dare to dream of an opposition constitutional majority.

The shadow of the Sovereignty Protection Act had a profound impact on our work. For those unfamiliar with the law, it gave authorities broad powers to investigate organisations receiving foreign support and transformed political pressure into a formal mechanism of surveillance and intimidation. The chilling effect was undeniable. We were siloed, our pockets were almost empty, and we could only partially rely on our previous experience. Being pushed into a corner meant we had to become smarter, more strategic, and more creative in how we operated. This is how the autocratic game is played in its final days…

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

I became convinced that we needed to bring together the best and brightest people working on electoral integrity: election analysts, lawyers, journalists, and members of the independent media. The goal was to prepare collectively rather than remain trapped in a reactive mode. After all, we are always smarter together than we are apart.

Unprecedented times require unprecedented measures. That is how we came up with the idea of a war-game: a collective exercise to anticipate possible scenarios, identify risks, and prepare for the challenges that no one could predict. So we reached out to experts from around the world who had successfully implemented war-games in civil society to learn the tricks of the trade on the fly. It was an exciting challenge.

🎲 We brought together 25 of the best and brightest minds for a nearly nine-hour, highly technical and super fast-paced simulation that explored how to prepare for a marginal opposition win. After 16 years of institutional capture with Russia’s ever growing influence, this would have posed the highest risk to democratic stability with possible re-counts, re-votes and even a hung parliament. The selection process was as important as the exercise itself: we carefully considered not only the roles that needed to be represented, but also the individuals who had both the expertise and the mindset required to navigate such a demanding scenario.

🧑‍⚖️ Meanwhile, the control team had an equally challenging task. They synthesised the players' arguments, adjudicated competing interpretations, and continuously updated the shared picture of events, ensuring that everyone operated from the same evolving reality. To support this process, the game designers developed a detailed decision matrix that served as a roadmap for interpreting players' actions.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

🏈 Fortunately, our chief game designer, Ádám Sanyó, founder of TacticalVoting.eu, brought an unexpected but invaluable skill to the exercise: he is also an American football referee. Lucky us! That experience proved indispensable. Throughout the 9 hour simulation, he acted like the referee on the field, keeping the pace relentless and ensuring every participant stuck to their allocated speaking time ranging from just one to three minutes.

🟥 🟦 To keep the simulation moving, logistics also had to be meticulously choreographed. In every round members of the red and the blue team had just 20 minutes to come up with actions and arguments in their separate rooms before coming together to present these, negotiate, and debate. The tight time limits mirrored the pressure of a real political crisis, forcing participants to make difficult decisions with incomplete information.

💛 Creating a safe and trusted environment was essential. Every participant was thoroughly briefed in advance on their objectives, responsibilities, and limitations. Our goal was to make the simulation feel as close to reality as possible while giving everyone the confidence to fully immerse themselves in their role without fear of consequences. Phones and electronic devices were all locked outside of the room.

📺 To make the experience as realistic as possible, we had pre-recorded 13 mock news broadcasts with the brilliant actor Tamás Lengyel. After each round, once the control team had assessed the players’ actions and arguments and determined how events would unfold, the next round began with one of these broadcasts. The news segments revealed the consequences of the participants’ choices, creating the feeling that events were unfolding in real time.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

🎉 And I want to emphasise one word in particular: joy. That may sound unusual when talking about electoral crises, but I genuinely believe that people do their best thinking when they are enjoying the process. If you create an environment where participants feel safe, trusted, and free to experiment, creativity flourishes. And frankly speaking the situation was surreal enough so we had a lot of laughs.

🏹 Our primary objective of the simulation was not to predict the future, but to examine how democratic actors can prepare for uncertainty, strengthen election integrity, and foster collaborative thinking about democratic transitions. But there were some pretty imaginative players, who were very close to seeing the future…

⚡ The purpose of the exercise was to think through every plausible risk and dilemma from election day to the certification of the results. But something remarkable happened. Once people immersed themselves in their roles, they began imagining scenarios that nobody in the room had previously dared to think of, particularly when it came to Russia’s dirty hybrid-warfare tactics being deployed.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

The Hungarian Simulation Exercise 2026 was non-partisan event that took place in February 2026 with members of civil society and the free press. The podcast was recorded in June 2026. If you’d like to learn more, please listen to the full episode and share it.

Moderator:
– journalist, founder of @Szubkontra, and co-author of the book Orbán Viktor’s Affairs with Women.
Guests:
Ádám Sanyó – Chief Designer and Moderator of the simulation; data analyst, election expert, and editor of Taktikaiszavazas.hu.
Melani Barlai – Co-organiser of the Simulation, Co-founder of Unhack Democracy, and political scientist at Andrássy University Budapest.
Zsófia Banuta – Co-organiser of the Simulation and Co-founder of Unhack Democracy.

The game’s moderator & co-desginer was Andor Kelenhegyi and a special thanks to Péter Gönci’s contribution.

We are looking for partnership opportunities and are open to collaborate with anyone who’d like to prepare for the impossible in a crisis situation or transition.

🤔 Do you know anyone who would be interested?

✨Stay tuned for Part #️2 when we explore the key learnings.

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I was reminded of this recently when discussing the reasons why people are drawn to the far-right. For some it can be triggered by a single event, for others a build up of experiences and perceived grievances over time.

In the UK, leaders such as Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage have successfully tapped into this sense of anger and disillusionment to dramatically grow their support. Over 100,000 people turned out last autumn for Robinson’s ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march through London - the biggest ever turnout for a far-right rally - while Reform UK is currently leading in the polls and on course to form the next government. In a sign of how they have already shifted the Overton Window, other parties have rushed to adopt their anti-immigrant message and views for so long deemed extreme have been mainstreamed at both a national and local level.

For this edition of REWIRE Democracy I spoke to Anki Deo from HOPE not hate, the UK’s leading anti-fascist organisation, about what is driving support for the far-right and how research, community engagement and small acts of hope and kindness can help counter the divisive narratives fuelling it.

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From understanding hate to building hope

Dutch political scientist Cas Mudde defines the “populist radical right” as one that challenges liberal democratic principles such as minority rights and rule of law. Operating as “anti-system” within the system, these actors use what he calls “cultural backlash” to link fear of the “other” with economic and national decline.

For HOPE not hate, understanding what drives these views is the first step to countering them.

“We aren’t always the people that we’re trying to shift”, said Anki. “We’re not always experiencing the same things, and we don’t have the same attitudes, so we really need to look at the mindsets and experiences that they bring into their support for the far-right, or their persuadability towards the far-right.”

“We use data a lot to try and make sure that our work is more evidence-informed.” - Anki Deo

HOPE not hate has shown how those drawn to Reform are made up of a coalition of voters (The Working Right, Hardline Conservatives, Squeezed Stewards, Contrarian Youth and Reluctant Reformers) that, far from having a unified set of priorities, are deeply divided on issues ranging from the economy, climate, and even immigration.

“What makes us slightly unique is the way that we collect data about the far-right and the continuous monitoring work that we do”, said Anki. “This is unusual for an organization of our type, because it kind of looks a bit like a think tank, but then does very journalistic, almost open source intelligence work”.

“The other is in the use of data to do very, low-level localised campaigning.”

This allows HOPE not hate to target specific Reform-leaning demographics with different messages that tap into their concerns and start to rebuild declining community cohesion, one of the main drivers of the far-right’s growing popularity.

“At the root of it is that people feel really negative about the country as a whole. But actually, when you ask people, do you like mixing with people from other backgrounds, or do you think immigration has been good or bad, there’s actually a lot more people who are somewhere in the middle.”

“And then we use what we know about people’s voting preferences and where people are, and then also things like age and gender, to try and persuade them with messages that will help.”

Having Difficult Conversations

While HOPE not hate’s research and investigations have exposed the far-right networks targeting progressive activists and even foiled plots to commit acts of violence, its communities work remains deliberately non-partisan.

“I think on a person-to-person level, that willingness is really there, and it’s actually when the arguments are politicised, particularly in the online space, that those human tendencies really break down. It’s then you just see people slinging mud at each other and the loudest voices come to the fore.” - Anki Deo

One of the ways the organisation tries to counter this is through its Difficult Conversations training. Often conducted in partnership with trade unions, these sessions offer practices for dealing with extremist views in the workplace, seeking to understand people’s perspectives to help change mindsets, without relying on “myth-busting” techniques.

At a local level, HOPE not hate partners with organisations like Who is Your Neighbour? Based in the North of England where anti-immigrant sentiment is growing, they facilitate small group conversations (community mediations) where people speak about their experiences and listen to others do the same.

“It’s part of a wider package for us looking at what it means to be an organisation that actually is serious about engaging with the far-right at the community level,” said Anki.

Check out our previous Substack on Impossible Conversations: a tool for changemakers to explore how creative reflection can support emotional resilience in divided societies.

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A Million Acts of Hope

Building on the simple idea that there is far more that connects us than divides us, a new non-partisan nationwide campaign has been launched bringing together more than 30 UK organisations and charities, as well as community and faith groups.

A Million Acts of Hope aims to spotlight and strengthen everyday acts that often go unsung or unreported - from litter picking to foodbank volunteering to children’s sports coaching – to present an alternative to those voices that seek to spread hate and separate communities.

“Its all of these values that we know everyone in the UK has”, said Anki, “but it’s gently, and in a non-political way, asking the question: who actually has our best interests at heart? Who is trying to support us?”

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A Million Acts of Hopes culminates in a week of action from 13 - 20 May, following local and devolved elections on 7 May.

To learn more about the campaign or get involved head HERE.

How has hope helped you or someone you know challenge the far-right in your area or country? Leave your comments here.

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Maslow’s Law of the Instrument describes how cognitive bias too often leads to over-reliance on a particular solution to any given problem. A surgeon will almost always recommend surgery, a psychologist counselling.

This trap also applies to civil society. In the face of ever-changing and evolving threats from authoritarians and populists who refuse to play by the rules of the game, we are too reliant on the tools and methods that have served us in the past.

In short, we need to move from what technology futurist Daniel Burrus calls an “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality to one of “if it works, it’s already obsolete”. In business this means that by the time you adapt to the latest innovations, leaders in your field have already moved on. This is something our competitors in the democracy space know and practice all too well while we as democracy defenders are forever busy playing catch-up.

To explore how civil society leaders can get ahead of the curve I spoke to leading futures thinker Krizna Gomez for this edition of REWIRE Democracy.

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Imagine the unimaginable - including the undesirable as well as the hopeful

“Futures thinking and foresight training is not about predicting the future, but thinking about different futures and being ready, regardless of what comes to pass.” - Krizna Gomez

🌎 Broaden your horizons

In his book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialised World, David Epstein talks about a forecasting exercise to predict the future on a range of topics, from the economy to nuclear disarmament. On one side were leading experts in their field: specialist “hedgehogs” as he called them who knew “one big thing”. On the other were a group of scholars not vested a single discipline: He called them “foxes” who knew “many little things”. The result: the foxes outperformed the hedgehogs in pretty much every way, especially when it came to long-term predictions.

“The tendency among scenario planners is that if you are focused on the economy, you only look at economic realities, factors or signals” said Krizna. “But something that is happening in a garage today led by some tech-savvy teenager can affect our lives 20 years from now in a fundamental way, the same way that fashion trends are changing what corporate responsibility looks like”.

“Experts are very much necessary” but “the point is that foresight requires us to move from having those blinders to integrating different types of knowledge, perspectives and experiences.”

🪏 Dig beneath the surface

We need to look beyond everyday events to identify deep drivers of change. Too often NGO strategists will see events (the election of a populist leader in one country) as part of a wider trend (rise of authoritarianism in mainstream politics) but stop there. This prompts us to frame our response in those terms (combating closing civil society space). But trends, like fashion, are temporary and not the underlying drivers of change. Only by identifying these (decline in trust in public institutions) can we develop solutions that go to the root cause of the problem.

🔍 Scan the peripheries for signals of change

These are stories that often go unnoticed at first but become trends and then a part of reality. It could be a young girl sitting alone outside the Swedish parliament in 2018 protesting climate inaction, or the launch of a Danish political party led by AI in early 2022.

“Of course, everything is 20/20 in hindsight”, said Krizna, “but can we not have the ability to be more alert to signals of change so at the very least you can watch them, monitor them, if we don’t like what they will lead to prevent them, or if we like what they’re leading to mainstream them?”

“This gives us a sense of power, because we’re not just shocked by things when they’re already mainstream, we start looking at things long before they’re even noticed. That is the hallmark of leader already ahead of the curve.”

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Failing to prepare is preparing to fail

In 2010, game designer and forecaster Jane McGonigal invited 20,000 people to imagine a future global pandemic originating in China. For several weeks people lived as if it were a reality. They wore masks in public, avoided social gatherings, distanced themselves from others and worked from home. The aim was for people to pre-live what seemed like an unimaginable scenario so, when Covid did hit, those people were much better equipped to deal with reality as it happened, help others and be more strategic.

Looking around today, especially among those working in the democracy space, there is a sense of burnout and despair driven by constant attacks, setbacks and shocks that force us always onto the back foot.

Now, said Gomez, “imagine just how differently people in our sector will feel about futures if nothing surprises us. Instead of saying, oh my gosh, this happened again, I feel terrible, we see how we discussed this just a couple of months ago, and we’ve pre-gamed out this scenario, and we know exactly what we’re going to deploy. Then that, to me, is that very, very concrete image. If that happens, that’s a giant, giant change on the ground.”

“Winning for me is when something happens, and people are like, oh yeah, we’ve pre-lived that, we’ve actually thought about it, we know exactly what to do.” - Krizna Gomez

But to do this effectively this civil society has to become better translating scenarios into simulations into strategy.

“A lot of strategy sessions come up with future-proofing strategies, but when you look at them they’re just the present on repeat”, said Krizna. “They’re never really creatively different or prepared for five different kinds of possibilities or scenarios.”

“Real future-proofing means you don’t just take the reports and the trends that are currently out there but you get your whole staff and your partners pre-living different futures then coming together and knowing this is our strategy. After that, things could happen, places could burn, but your staff, they’re feeling different, and they’re ten steps ahead of things. This is literally being ahead of the curve.”

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The last REWIRE Democracy substack was titled What Does the Day After Tomorrow Bring? In this edition I’ve tried to take the question on a step and ask How can we better prepare for whatever tomorrow brings?

I will leave the final word to Krizna:

“Civil society is very good at thinking about visions of the future. But a lot of these visions of the future are not rooted in actual reality or developments that are going on that we can take advantage of or we should prevent. It’s like cooking a dish without knowing what recipe you’re going to follow or without having the right ingredients. Foresight is about having powerful, workable, realistic visons of an optimistic future that we need to build with new muscles.”

To learn more about futures thinking…

Sign up to Krizna’s new initiative Rogue Union, a course platform and community of changemakers developed with Hope-based Communication’s Thomas Coombes and creative activist Ishtar Lakhani.

Has futures thinking helped you in your work? Leave your comments here.

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⌛ We are just six months before our generation’s most important parliamentary elections in Hungary and it’s no coincidence that “the day after tomorrow” became the theme of CrossCover’s (in Hungarian Kereszthuzat’s) next — that is, their second — magazine.
For this issue, 117 young creators submitted their visual artworks and writings to express what this topic means to them.

The CrossCover collective has shown that art can connect people even where public discourse divides.

A few outside of Hungary can imagine the level of uncertainty young people need to endure by the crumbling state and the poisoning propaganda…it is traumatic. So, a lot hangs on the balance…

For those unfamiliar with CrossCover:

It’s a Hungarian cultural collective and publication run by university students, who use events, festivals, podcasts, and their self-edited magazine to engage their peers in a new kind of public conversation and to give each other a platform for self-expression.

We’re incredibly proud that this project was born this year through our REWIRE incubator program, where CrossCover founders Róza Szeleczky and Noel Perlaki-Borsos were participants.

In Hungary, raising funds for initiatives that build culture and community is nearly impossible.
But what’s even harder is swimming against the current — sustaining the kind of perseverance and organisational culture that keeps creative people together and proves that in a heavily centralised environment, it is possible to do things differently.

I sat down to talk about this with Róza Szeleczky, co-founder of CrossCover, and Péter Parragh, one of the collective’s members, who attended a Danish cultural collective’s summer camp in September.

Building a cultural collective in Hungary is, in many ways, an act of rebellion. I wanted to find out what the secret is behind their growing success…

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1. The collective swears by physical presence and a shared, clear goal that unites them.

They use Instagram to promote their work as if it were second nature — but for them, physical presence and the shared joy of creation are just as essential.

Although, they meet online several times a week, they say nothing compares to the momentum that comes from being together in person — whether it’s through events like No-Name Fest, organised on the banks of the Danube for emerging visual artists and musicians, or panel discussions such as their recent talk at Central European University (CEU) during the Researchers’ Night.

“One personal meeting can give you enough energy to last for months.
What makes it worthwhile is this connecting force: we can see the goal in front of us, that our magazine will become tangible, filled with artworks and that there’s a curious, engaged community around us.”
— Róza Szeleczky

They also draw motivation and strength from the fact that they direct the process themselves — there are no paid positions, everyone contributes as an equal member of the community.

2. You need a founding team with honesty and inner fire — one that can attract like-minded creators.

Ultimately, what defines a community is what its members see in front of them.
We live in an over-bureaucratised, top-down world, where everything is governed by rules and systems, and people cling to their positions with all their might.
That’s why there’s little space left for those, who could actually bring real solutions.

“I want to catch up with the others because I see how much they believe in this project, in its goals and integrity. You don’t need to earn millions for your work to be worth it. It’s enough if the result is something good, something that helps others, something that moves culture forward, even just a little.”
— Péter Parragh

Real solutions require freedom, the freedom of those who build from the ground up. They are the ones who need space.

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3. The gap between artists and audiences must be bridged. The walls between art and the public must come down.

Recently, three members of the team attended a camp hosted by a Danish cultural collective, where they experienced what it means to be part of a truly participatory community, a space where the audience is not just a spectator, but part of the creative process.

They found that when there’s space and trust, culture becomes not just something to be consumed, but something created together.

“My experience is that we do so many great things at university, but the public visibility is far smaller than it could be. MoMe (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest) loves to show off, but it doesn’t really channel these initiatives toward audiences who might actually be interested.”
— Péter Parragh

Hungary, too, needs more collectively created cultural experiences, but that requires stronger infrastructure and a mindset that supports independent initiatives whether they come from universities or individuals. Often, it’s not even a question of money, but of attitude.

The CrossCover collective has shown that art can connect people even where public discourse divides them, because the “day after tomorrow” begins with those who believe that things can be done differently together.

⚡ If you’re curious about the day after tomorrow, follow CrossCover on Instagram & join their fantastic launch event on November 21st & 22nd!

💸 You can support the CrossCover team here 👉 https://ko-fi.com/kereszthuzatkult

🎧 And don’t forget to listen to their podcast on Spotify or Youtube! (in Hungarian)

😀 How do you feel about day after tomorrow? What would you like to see in the future? Leave your comments here.

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If you’ve ever felt stuck in "defend mode," constantly fighting crises instead of shaping new possibilities, this one’s for you.

It was against the backdrop of election defeats, the rollback of rule of law, the rollout of increasingly restrictive ‘foreign agent’ laws and a crisis in funding democracy work, that the REWIRE Incubator was born.

Developed by Zsofia Banuta and Elliott Goat of Unhack Democracy in partnership with Thomas Coombes’ Hope-Based Communications, Rewire your mind, Rewire your country (REWIRE) was built to go beyond reactive messaging. It aimed to fundamentally “rewire” how activists think, feel, and act—from defending against problems to designing futures.

Moving from reaction to creation

So often, activism is about reacting: responding to crises, fighting harmful narratives, defending rights under attack.

But what if, instead of only reacting, we focused on imagining and building the future we actually want? This question sparked the REWIRE experiment.

"You don’t change a narrative with words. You have to be the narrative."
— Thomas Coombes, Founder of Hope-Based Communications

Using neuroscience, creativity, and hands-on practice, the incubator helped activists “train hope” like a muscle.

📌 Read more: Growing Hope into Action

15 rising civil society leaders from Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria took part, later joined by activists from Ukraine. They ranged in age and background: from judges defending rule of law to youth cultural organisers and Roma rights advocates. Over 18 months, they moved from talking about change to modeling it in their daily work, learning to articulate their values and turn them into concrete actions.

Humans learn by imitation. As Zsofi put it, “We have to see it to become it.”

Ukrainian civil society, which has shown how to build resilience and drive innovation even in times of war, provides a powerful example to follow. By showcasing Ukrainian case studies—from how civil society, architects and technologists are working together to rethink institutions and build a new ‘vision’, to how civil society has laid the groundwork for national defence—REWIRE highlighted how civil society can play a critical role in resisting invasion and countering corruption.

Phase 2: Prototyping hope

But mindset alone isn’t enough! To make change real, they had to build and test new ideas.

That’s when REWIRE moved into the second phase, prototyping: developing quick, early models of ideas that could be tested and refined. Out of 10 ideas pitched, three projects were selected for development and funding:

1️⃣ Cross Cover, a youth-led cultural collective in Hungary, tackled alienation through a co-created magazine and community events. Instead of telling young people to “get involved,” they gave them tools and space to shape their own narratives.

“We’re not shouting in the streets. We’re creating something that holds space for change.”
— Noel Perlaki-Borsos, co-creator of Cross Cover

2️⃣ Hope Box gathered visions for Hungary’s future and turned them into AI-generated images, helping people visualise and discuss what a different country could look like.

“We invite people to live in democracy, not just survive in autocracy.”
— Ágnes Bardócz, co-creator of Hope Box

3️⃣ Impossible Conversations, a Bulgarian workbook, used art therapy and storytelling to bridge divides and support difficult, honest dialogue across communities.

“Today’s world is saturated with emotional, informational, and social overload. This is why we created a creative, emotionally safe tool to help individuals externalize, reflect, and reconnect: with themselves, each other, and the democratic values we want them to carry forward.”
— Anna Hakman, creator of Impossible Conversations

These prototypes made abstract ideas tangible. They demonstrated that hope isn’t just about optimism, it’s about deliberate action that invites others to participate.

📌 Read more about each prototype and hear from the creators

These projects also suggest new possibilities: rethinking what youth-led media could be in a shrinking democracy, helping NGOs and individuals build conflict resolution tools, and even inspiring a hope-based election manifesto grounded in citizen imagination.

If you had the time and resources to trial a hope-based prototype, what would you try? Let us know in the comments!

Lessons for activists everywhere

🤝 Community is key

Over the course of the programme, community emerged as the foundation for change. Participants repeatedly said they couldn’t have accomplished all they did alone. The incubator created a peer environment where risks felt safer, feedback was immediate, and experiments were celebrated rather than penalised.

"Without community support and visible small wins, it’s easy to retreat back into old habits."
— Elliott Goat, co-founder of Unhack Democracy

Elliott described it as a “family of risk-takers,” emphasising how small victories—like running a first workshop or sharing a vulnerable story—kept people moving forward.

Thomas reminded participants that "hope is action," urging them to align daily behaviors with the world they wanted to build.

Zsofi emphasized the importance of creating safe spaces for experimentation and investing in young, creative leaders ready to challenge the status quo.

📌 Read more: Cross-border collaboration for social change

🛠️ Building over resisting

"We always talk about resistance, but we rarely talk about building. If we don’t create new models, we’ll keep patching up old systems in decline."
— Zsofia Banuta, co-founder of Unhack Democracy

Participants didn’t just learn about new approaches; they built them. From youth-led magazines to art-based workbooks and community AI projects, each prototype made hope visible and participatory.

The incubator also transformed its facilitators. They wrestled with big questions: How do you create spaces for safe failure? How do you move beyond slogans to truly shift culture? The turning point came when projects went public, proving that real change starts when individuals feel supported rather than isolated.

And radical transparency was crucial: the REWIRE team was also learning as they went along, trying, testing, and even failing.

“When we didn’t know what to do, we said so out loud. We asked each other. That honesty made the space more courageous.”
— Elliott Goat

💡 It’s time for bold, new ideas

REWIRE confirmed what we already suspected - that traditional funding structures often discourage bold ideas. Many funders prioritise short-term outputs and tidy reports over cultural or mindset shifts.

"We need smart money that backs brave ideas, not just safe bets. Otherwise, we keep replicating the same problems."
— Thomas Coombes

Part of Unhack Democracy’s mission going forward is to recognize that “we are in a political paradigm shift,” as Elliott put it. “Authoritarians and populists have a good sales strategy but a bad product, while civil society is static and scared. We’re trying to defend democracy by playing by rules which no longer apply.”

He continued: “We need to rethink the way our democratic institutions function and are funded, find creative ways to open them up, and develop new pathways for engagement that put citizens front and centre.”

🎨 Art and creativity are essential

One of REWIRE’s strongest takeaways was that art and creativity aren’t extras; they’re core civic tools. They help reconnect people to hope and imagination.

Whether through AI-generated visions, youth-made zines, or visual storytelling workshops, creative approaches helped participants tap into emotions and new ways of thinking.

Creativity offered a different entry point for engagement, allowing people to feel and imagine before analysing or debating.

It reminded participants that activism isn’t just about fighting against something, it’s about building and telling new stories, too.

Three ways to start rewiring today

You don’t need a full incubator to begin. Here are 3 things you can try today in your organization or on your on:

1. Test one small, creative intervention: Try a simple workshop, a storytelling session, or an art-based meeting that focuses on future visions. Use it to learn what sparks energy and engagement!

2. Create a safe space to fail: Regularly ask your team what they would try if they knew they couldn’t fail (or if failure was encouraged). Make room for surprising ideas, and measure experiments on learning rather than performance.

3. Articulate your vision explicitly: Write down, in clear words, the world you want to help build. Use this as a reference point when making decisions and planning actions.

An invitation forward

“The story you tell today shapes the actions you take tomorrow.”
— Thomas Coombes

REWIRE reminds us that defending democracy isn’t enough. We also need to build spaces where experimentation and even failure are seen as part of growth, not as risks to be avoided.

What might you build if you stopped waiting and started experimenting today? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Join the conversation or reflect on what “rewiring” might look like in your context.

REWIRE

REWIRE Democracy is a newsletter and guidebook for civil society leaders, activists, and changemakers working to strengthen democracy, shift narratives, and drive social impact.

By REWIRE Democracy

A note from the REWIRE Democracy team:

This Substack newsletter was started about a year ago to share the progress, ideas, lessons, and sparks of inspiration that emerged from the REWIRE Incubator community.

➡️ If you’re new here, explore our archive to catch up on past pieces, from building resilience for social change, to lessons from Serbia’s student-led protest movement, to practical ways to use hope and narrative change in your own work.

Now that the first incubator has come to a close, Unhack Democracy is reflecting on next steps and exploring how to keep pushing for bold, hopeful, and innovative democratic work, especially in an increasingly challenging climate.

➡️ Want to support us? Learn more about how you can get involved or contribute to our next chapter.

Thank you for being part of the REWIRE journey! We’re grateful to have you with us, and excited to imagine what comes next together. 💛

But Ukraine has shown us that civil society can also become a pillar of security and defence.

This edition of Spotlight On... draws on our recent online event, “Defending Freedom: Civil Society's Role in Ukraine's National Security.” It highlights and expands on ideas shared by:

• Oleh Rybachuk, former Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration (2005) and now head of the Centre of United Actions

• Olha Aivazovska, Chair of civil network OPORA and co-founder of the International Centre for Ukrainian victory

We explore how civil society helped Ukraine move from authoritarianism to democracy (spoiler: it didn’t happen overnight), laid the groundwork for national defence, and continues to play a critical role in resisting invasion, countering corruption, and offering lessons for civil society leaders across Europe and beyond.

Yup, all of that (and more!) is covered just below. ⬇️

1. Laying the foundations: how Ukraine’s civic landscape has shaped and been shaped by recent history

"We already had this very active civil society… therefore when the full-scale operation took place, civil society responded immediately."
— Oleh Rybachuk

Ukraine’s civil society didn’t spring up fully formed in 2022. It grew over decades, shaped by two major people-powered uprisings:

The Orange Revolution (2004–2005) mobilised activists, civil society organisations, politicians, economic players, the armed forces, media, and everyday citizens. It revealed the power of small individual acts of courage and resistance to transform a country.

Ten years later, the protests around the Maidan Revolution of Dignity (2013–2014) were just as formative. One might even say things got a bit wild!

Maidan was not just a protest, but a creative explosion. People came dressed as superheroes. Darth Vader ran for mayor. Barricades became installations of resistance. Protesters pointed mirrors at riot police, holding up signs that read, “God, is it me?” Graphic designers met on Facebook to create viral protest art (like the now-iconic Yanukovych portrait with a red clown nose).

“Participate, don’t spectate,” became a motto. The streets became self-organised spaces of liberation. Some called it a ‘tactical carnival’, and it helped bring down a government.

💡 The idea was clear: decentralised, citizen-led movements could protect democracy better than any top-down authority. Civil society became a powerful, independent force.

Groups like OPORA (Ukraine’s leading domestic election observation network and democracy think-tank) helped build resilience by dispersing leadership, as Olha Aivazovska shares: "In those days we had an idea that horizontal institutions would protect us from external forces. If a government tried to imprison one leader, the entire movement wouldn’t collapse."

She compares civil society organisations to partners in a healthy relationship: “They don’t have to look at each other all the time, but they need to look in the same direction. That’s common values.”

The 2014 Russian invasion of Crimea accelerated this decentralisation. Local governments, civic groups, and individual citizens all stepped up. Much of what Ukraine achieved in terms of defence, governance, and anti-corruption since then emerged from civil society.

So when Russia invaded in 2022, civil society didn’t just react, it led.

2. Filling the gaps: How civil society has stepped in for the state

"Civil society can replace even some weak institutions."
— Olha Aivazovska

Civil society in Ukraine has done more than just step up. In many cases, it stepped in. Replacing key state functions. Supporting the army. Funding defence. Running logistics. Innovating.

A key example is Come Back Alive, a charitable foundation set up in 2014 that procures military equipment and supplies. Ukrainians donate small amounts that add up to hundreds of millions of dollars.

In fact, in many brigades, 30% to 100% of critical supplies (like drones, medical gear, and protective equipment) actually come from CSOs and volunteers.

A recent report from the Sahaidachnyi Security Center called this support measurable, strategic, and often life-saving.

Come Back Alive has earned public trust through full financial transparency, and volunteers and non-profits remain the most trusted groups in the country.

💡 Civil society also has a unique ability to really get stuff done when bureaucracy lags.

When war broke out, U-Cycle (the Kyiv Cyclists' Association) and five partner NGOs launched the international #BikesForUkraine campaign.

In cities under attack, people needed to move and fuel was scarce. So they crowd-sourced bicycles for humanitarian workers, doctors, and volunteers. Not your typical emergency supply chain, but incredibly effective.

And these are just two of hundreds of citizen-driven initiatives, strengthening democracy at home and abroad.

At the international level, the International Centre for Ukrainian Victory was launched by civil society leaders to push reforms and accountability beyond Ukraine’s borders. As Olha says bluntly: “We often know more than politicians about what’s happening on the ground.”

"If you want change, you need to help produce it."
— Olha Aivazovska

This is what civil society looks like as an integral part of a country’s infrastructure.

3. Freedom versus security: why not both?

“A very important conclusion for others, even in times of war, is that there could be a balance between democracy, security, and defending peoples’ rights and freedoms.”
— Oleh Rybachuk

And how about now?

Martial law has suspended elections in Ukraine, but it hasn’t stopped civic work. Civil society continues to defend rights, while supporting the national effort.

"Even under curfew and Martial law, many freedoms in Ukraine are still protected. Government shouldn’t use war as an excuse to take away rights."
— Olha Aivazovska

Civil society plays a crucial role in holding this line. OPORA has spent the last two years preparing for eventual post-war elections, which includes:

• Advocating for election cybersecurity

• Drafting laws to ensure participation of displaced citizens

• Preparing protections against disinformation and foreign interference

They’re not just asking Parliament to act. They’re handing it fully baked solutions: "We draft laws, offer expertise, and provide data-driven solutions,” says Olha.

💡 Ukraine has shown the world that democracy and security do not need to be in conflict, and that the best defence of democracy is… actually practicing democracy.

Here civil society can (and must) play a crucial role in supporting the war effort while continuing to hold the government accountable.

This is a powerful reminder that democracy can survive war—but only if people fight for it.

"If you want change, you need to help produce it. We don't just ask Parliament to act. We draft laws, offer expertise, and provide data-driven solutions."
— Olha Aivazovska

Designing democracy under pressure: Takeaways for changemakers everywhere

"It was a great slogan of NATO during the Cold War: ‘Are you ready to fight tonight?’ That’s the mindset civil society needs. If we are not ready today, tomorrow may not come."
— Olha Aivazovska

💡 Ukraine’s civic ecosystem challenges assumptions about the limits of civil society, and is a masterclass in civic strategy.

It offers a new blueprint for us:

• Democracy and defence are not enemies. Civil society can lead in both!

• Don’t wait for the state. Find gaps and fill them.

• Art and culture can mobilise. Resistance is also emotional, visual, and innovative.

• Decentralisation protects movements. Horizontal networks prevent collapse when leaders are targeted.

• Civic action can build trust, coordination, and resilience before and during war. Build trust. Provide solutions. Draft policy. Inform voters.

• In crisis, act fast and think local. Innovation isn’t always top-down. Sometimes it looks like a borrowed bike.

• Protect rights, even under pressure. And especially when it’s hardest.

Thanks for reading REWIRE Democracy. Learn more about our publication.

Democracy is at a tipping point. We’re shaping its future, but we can’t do it without you.

At Unhack Democracy, we don’t just defend democracy; we reimagine it. From the ground up. But, at the moment, we’re fighting to survive.

Support our new fundraising campaign

The REWIRE Democracy newsletter is a small part of the work we do at Unhack Democracy…

When we started our organization in 2018, our small European team came together around a simple but urgent belief: democracy needs protecting, and it needs rebuilding to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Since then, we’ve worked across Europe to challenge authoritarianism, protect the integrity of elections, mobilise volunteers, and build new civic tools.

From questioning Viktor Orbán’s supermajority in Hungary to running REWIRE Incubator (the project this newsletter shines a light on), we’ve shown that change is possible, even in difficult times.

We’ve also been able to work with fantastic people and organizations like , founder of , to shift mindsets and co-create new, future-oriented democratic models that draw on collective wisdom

“I would have never thought the REWIRE incubator program would change my life, but actually it did!”
— Agnes Bardócz, activist from Hungary, founder of Hope Box

We know this work matters. And we know it’s only possible together.

Today, as funding landscapes shift and support for organizations like ours becomes more unpredictable, we’re facing one of our biggest challenges yet. But we’re not giving up. ✊

We need your help to continue our work, and to grow.

If you’ve found value in our trainings, our tools, or our stories, we invite you to support us now so we can keep building (and dreaming) beyond this year.

💛 Your support helps us:

• Continue running the REWIRE Incubator to support changemakers across Europe.

• Develop new civic tools and share hopeful narratives where they’re needed most.

• Equip local leaders to creatively and practically strengthen democratic resilience.

This isn’t just about keeping the lights on. It’s about fueling a long-term vision: one that moves beyond putting plasters on deep-rooted problems, and instead co-creates new, future-ready models of democracy.

Thank you for being part of this community, and for believing in what’s possible when we build together.

💛 With gratitude,
— The team at REWIRE Democracy & Unhack Democracy

When my Ukrainian colleagues speak about the “new Ukraine,” their eyes light up. The phrase isn’t a slogan; it is a shared vision of freedom, dignity, and a modern state that unites people and fuels endurance during the darkest hours.

As a Hungarian whose government often sides with Moscow, I consider it a duty and a privilege, to learn from Ukraine’s civil society.

Rethinking and rewiring democracy around the world now demands the same ingredients Ukrainians display daily: bold imagination, digital openness, and whole‑of‑community agency.

Their example shows the rest of us what determined, future-oriented democracy work can look like under extreme pressure. And in an era of polarization and collapsing public trust, we all need big, hopeful visions that bind us together.

This Spotlight On… edition of REWIRE Democracy draws from our April 2025 online event: “Building a New Vision for Ukraine: How civil society, architects and technologists are working together to strengthen democracy.” We highlight the ideas shared by:

• Victor Liakh, President of East Europe Foundation (EEF), which pioneers e-governance and civic tech;

• Fulco Treffers, architect and Founder of Ro3kvit: Urban Coalition for Ukraine, a network rethinking recovery through collaborative urban planning.

Together, they show how cross-sector collaboration—between civil society, technologists, architects, and communities—can plant the seeds of democratic renewal, even in the most difficult circumstances.

1. Tech for Good: the rise of Europe’s ‘digital tiger’

“We weave offline and online participation together. It’s not just an app; it’s a way to bring every citizen—at home or displaced—into decision‑making,” said Victor Liakh (President of East Europe Foundation).

For nearly 15 years, the East Europe Foundation (EEF) has acted as a bridge between citizens and state. Long before 2022, EEF co-designed tools that let anyone file e-petitions, propose local reforms, or allocate municipal budgets online.

And today, their work powers Ukraine’s ambition of becoming ‘Europe’s digital tiger,’ to use the words of Ukraine Vice-Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. “After the war, we want to cement our status as the coolest state in terms of digital transformation,” he shared in 2024.

EEF has played a pivotal role in turning the country into a digital state, including working on projects such as:

• Diia: the government’s all-in-one “state-in-a-smartphone” app (100+ public services, from opening a business to registering a marriage).

• Community ideation platforms: letting schools, villages, and frontline towns crowd-source priorities—including drone requests for local defence.

• Export-ready civic tech: EEF is openly sharing its codebase with other countries: “We’re getting ready to give our solutions away free of charge,” Victor told us.

💡 Lesson for civil society: Technology alone doesn’t build trust. Civic tech becomes transformative when it’s seen as citizen-driven, transparent, and responsive to real needs.

2. Mindset matters: a shared method of practical agency

“Technology is amazing, but mindset is everything.” — Zsofia Banuta

In the conversation, both speakers emphasized how Ukraine’s civic culture thrives on pragmatism, determination, and a refusal to give in to apathy, even in the face of immense trauma.

Fulco Treffers, a Dutch architect and founder of Ro3kvit who moved to Ukraine after Euromaidan, saw this firsthand. Decentralisation reforms pushed citizens and the state to work together in new ways.

“Ukrainians don’t complain. They decide to change it or leave it, and that is their power.” —Fulco Treffers (architect & founder of Ro3kvit)

To be clear: there is a lot to justifiably complain about. But in Ukraine, frustration rarely turns into paralysis. Since the Orange Revolution (2004-2005) and Euromaidan (2013-2015), frustration has become a fuel for collective action—not just protest, but co-creation.

Treffers noted how, even just two weeks after the full-scale invasion began, Ukrainian colleagues were already calling him with a startling request: “Let’s start planning recovery now.”

This ability to focus on what can be done—even when the situation is dire—has become a distinctive civic asset. It fuels continuity, creativity, and a sense of momentum.

💡 Lesson for civil society: A shared mindset of practical agency (especially in crisis) can turn vision into momentum. Mobilisation starts with a belief that change is possible.

3. Planning a future under fire: designing scenarios for uncertainty

Ro3kvit (which means “to blossom” in Ukrainian) is a growing coalition of more than 100 architects, engineers, and urban planners building frameworks for Ukraine’s future—often while displacement and destruction continue.

One powerful example is their project in Hirska, a small town in Luhansk that has changed hands several times since 2014. When displaced leaders asked Ro3kvit to co-create a recovery plan, the team agreed—but only if they could plan for both potential futures: one where the town is liberated, and one where residents never return.

The resulting work included:

• A “Box of Memories” preserving Hirska’s stories, smells, and seeds—designed to safeguard cultural identity.

• A step-stone recovery plan rooted in the memory box, offering tangible next steps if return becomes possible.

💡 Lesson for civil society: Planning for the unknown can still offer direction and dignity. By preparing for multiple futures, we anchor hope in action, not just optimism.

Takeaways for changemakers everywhere

Ukraine’s civil society is showing us what it means to lead with vision, to build through crisis, and to collaborate across sectors.

1. Lead with a unifying story. “The new Ukraine” motivates because it’s emotionally resonant—not just functional.

2. Build with, not for. EEF and Ro3kvit succeed because they include people at every step.

3. Embrace uncertainty. Resilience isn’t just enduring crisis—it’s offering blueprints for multiple futures.

💡 Share this with someone who’s doing civic work in hard places.

Welcome back to REWIRE Democracy!

In this final feature spotlighting prototype projects from the REWIRE Democracy Incubator, we’re featuring Cross-Cover (Kereszthuzat): a Hungarian cultural collective and publication run by university students who are using interdisciplinary art and writing to engage their peers in a new kind of civic conversation.

Where Hope Box helped citizens visualize the future, and Impossible Conversations invited activists to reflect inward, Cross-Cover builds outward: offering a physical space, platform, and publication for youth to explore identity, alienation, and belonging in a deeply politicized and often disillusioned context.

At its core, Cross-Cover is a bold experiment in what can happen when art, journalism, and grassroots activism come together, offering plenty of lessons for civil society across Europe and beyond to get inspiration from.

Cross-Cover: A youth-led magazine turning creativity in civic engagement

Cross-Cover (or Kereszthuzat in Hungarian) is a new youth-led cultural collective that uses art, writing, and dialogue to make sense of contemporary issues—and, importantly, to imagine what comes next.

As part of the REWIRE Incubator, creators Róza Szeleczky (Chief Organiser) and Noel Perlaki-Borsos (Editor-in-Chief) developed the Cross-Cover concept through a unique opportunity to receive funding and prototype a new kind of project: one that blends art, civic reflection, and community-building.

Based in Hungary and driven by a rotating team of university students, the project is structured around a print and digital magazine. Each issue explores a different theme (such as alienation, for the first theme) through submissions across genres: essays, short stories, poetry, visual art, sculpture, interviews, and more.

But Cross-Cover isn’t just a magazine. It’s a platform for community. With every new issue, the team organizes live events, including exhibitions, debates, and creative workshops—designed to bring contributors and audiences into shared reflection.

“We want to empower our generation and provide a platform for them to articulate their thoughts in diverse ways, about where our society is and where it should be,” shares the Cross-Cover team.

Print is not dead for these youth activists

Cross-Cover’s creators are students, artists, and writers who noticed something simple but striking: much of the creative work they were producing as part of their studies was staying locked inside files and digital folders.

The magazine became a way to give that work new life: to create a tangible artifact, free to the public, that affirms the value of youth cultural production.

“The magazine format encourages them to slow down and reflect. We believe this has become especially important in today’s sped-up world,” explains Noel. “Not reading or viewing texts and artworks on a small screen lends a sense of ‘realness’ to the subject, it makes it more digestible.”

Rethinking the editorial process

Democracy lives in how we work together. And, unlike most traditional editorial processes, Cross-Cover is democratic by design.

All members of the editorial board—mostly first-year students from Hungary’s liberal and applied arts universities—rotate responsibilities and vote collectively on decisions.

There’s no central editor-in-chief. Instead, there’s a shared belief that co-creation leads to deeper engagement, and that minimizing hierarchy creates more room for joy, ownership, and experimentation.

In Hungary, youth-led civil society platforms are rare—especially ones that are community-driven, non-commercial, and rooted in cultural experimentation.

Cross-Cover is innovating what it means to publish: it's not only rethinking the idea of a magazine, but reimagining it as a vehicle for civic engagement and cultural organizing.

Art, journalism, and activism—all in one

Cross-Cover’s founders were active in student protest movements, but have shifted their approach from protest to platform and community with this project. They have found the importance of making space for conversations and artistic expression key to their movement’s future.

“We’re not shouting in the streets—we’re creating something that holds space for change,” Noel says.

Holding space is its own kind of civic action—especially in societies where youth participation is often undervalued. The team sees their project as creating entry points for deeper engagement through culture, not just campaigns.

As the team explains:

“Cross-Cover is not ‘radical’ (compared to our time in student organisations). That’s part of what makes it feel fresh. We offer, we invite change, we’ve built an uplifting community, we publish, we host inspirational events, and we’re open to anyone who craves our kind of fresh air. We’re simply here, creating space.”

Building a new youth-led media in Hungary

Every article in the first issue contains a forward-looking element, not just pointing out what’s wrong, but offering insight, warmth, and possibility.

This reflects some of the core values of the REWIRE Incubator: hope and creative problem-solving.

“Without REWIRE, we wouldn’t have had the resources to print a high-quality magazine. But more importantly, we wouldn’t have had the chance to reflect so deeply on what we were doing,” explains Noel.

“Through sessions on hope-based communication and narrative framing, the Cross-Cover team learned how to balance [societal] critique with imagination,” the creators say. And imagination is key for building a future that doesn’t reinforce the status quo.

What happens when you give youth the mic? Read about Serbia’s youth-led protest movement in REWIRE Democracy.

Lessons for civil society

What can civil society learn from a Hungarian youth-led culture collective?

Well, actually, a lot.

Cross-Cover is more than a creative initiative—it’s a civic prototype. It offers a replicable model for how cultural projects can become powerful vehicles for engagement, learning, and collective meaning-making, especially in environments where traditional forms of activism may feel inaccessible or ineffective.

One key takeaway is the importance of format and entry points, lowering the barrier to participation, especially for young people who might be disengaged from formal politics but still deeply care about social issues.

"It’s much easier to engage with young people through culture than directly through politics,” Noel explains. “The themes are often the same, but the format changes everything."

Another lesson is the value of space before strategy. The collective didn’t begin with rigid goals—they started with open-ended invitations: contribute something, show up, reflect.

For civil society looking to do things differently, the team advises: start by observing what your community is missing. Sometimes, what’s needed isn’t a campaign or a protest. Sometimes, it’s space.

Cross-Cover’s non-hierarchical structure, rotating responsibilities, and collaborative decision-making offer a glimpse into how civil society can model the values it promotes.

“We’re interested in what’s happening culturally and politically around us, and how that reflects back in us.”

If we want civic life to be vibrant, inclusive, and future-facing, then we need to invest in platforms like Cross-Cover. And not just as art projects, but as democratic infrastructure.

Ready to think outside the box?

The team behind Cross-Cover welcomes collaboration, adaptation, and exchange with other youth-led movements and art-based groups.

If you’re an educator, organizer, or cultural worker interested in learning more about the Cross-Cover format, learn more and reach out:

• Visit the Cross-Cover website at https://www.kereszthuzat.hu/

• Follow Cross-Cover on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube

And remember that together, we can build more platforms that center young voices, community creation, and cross-disciplinary dialogue.

💬 Have you ever built something because you saw that it was missing? How might a project like Cross-Cover look in your city? Let us know in the comments!

Where Hope Box turned collective visions of a better future into bold visual storytelling, Impossible Conversations takes a quieter path. It turns inward.

Before public dialogue, before strategy meetings or media statements, there’s a moment many of us skip: the conversation with ourselves.

This is where Impossible Conversations begins.

What are impossible conversations, really?

When you hear the phrase “impossible conversations,” maybe you imagine a high-stakes political debate or a heated family dinner.

But what if the hardest conversations aren’t the ones we have with others, but the ones we have with ourselves?

Created by REWIRE Incubator participant Anna Hakman (chairman of Bulgarian integration and inclusion organisation Arms Wide Open), Impossible Conversations is a reflective, art-based tool designed to help people pause, process, and reconnect. It’s not therapy, and it’s not about fixing conflict.

It’s a notebook. Filled with comics, prompts, illustrations, and space to doodle or reflect. And it’s not just about facilitating big debates or political dialogues. It’s about an even harder conversation that we need to have: with ourselves.

It helps you ask, without pressure: What do I feel? What’s hard to say out loud? What’s really going on under the surface?

Civil society needs to slow down

“Today’s world is saturated with emotional, informational, and social overload,” Anna says. “Many people carry complex emotional experiences they struggle to name or share. These ‘impossible conversations’ aren’t just personal—they're also shaped by social taboos, cultural silences, and fractured identities.”

“Today’s world is saturated with emotional, informational, and social overload.”

At the same time, societies across Europe are facing increasing polarization. If young people don’t have safe, creative ways to explore and express what's within, these suppressed tensions risk turning into apathy, conflict, or radicalization.

“This is why we created a creative, emotionally safe tool to help individuals externalize, reflect, and reconnect: with themselves, each other, and the democratic values we want them to carry forward,” she explains.

And that’s why this project can be an essential tool for activists, educators, and volunteers who are expected to show up with clarity and strength, even when they’re at their limit.

→ Read more about how changemakers can (and should) build their resilience

Not “woo-woo,” just necessary

Let’s address the stereotype: practices like journaling, drawing, or mindfulness are often dismissed as fluffy or self-indulgent. Civil society spaces, particularly those focused on democracy, have been slow to recognize their value.

But what if these practices aren’t soft at all?

At REWIRE, we see them for what they are: strategic, and necessary.

This isn’t just self-help. It’s about giving leaders tools to stay grounded, empathetic, and creative—especially in moments of crisis.

A new kind of innovation, from prototype to practice

The idea for Impossible Conversations emerged from a simple observation: when people feel overwhelmed, they doodle in the margins. “We noticed this instinct,” Anna says. “It’s a way to focus and self-soothe. We wanted to turn that into an intentional practice.”

Impossible Conversations doesn’t promise solutions or quick fixes. It offers something more radical: space. Space to think, to feel, and to pause. Space to be a human before being a leader. To feel before reacting. To respond with intention rather than impulse. And in our increasingly reactive environments, that pause can make all the difference.

In today’s emotionally charged environments, that instinct (and this workbook) is more valuable than ever.

Anna’s insight formed the basis for one of three projects chosen to enter a prototyping phase through the REWIRE Incubator.

In another context, this project might have been a creative journaling exercise. But the incubator gave Anna the structure to test, refine, and reframe it as a civic tool.

Supported by peer feedback and real-world testing, Anna iterated through multiple rounds of development. This learning process revealed what worked and, crucially, what didn’t. This allowed those leading the projects to experiment (and fail) with their idea over several iterations.

“REWIRE didn’t just influence the content of the project, it transformed how we approach difficult conversations,” Anna says.

The result is a prototyped project rooted in hope-based communication, but grounded in real civic needs: how do we stay emotionally resilient in the face of burnout, polarization, and pressure?

And how might emotional clarity before a conversation improve what happens after?

What’s inside the workbook?

Inside the notebook, you’ll find visual journaling pages, comics, and drawing prompts designed to surface difficult emotions without demanding immediate resolution.

It invites users to slow down, observe, and name their experiences—without having to explain or defend them. This shift away from judgment opens up deeper understanding.

And in politically tense contexts, it creates space for honesty without rushing toward resolution.

Impossible Conversations is being tested in trauma workshops, peacebuilding efforts, and dialogue initiatives—particularly in contexts where direct verbal exchange may be too volatile. Its strength lies in making space for emotions to emerge before jumping into problem-solving.

As Anna puts it: “In polarized environments where words are weaponized or identities politicized, the creative language of art becomes a neutral space. A place to feel before responding.”

Inner work is civic work

Civil society today is overstretched, under-resourced, and increasingly under pressure. We’re expected to respond quickly, to always be strategic, articulate, and strong. But what if strength looked different?

We are living through a paradigm shift—and that means we need new tactics, even if they challenge traditional approaches.

As Anna advises: “Start with space, not structure. You don’t need to jump into hard topics right away. Creating a safe and welcoming environment is already a conversation.”

This notebook doesn’t claim to resolve conflict. It creates the space around it.

Impossible Conversations reminds us that inner work is civic work. Sitting with discomfort, reflecting honestly, and making space for emotion isn’t a weakness, it’s a strength.

Let’s make space for impossible conversations

This project is in its prototyping phase and open to collaboration. If you’re a facilitator, educator, nonprofit leader, or civil society leader interested in testing the toolkit or adapting it for your work, you can reach out to Anna and the Arms Wide Open team at:

• Website: www.armswideopen.eu

• Email: info@armswideopen.bg

• Instagram: @armswideopenbg

• Facebook: facebook.com/armswideopenbg

In our next edition of the REWIRE Democracy Substack newsletter, we’ll share the story of CrossCover, a youth-led, crowd-sourced magazine tackling identity, alienation, and civic belonging through storytelling.

Subscribe to get it delivered to your inbox:

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And if you know someone who needs to hear this message, someone quietly doing the hard inner work behind the scenes, forward this post their way.

Together, we can make space for more impossible conversations.

Hope Box is one of three civil-society-led projects that were developed, tested, and supported through the Rewire your mind, Rewire your county hope-based mindset shift incubator (REWIRE Incubator) for rising civil society leaders.

Through neuroscience, creativity, and collaboration, the REWIRE Incubator provides training and support in neuroscience, entrepreneurship, and creativity to help activists come up with and test innovative solutions to the most pressing issues and challenges affecting democracy.

At its core, REWIRE is about shifting mindsets. Instead of reacting to crisis after crisis, what happens when we focus on what we want to build?

The Hope Box prototype shows what the future can look like, literally.

Hope Box: Reimagining democracy, one image at a time

‘If you had a magic wand, what would you change in the world around you?’

This question was posed to participants at a REWIRE Incubator workshop in 2024, and inspired one participant to think bigger: “What if we could actually design the future we want to live in?”

Co-led by two Hungarian participants of the REWIRE Incubator, Dr. Fanni Mátyók (lawyer and founder of children’s rights organisation WellBee), and Ágnes Bardócz (community organiser with Civil College Foundation (CKA)), Hope Box is a participatory visual storytelling campaign that invites citizens to imagine their ideal future—and see the vision come to life.

Using an online form or by submitting photos and drawings, participants from across Hungary were invited to describe what they hope for the future. Fanni and Ágnes then turned those visions into AI-generated images, creating a powerful gallery of imagined tomorrows.

“We see people frozen in apathy,” says Fanni. “But when you visualize something hopeful—and see that others share your vision—you realise you’re not alone. That’s powerful.”

☀️ Why hope, not fear?

In Hungary, and across much of Europe and beyond, civil society spaces are shrinking and political polarization is on the rise. That’s why Hope Box is deliberately framed as an invitation to imagine, not as a warning about what might go wrong.

“Hate can activate nothing but hate,” Ágnes says. “We already know how these hateful messages work here in Hungary, this is the second decade of this kind of communication going on right now. We’ve experienced it, and now I see that we must avoid it, and do something totally else.”

(Learn more about the power of hope in civil society)

We have seen this play out time and again in many countries in recent years, not just Hungary. Driven by a stream of negative news—some real, some imagined and pushed for political ends—people feel the political and economic system is not working for them.

This has created a sense of helplessness which in turn draws people to easy answers from the extremes. The solution to this is not to ape the populist rhetoric but present a parallel positive vision of what society can be.

🧠 The science behind imagination

It is easy, as activists and engaged citizens, to concentrate on protesting against what populist leaders are saying rather than demonstrating what we actually want instead. However, it’s been proven that fighting against populist narratives ends up only reinforcing them.

(Learn more about the power of narrative change here)

Indeed, so much of civil society’s time is spent saying what we don’t want, that it’s sometimes hard to imagine what we do want. And it is much harder to work toward your goals when you don’t know what they are.

That is why we need to create new images—based on our collective vision for the future—to enforce, which then can unite and motivate us.

💡 Innovative ideas for democratic participation

The co-creators of Hope Box explain that their concept is based on these neuroscientific principles: that when we picture only negative futures, we trigger fear-based thinking. But hopeful visions engage parts of the brain responsible for conscious reflection and action—the foundation of civic engagement.

“Without a vision, you don’t do things, you just live,” says Fanni. “But if you have a vision, then you are more likely to take steps toward that vision.”

The hypothesis of Hope Box, which Fanni and Ágnes have tested across Hungary, is that a creative and participatory process of envisioning a hopeful future can activate and strengthen individuals’ ability to imagine positive change in their communities. And when we are able to imagine these futures, it makes it more likely that we’ll be able to act on them.

“The brain responds more strongly to images. If you can actually see a hopeful future, you’re more likely to believe in it, and act on it.”

“We learned through the REWIRE Incubator that the brain responds more strongly to images. If you can actually see a hopeful future, you’re more likely to believe in it, and act on it,” says Ágnes.

She adds: “Democracy isn’t just a word, it’s a verb. It only exists when we do it. And if people stay frozen in hopelessness, democracy doesn’t happen. It has to be built.”

🇭🇺 What Hungarians want for their future

From the visions submitted to the project, Fanni and Ágnes developed 31 AI-generated images to present during a community event that marked the end of the testing phase.

And from these images, the project leads were able to see five main themes surface—a snapshot of what people really want for their communities:

1. Child-centered education & inclusive decision-making

2. Accessible, high-quality healthcare focused on prevention

3. Green, human-centered cities and villages

4. Solidarity, equity, and inclusion

5. Everyday heroes and active citizenship

Some of the most powerful images which fell under the theme of solidarity, equity, and inclusion, were submitted around the time the Budapest Pride March was banned, lending an even deeper urgency and meaning. The images reflect real tensions and real acts of resistance.

“Maybe we sometimes feel that this nation is divided, but at the end of the day we want very similar things.”

This was one of the most powerful results from the project. Fanni says that it was a good reminder for them, that “maybe we sometimes feel that this nation is divided, but at the end of the day we want very similar things.”

👀 What’s next for Hope Box?

The idea behind Hope Box—based in neuroscience, creativity, and innovation—ended up becoming a powerful tool, a mirror, reflecting the shared desires of the participants.

Fanni and Ágnes hope to grow the project in several directions. Because they found that Hope Box has the power to build community and bring people together, and works very well in group settings, the leaders are interested in bringing the tool to workshops where participants can co-create visual prompts and see the results in real time.

The concept could also be applied internally at an organisational level, as a tool to help pro-democracy NGOs think positively and strengthen their ‘hope muscles’ in the face of mounting challenges from hostile state actors.

The leaders are interested in collecting even more submissions from across Hungary and developing a manifesto which showcases what individuals around the country truly want for their future. That clarity into peoples’ hopes has the potential to fuel future civic engagement, including mobilizing voters ahead of Hungary’s 2026 elections.

What began as a question in a workshop is now a true model for hope-based action. And the team has hopes to continue sharing this hope and action far beyond Hungary, as well.

✊ Lessons for civil society

Hope Box is more than a campaign, it’s proof of concept. If there are two main lessons that civil society can learn from this project, it would be:

• Have the freedom to fail: Because innovation, experimentation, and creativity are at the heart of the REWIRE Incubator, the three different prototype teams were given space, time, and funding to test out their idea. Perhaps most crucially, they had the freedom to fail: an option too often lacking in the resource-starved civil society sector.

• And use new, creative tools: Hope Box’s use of AI makes the case for its use in civil society work. At a time when we’re wary and afraid of it, they have figured out a way to embrace it for good. Curiosity and creativity are part of civil society too, and it serves as a low-cost, accessible, and visually compelling tool.

Hope Box isn’t just a beautiful idea, it’s a reminder that civil society needs innovation and imagination more than ever.

Ágnes leaves us with these powerful words: “We invite people to live in democracy, not just survive in autocracy.”

Want to bring more hope to your community?

💡 Get in touch with the creators of Hope Box and follow along their journey here.

💌 Share this post with anyone working in civil society who could use a bit more hope.

📌 Subscribe to the REWIRE Democracy newsletter to learn more about the two other prototypes in the coming weeks:

• Impossible Conversations, a guidebook for tackling polarization

• CrossCover, a youth-led magazine for reimagining narratives

Together, we explored the emotional toll of authoritarianism, the neuroscience behind hope, and why civil society needs more vision, humor, and creativity—not just resistance.

From student-led protests in Serbia to AI-generated hopeful futures in Hungary, we unpacked real-world tactics for rewiring democracy from the inside out. You’ll hear how REWIRE is equipping the next generation of change-makers with the mindset and tools to move beyond burnout and build what comes next.

Watch the full conversation and let us know in the comments: what gives you hope right now?

Get more from REWIRE Democracy in the Substack app

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We believe that meaningful change happens when people from different countries, disciplines, and lived experiences come together to share ideas, challenge assumptions, and build something new.

Cross-border collaboration isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s the foundation for innovation, solidarity, and resilience in civil society.

Inside this edition, you’ll find:

• 💡 5 powerful lessons from a decade of cross-border collaboration

• 📖 How civil society can borrow tactics from authoritarian leaders… for good!

• 🧠 Reminders that hope, innovation, and collaboration are necessary to strengthen democratic values, shift narratives, and turn big ideas into action.

📝 The Learning Curve

Cross-border collaboration with heart: 5 lessons from the ‘brand manager of freedom’

By Boryana Atanassova, Senior Communications Manager, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom for East and Southeast Europe

As someone who has been called the ‘brand manager of freedom’ (a title I now use with pride), I’ve spent nearly a decade working at the intersection of civil society, communications, and democratic innovation at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) - regional office for East and Southeast Europe.

Our regional office connects headquarters in Germany with seven key subregions: Bulgaria and North Macedonia, Romania and Moldova, the Western Balkans, Ukraine, South Caucasus, Russia in Exile, and Türkiye. In this role, I strive to reach hearts and minds, and shift values and behaviors through strategic communication and creative civic education.

Some of the projects I’m most proud of include The Future of Ukraine, an artistic exhibition of open-access, creative commons license artworks in collaboration with Fine Acts, and Think Freedom, a series of personal video portraits spotlighting courageous freedom ambassadors across the region. These communications outputs are not just campaigns; they are emotional, visual narratives that break through the bubble and touch people across borders.

Here are five key lessons I’ve learned through a decade of cross-border collaboration in FNF:

Lesson 1: Cross-border collaboration needs responsible citizens

Democracy only works when people participate in it.

At FNF, we strive to empower critically thinking, politically active individuals who engage with the world around them. Only when individuals take part in the political process and assume responsibility—when they get involved and express their opinions—does a liberal society flourish.

Cross-border collaboration can be fruitful when stakeholders contribute in a pro-active, responsible, constructive, and mutually beneficial way. When people assume responsibility, the results are powerful.

Lesson 2: Shared challenges need shared solutions

Authoritarianism and democratic backsliding don’t respect national borders, so why should civil society?

The severe backsliding of democracy we see in many countries, the Russian war in Ukraine, and the global rise of populism have shown us how fragile freedom can be. Rulers across Europe and beyond are following a playbook to establish and reinforce populist and authoritarian regimes. Not only democracy, but all of our human rights and wellbeing are at stake.

These moments remind us that cross-sectoral collaboration of the liberal, reformist, progressive, pro-democracy forces is not optional, it’s essential. We can’t afford to work in silos. To protect liberal values, changemakers across civil society, politics, law, media, education and business must unite across borders to share knowledge, resist authoritarianism, and rebuild trust.

Lesson 3: Communities and networks are the best investment

Workshops and one-off events have their place in civil society, but long-term networks create real impact.

That’s why FNF runs flagship regional programs like the Alliance of Her Academy for East and Southeast Europe (a leadership program for women in politics and decision-making roles, and a community of over 200 women and allies in Europe) and the Liberal Communicators Network: Non-Profit Academy (a program in its 5th year which empowers non-profit communicators to tailor cutting edge communications strategies for the mission-driven sector, which I founded).

Communities like these foster exchange, empower changemakers, and create lasting ripple effects far beyond national borders.

Lesson 4: Facilitation matters more than you think

Outdated, top-down lectures rarely work in adult education. What does? Facilitated learning that prioritizes co-creation, exchange, and safe spaces for mistakes.

At FNF, we work hard to provide transformative learning journeys crafted by world-class facilitators and trainers specialized in civic and political adult education. Each session offers a space for learning and development, inspiration and empowerment, co-creation and brainstorming, peer-to-peer learning and networking, best practice exchanges and the open sharing of mistakes.

With the right facilitators (professionals who have international experience), interactive formats, and modern, innovative, and creative methodologies, we can navigate cultural differences, prevent conflict, and create genuine learning journeys that fuel collaboration.

Lesson 5: Listening, empathy, and hope break down borders

The most important lesson I’ve learned is that cross-border collaboration starts with people. It’s not only a strategy, it’s about the human connection.

When you invest in building authentic emotional connection, you open the door to real transformation. When I see tears in the eyes of participants when they graduate a seminar, or the sparkle in their eyes as they reconnect across the world years down the line, I know that we’ve achieved the most important thing: touching the hearts of people.

From both my professional and personal experience, what has helped me most in cross-border, multicultural settings is communication based on shared values, empathy, personal connection, active listening, and hope.

I draw on tools like Nancy Kline’s Thinking Environment, which helps to create optimal conditions for people’s thinking to flourish, and to structure conversations where everyone feels heard, respected, and mentally energized. I have also been able to explore the Hope-Based Communications framework recently, thanks to participating in the REWIRE Incubator, which uses messages around possibilities, solutions, and collective agency to inspire confidence and motivation.

As civil society leaders and activists, we need to do more listening, feeling, empathizing, connecting, and hoping. This will help us to open borders to deep relationships, collaborate in more meaningful ways, and co-create democracies that we want to live in.

If you want to work across borders, start with humanity, and the rest will follow.

⚒️ Toolbox for Change

How to use the 'Authoritarian Playbook' for good

By Elliott Goat, co-founder of Unhack Democracy

Authoritarians are risk-taking, fast, and crucially, willing to learn from each other. They are competitors in the democracy space with a good sales strategy but a bad product. They sell a fake vision of the past to create a sense of belonging.

Civil society, by contrast, is too often playing catch-up, focusing on protesting rather than demonstrating. We are slow adapt to new challenges because we are siloed, overstretched, demotivated, and constantly under attack.

What we need, in essence, is to an authoritarian playbook but for good, based on the principles of cross-border and cross-sector cooperation.

Here are five things civil society can do to flip the authoritarian playbook on its head:

1. Tell a better story.

Populists and authoritarians are masters of narrative and staying laser-focused on the key messages that have been proven to resonate.

We need to tell a different story, and do it better. Whether it is on immigration or rule of law, this has to be driven by a positive inclusive vision (this is where all the ‘hope stuff’ comes in). Only then will civil society be able to sell democracy better.

Read more: Changing the narrative on democracy

2. Coordinate and collaborate.

The past decade has seen the emergence of a whole ‘illiberal’ knowledge-sharing ecosystem. Made up of formal and informal groups and networks, these allow ideologically-aligned leaders and movements to share tactics and reinforce each other's objectives.

This is also what the REWIRE Democracy Substack is trying to do: to become a living guidebook to showcase civil society leaders, activists, and changemakers worldwide working together and share lessons that we can all learn from - to strengthen democracy, shift narratives, and drive social impact.

Want a real-world example of this in action? 👀
The UK Democracy Network is bringing together over 100 organisations to connect, share knowledge, and grow collective influence across the democracy sector. It’s a powerful reminder that collaboration beats competition when it comes to systemic change!

3. Don’t be afraid to steal.

As Pablo Picasso said: "good artists copy, great artists steal." Authoritarians and populists draw inspiration—in tactics, messaging, etc.—from anywhere and everywhere, even if it does not align with them ideologically, as long as it works.

Civil society must not be afraid to do the same! That is why Unhack Democracy works to educate and empower civil society and citizens with actionable lessons from successful shifts driven by democracy, business, and art. Because we believe that you have to see it first to be it!

Watch our latest webinar (here) to learn how civil society, architects and technologists are working together to strengthen democracy and rethink institutions in Ukraine.

4. Stay focused on the big picture.

It is often said that “the right looks for converts, while the left looks for traitors”.

We need to avoid falling into a “divide and distract” trap set for us, which prevents us from concentrating on real solutions. This requires finding like-minded partners and being open to working together towards a set of agreed common goals.

See the success of this approach in our latest Spotlight on… looking at lessons for civil society from Serbia’s youth-led protest movement that has snowballed over the last 6 months into the biggest challenge to President Aleksandar Vučić increasingly-autocratic decade-long rule.

5. Build bridges and belonging.

In their book The Invisible Doctrine, George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison argue the antithesis to the authoritarian bonding network, which brings together people from a homogenous group, is a bridging network; one that brings together people from different groups:

“Only through building sufficiently rich and vibrant bridging communities can we hope to thwart people’s urge to burrow into the security of a bonding community, defending themselves against the other”. — The Invisible Doctrine

Populists thrive on “us vs. them” rhetoric. This “othering” strategy pits groups against one another, making us believe it’s impossible to come together to push for change.

Civil society can counter this by prioritising connection and trust-building not only with people who agree, but also those who do not. To this end, the REWIRE programme has incubated three pioneering prototypes that aim to build bridges, foster communities and open up institutions, all underpinned by the power of creativity, entrepreneurship, and neuroscience.

Stay tuned for upcoming editions of the REWIRE Democracy Substack where we will deep dive into each of these projects, showing how—through crowdsourcing a collective vision or using art therapy to navigate tough conversations in a polarised world—you can rewire the system by rewiring the brain.

Ready to connect across borders and build something new?

Cross-border collaboration helps civil society to step outside our silos, see new patterns, gain fresh insights, and strengthen the collective force behind democracy.

Whether it’s borrowing tactics from unexpected places, like the authoritarian playbook (for good), or learning from changemakers like Boryana and the Serbian student protest movement, one thing is clear: the challenges we face are global… and so can the solutions be.

As REWIRE Democracy continues to unfold, we invite you to stay curious, stay hopeful, and stay connected across borders.

💬 Let us know: What’s one thing you’ll take into your own work from this issue?

What started as anger over the deaths of 16 people killed when a concrete canopy at Novi Sad station collapsed in early November, has led to the resignation of the prime minister and hundreds of thousands of students and citizens taking to the streets to demand the government tackle rampant corruption.

Unhack Democracy co-founder Elliott Goat spoke to Aleksandar Milanović, a culture and media management student at the Belgrade Faculty of Dramatic Arts (FDU), and one of the organisers behind the blockade of university campuses in November that kickstarted the most wide-reaching and sustained protest movement in modern Serbian history.

Here we share five key lessons from our conversation with Aleksandar that civil society can learn from:

1: Keep your demands specific and achievable— and stick to them

Elliott: In December, FDU students agreed to four key demands: the release of all unredacted documents about the Novi Sad renovation project; the charging of officials who have attacked students and protesters; the end to prosecutions against demonstrators who have been arrested; and a 20% increase in education funding in Serbia.

How central have these been to your campaign?

Alexsander: From the very start of the protest we've had concrete demands that have remained fixed.

That's one of the strengths because one of the things with other protests that have happened over the last 10 years, [is] that they've kind of fizzled out because they kept adding more and more demands. I think that after time passed people weren't really sure what they were protesting about. [Our demands] haven't changed; they stay the same and I think that's what's unique about this whole movement. They're just so basic and simple.

“I think that's what has probably brought people together is that we just want justice, basically.”

2: Use humour and hope to activate apathetic and apolitical groups

E: FDU’s X account was voted the best in 2024 in Serbia while Instagram reels [like here] have been viewed millions of times, and even won awards. How important has messaging been for you?

A: I don't think there was any kind of core audience that we were addressing. But maybe we can say that we want to address people who have been uninterested or apolitical.

I think that is why our faculty in particular, and the kind of content we create, has been more resonant with people. It's because we actually go to school. We learn to create content and that's what we study at this faculty and so we're very good at it and we know how to make content that's attractive for social media.

E: Do you ever say anything negative about institutions or the governing party?

A: We do it in a kind of a jokey, joking way. That's probably what resonates with people, that everything, all the attacks that we get from the politicians or through the media get spun around and then turned into some kind of meme. I think that's been one of the strengths here also.

3: Organise internally to mobilise externally

E: From the very beginning the FDU set up a series of "working groups” covering different aspects of the blockade. Can you explain more about how that worked?

A: I think we have over ten of them now for various activities. So we have a work group for actions and protests. We have a work group for security, including security in the faculty and on protests. We have a media work group, we have a work group for internal activities, and we have what we call ‘home economics’, which is in charge of cleaning the faculty, food on the faculty, and donations that come in. We have a work group for communicating with other faculties and all of these work groups also exist on other faculties, not just on our own and so they communicate with each other when there's a big protest or something that requires some kind of collaborative action.

E: Can you talk a bit more about your internal decision-making process? Has this been replicated outside the faculty?

A: What the students have been focused on recently, apart from protests, is encouraging Serbia’s citizens to engage more directly in local politics by forming Citizen Councils or ‘Zbor’, to put pressure on their local institutions to resolve issues that are plaguing them. This is the same concept that we students have been using to organize ourselves, the student ‘Plenum’ where every student of a faculty is welcome and where all issues to do with the protests, blockades, and faculties are discussed openly and voted on.

4: The system is all young people know… so use that to build resilience and inspire others

E: This protest seems different in that it has been started and led by young people. How important is that?

A: I think just the fact that it's a student movement has been the biggest thing, because we've heard it over the last 10 years whenever any kind of protest happened: ‘where are the young people? Where are the students?’ But now, just the fact that these young people and kids have stepped up and are actually fighting very, very hard for justice and for a just society, I think that has really resonated with people.

E: So would you say most people are protesting for the first time? How has that shaped your strategy?

A: The people basically leading these protests are 20, 21 years old, and they've grown up in this system, and this system is all that they know. And so they know all of the strengths and weaknesses, and so the government, those in charge, can't throw anything at us because we've seen all of that before and we know how to respond or how not to respond.

5: Stay above politics and mobilise from the bottom up

E: Why have these protests been different to previous ones?

A: All of us over the last couple of years have been very disappointed, and disillusioned. There's been a lot of apathy about the possibility of change, of a better society.

I think we have definitely awakened something, some kind of hope, that there could be a change—because it has come from the bottom, from the students and from the young people. It hasn't come from the politicians, from the opposition. That's what made a difference.

E: Do you think part of the success is also because it hasn't been done by people who are normally political?

A: I think the fact that these protests have not been political or politically associated with anybody has been its biggest strength. And because we're not fighting for a change of the regime, not fighting to bring down Vučić. We're fighting for just the institutions basically to do their jobs, which they are supposed to do in any normal society.

I think it's safe to say that the student movement has become a major political force even though we've distanced ourselves from political parties and movements, and now there are discussions whether the students should provide a solution out of this political crisis.

And in conclusion: stay focused and keep going

E: What happens if your demands are met?

A: I don't know what the future is going to bring. If our demands are fulfilled, we will probably stop with the blockade and with the process, but it doesn't seem like that's going to happen because that will break this whole pyramid structure of this government, how they operate, and how they function. And so what has been happening is that they just keep throwing these distractions, somebody resigns, somebody is arrested, but nothing concretely as far as our demands are concerned.

E: How has the government reacted?

A: What we’re experiencing now is a big crackdown on protesters... intimidation, arrests and physical attacks, and even bigger pressure on universities and professors to try to break the student blockades. But, we students and professors are adamant that we will not stop with the blockades or protests until all our demands are met. So far, not a single demand has.

E: How have you managed to stay resilient in the face of huge pressure?

A: We have this word in Serbian, which is like doing something in spite of, in spite of the pressures actually put on you. We don't really see that we have any choice in the matter. We are going to keep fighting for as long as necessary. I mean, we say we're going to be in a blockade and protesting until our demands are fulfilled and we plan to do just that if it lasts for another week, if it lasts for another year.

Thanks for reading!

REWIRE Democracy is a newsletter and living guidebook for civil society leaders, activists, and changemakers worldwide working to strengthen democracy, shift narratives, and drive social impact.

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💡 Below you'll find this month's Community Challenge, as well as a case study on how shifting perspectives can create real change.

Our challenge to you:

Think about your own work. Is it already part of narrative change? Maybe it is. But take time to pause and reflect: are you reinforcing dominant narratives, or actually shifting them?

Your community challenge this month is to identify one message, story, or theme in your work that could be reframed in a more hopeful way.

How to reframe a narrative in 3 steps:

1. Step 1: Identify a dominant narrative in your field. Example: If your sector always talks about climate change as a crisis, could you highlight climate solutions instead?

2. Step 2: Shift the story using a hope-based approach. Check previous issues of the REWIRE Democracy newsletter for inspiration and guidance. Example: Instead of focusing only on barriers for migrants, share stories of successful community building and care.

3. Step 3: Rewrite the narrative. Try rewriting a post or message you’ve already shared, but with a hope-based perspective. Drop it below so we can all learn from each other!

💡 Inspiration in Action

Case study: Rewriting the Roma narrative in Bulgaria with hope

By Ani Kovacheva, activist in Bulgaria

As a civil society activist, I am constantly surrounded by discussions of social challenges, whether from those experiencing them firsthand or fellow activists raising awareness. And I’ve always believed my role was to highlight these problems and make them known.

The same applied to my community: when I thought about the Roma community in Bulgaria, my mind immediately turned to its struggles.

My name is Ani Kovacheva, and I am a student at the American University in Bulgaria. Civil society work is my hobby and my passion. I volunteer for a local organization in my hometown called the LARGO Association. Although it's a small, local organization, its work has a wide reach. We primarily focus on health, education, and civic development issues related to the Roma community in Bulgaria, with a particular emphasis on the South-Western region, where we are based.

Over the years, I've seen firsthand the challenges faced by Roma communities: structural discrimination, lack of access to education and healthcare, and the persistent negative narratives that shape public perceptions. But it wasn’t until my participation in the REWIRE Incubator that I realized how much these narratives shaped not only external perceptions but also my own approach to activism.

A turning point for me came when we were introduced to the concept of hope-based communication by Thomas Coombes. He shared the story of a protest song in Chile that mobilized citizens to vote against a dictatorship. Its positivity was contagious. Even without understanding Spanish, I felt its power! It was proof that hope isn’t just an emotion; it’s a strategy for change.

This perspective shift transformed my work. I had been working with a colleague on a film about Roma people, but we hadn’t defined its focus. Public perception in Bulgaria often paints Roma communities as uneducated, uncultured, and separate from the rest of society. We wanted to challenge these stereotypes, but through REWIRE, we realized that focusing on struggles alone wouldn’t achieve that. Instead, we embraced a hope-based approach: showcasing not just the challenges, but also the joy, cultural richness, and contributions of Roma individuals to Bulgarian society.

Now, our film aims to reframe the public narrative, offering an authentic, hopeful portrayal of Roma life. Our goal is to bridge the gap by emphasizing similarities while celebrating our uniqueness.

Hope-based communication taught me that narratives shape not just how others see us, but how we see ourselves. It doesn’t ignore challenges—it empowers us to speak about the future we want to build instead of just reacting to problems.

To other activists feeling overwhelmed by the challenges in their communities, I’d say: immerse yourself in stories of hope. Watch, read, and listen to examples of those who have successfully driven change. Hearing stories like the song from Chile doesn’t just inspire me, it makes me feel hope physically.

The stories we tell others and ourselves are important, and if we want people to believe in a better future, we need to show them what that future could look like.

Ready to join this week’s challenge?

💬 Think about a narrative you’re ready to challenge. Then, try your hand at rewriting a past post you’ve shared with a more hope-based message. Drop the result in the comments below!

Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. has positioned itself as a champion of Ukrainian sovereignty, and its actions reflected a clear narrative of standing for human rights and democracy. Last week, we saw that change dramatically before our eyes, as the U.S. turned its back on Ukraine and reinforced dangerous narratives about the war—and the value of democracy itself—propagated by Russia.

Over the last years (and even decades), humanitarian aid was something the world proudly supported, and now, we’re watching that consensus unravel. The U.S. foreign aid freeze and wavering commitments from other global actors show us just how quickly values can be rewritten.

But there’s good news, we promise. Narratives don’t just shift on their own: people shape them. And civil society has the power to push back. We’ve seen it happen before and we can do it again.

This month, REWIRE Democracy is exploring how civil society leaders and changemakers can actively shift harmful narratives to move from fear to hope, problems to solutions, and exclusion to participation.

In this issue, you’ll find:

• An introduction to narrative change: what it is, why it matters, and how it works

• A deep dive into how we can (and why we should) reframe democracy as something citizens co-create, not just consume

• Resources from our community to help you strengthen your messaging around harmful narratives

Let’s dive in. ⬇️

What is narrative change?

Narrative change is the process of reshaping the stories that define how people understand the world.

And history shows that it works. For example, public support toward same-sex marriage in the US grew to 71% in 2023 from just 27% in 1996 (Statista), thanks to the relentless work of activists. From the #MeToo movement to widespread attitudes surrounding the death penalty, narrative shifts have historically been pivotal in advancing social justice causes.

These shifts didn’t happen by accident. They are the result of intentional, strategic efforts to challenge dominant stories and introduce new ones that inspire action and change.

What we can all do, right now, is pause and reflect strategically on the narratives we’re reinforcing in our messaging. Are we upholding outdated systems we actually want to replace? Are we inadvertently feeding narratives of fear and division instead of hope and possibility?

We have the power to challenge dominant narratives that reinforce injustice and replace them with narratives that inspire action, hope, and progress.

If we want to shift the future, we need to be intentional about the stories we tell. Because the narratives we create today shape the world we live in tomorrow.

📝 The Learning Curve

It’s time to change the narrative around ‘democracy’

By Zsofia Banuta, Co-founder of Unhack Democracy

We are not being bold enough in civil society. There, I said it.

For too long, we’ve defended status quo institutions, upheld broken systems, and filled in the gaps where governments have failed. But are these institutions we’re upholding actually working? Are they truly serving the people they claim to? Or are we just preserving a system that no longer meets the needs of society?

We are at a tipping point. If we don’t create something new, we risk losing democracy altogether. And if we truly want to transform democracy, we need to stop patching up a system in decline and start building something new.

The ‘consumer’ model of democracy is collapsing, what comes next?

As Jon Alexander posits, democracy is framed through a ‘consumer’ narrative: politicians act as service providers, and citizens are passive consumers choosing from a fixed set of options.

This model is outdated, and people are clearly losing faith in it. Across Europe and beyond, we see growing frustration with the system, leading many to turn toward authoritarian leaders who offer the illusion of certainty and control.

But the real problem isn’t just the politicians. It’s the way we’ve structured participation in democracy itself. Top-down governance, rigid political party systems, and even the bureaucratic donor model in civil society all reinforce a passive model of democracy that fails to engage people in shaping decisions that affect their lives.

The traditional, top-down model is eroding, yet much of civil society remains focused on stabilizing and defending it. Meanwhile, authoritarian movements are rising, offering false certainty. The real opportunity lies in investing in new, participatory models of democracy that actively engage citizens in shaping their future. If we want democracy to survive, we must stop merely protecting our idea of democracy (the status quo), and start redesigning it.

Reframing democracy as collective action

We need a new democratic narrative: one that positions citizens as active participants, not passive consumers, a concept that is fleshed out in the book Citizens by Jon Alexander, along with inspirational examples of this idea in practice from Mexico to Taiwan.

Democracy should not be something that happens to people, it should be something they actively shape; a system where power isn’t hoarded at the top but shared among the people who live with its consequences.

So what does civil society do now?

Change starts with reframing the story. We need to:

• Rethink our role. Civil society can’t just be about defending democracy, it must be about redesigning it.

• Push for real participation, don’t just send out surveys. Donors, governments, and institutions must co-create decisions with the people they serve, not impose solutions from above.

• Break the ‘passive citizen’ model. Move beyond ‘awareness-raising’ to hands-on engagement, where people actively shape decisions.

• Build new alliances. Connect with grassroots movements, innovators, and thought leaders already working to shift power back to the people.

• Tell a new story about democracy. If we want people to engage in democracy, we need to change the way we talk about it: from something that happens to them, to something they own, shape, and build together.

The consumer democracy model has been dominant for 80+ years, but we are at a massive breaking point in history. Will civil society continue to uphold a failing system, or will we be bold enough to build something new?

💬 Do you have any great examples from your community that puts citizens at the heart of decision making? Let us know in the comments!

🔗 Resource Round-Up

Dive into these resources from our community to learn more about narrative change

• 🎨 Reframing narratives through visual storytelling: Fine Acts and TheGreats.co - Want to challenge the dominant (visual) narratives around the topics you work on? You can use global creative studio Fine Acts’s library of thousands of free illustrations from great artists that showcase a more positive and hope-based version of the future at TheGreats.co!

• 💡 Hope-Based Communication: Subscribe to the Hope-based Substack newsletter and How to Hope in Dark Times TED Talk - Thomas Coombes, founder of Hope-Based Communication and the REWIRE Incubator, offers a strategy for shifting narratives away from fear and crisis and toward solutions, optimism, and collective action.

• 💙💛 Upcoming webinar on 6th March: Civil Society & Security in Ukraine - Civil society is often seen as a force for democracy and human rights, but Ukraine has shown that in times of war, it can also become a pillar of security. What lessons can other civil society leaders learn from Ukraine’s experience? Join this insightful discussion on with Oleh Rybachuk (Former Deputy PM for European Integration & Head of the Centre of United Actions) and Olha Aivazovska (Chair of OPORA & Co-founder of the International Centre for Ukrainian Victory) on March 6, 2025, at 18:00 (Kyiv) / 17:00 (Budapest) / 16:00 (London). Online webinar, open to the public. See you there!

Sign up here!

Ready to change some narratives? ⚡️

Remember: dominant narratives aren’t inevitable, they’re constructed by people. And if we want to strengthen democracy, we will need to challenge and reframe the stories that shape public opinion.

💬 What’s one dominant narrative in your line of work that we can challenge? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

For this month’s Community Challenge, we’re challenging you to create a personal resilience ritual: a small, consistent habit that brings calm, focus, or joy to your day.

Here’s how to get started:

• Understand your needs. What drains you most in your work? What small action helps you recharge?

• Choose your ritual. It could be as simple as a 10-minute morning walk, a gratitude list, deep breathing before meetings, or taking time to connect with a colleague or friend.

• Be consistent. The power of rituals lies in their repetition. Anchor yours to a daily routine, like starting or ending your workday.

When you prioritize your well-being, you’re not only better equipped to make an impact but also model resilience for your community.

Here are some ritual ideas to get your started:

1. Start team meetings with a grounding check-in: Have everyone share one thing they’re grateful for or a recent success.

2. Reflect at the end of the week: Set aside 10 minutes every Friday to review the week or set intentions for the next.

3. Pause for impact: Before tackling challenges, take a 1-minute pause to prevent reactive decisions.

4. Walk-and-talk meetings: Take your meetings outside for fresh air, movement, and dynamic conversations.

5. Mindful breathing: Take three deep breaths before starting a meeting or task to approach it with calm and focus.

💬 What resilience ritual will you choose? Share your ideas or experiences with us in the comments, and inspire others in the REWIRE community to integrate moments of restoration into their daily lives!

Together, we can build a stronger civil society movement.

This month, we’re building on that foundation by diving into resilience: what it takes to stay creative, energized, and determined in the face of challenges.

Subscribe now

Below, you’ll:

• hear from a judge in Poland who’s stood on the frontlines of democratic resistance,

• discover why joy is a non-negotiable tool for resilience, and

• learn practical ways to stay grounded and inspired in your impact work.

Let’s dive in. ⬇️

📝 The Learning Curve

Lessons in Resilience: How Polish judges fought for judicial independence

By Karolina Rokita, PhD, Judge in the District Court in Rzeszów, and member of the Media Team in the Polish Judges Association Iustitia. Karolina is part of the Rewire your mind, Rewire your country (REWIRE) hope-based incubator for civil society coordinated by Unhack Democracy and Hope-based Communications.

Resilience is forged in moments of challenge. Over the past several years, Polish judges have had to draw on every bit of their strength to protect the judiciary and uphold the rule of law. It hasn’t been easy, but the fight has shown us what’s possible when we stand together, support one another, and keep moving forward, step by step.

Since 2015, the government of the United Right has taken a series of legal and de facto measures to seize control of the judiciary: the Supreme Court, ordinary courts, and the National Council of the Judiciary. Judges who criticized these changes came under immense pressure. Disciplinary and criminal proceedings were initiated against them, they were removed from adjudication, and their salaries were reduced. These actions were unlawful and intended to have a chilling effect: silencing judges who dared to oppose violations of the rule of law or speak out in public.

But we refused to stay silent. Here are the lessons we’ve learned—and the actions that kept us going:

1️⃣ Stick together: Solidarity is strength

These have been some of the most difficult years that we judges in Poland have faced. In the face of intimidation, our greatest strength has been our unity. Most of the repressed judges belong to my association (Polish Judges Iustitia) and we have always supported one another. When one of us felt overwhelmed or discouraged, the rest of us were there to lift them up.

We stood shoulder-to-shoulder with citizens during protests, including the March of 1000 Robes in Warsaw in 2020, which brought together judges from across the world and thousands of Polish citizens. In our darkest moments, we reminded ourselves and each other: you will never walk alone. Solidarity turned despair into action and kept us resilient.

2️⃣ Remember your why, and anchor yourself in purpose

For me, resilience comes from remembering why I act. I swore allegiance to the Constitution, and I want my daughters to live in a country where they can decide for themselves who they love and what they do with their bodies. Where the state protects its citizens.

These values may sound lofty, but in the toughest moments, they’re what give me strength. Anchoring yourself to a mission provides clarity and keeps you moving forward.

3️⃣ Amplify your voice

We didn’t just resist behind closed doors. We took our fight public. Our media presence was hyperactive, generating over €35 million in advertising value in 2023 alone, all with a €0 budget. We collaborated with NGOs in Poland and abroad, building networks that strengthened our efforts.

Even our actions were captured in powerful documentaries, like Judges Under Pressure, which was awarded at film festivals internationally. Sharing our story amplified our cause and inspired others to join us.

4️⃣ Adapt and find new paths when one fails

In times of resistance, flexibility is just as important as determination. When one approach didn’t work, we tried another. We protested in the streets. We filed complaints with Polish and European courts. We collaborated with allies to strategize new approaches.

Resilience isn’t about stubbornly sticking to a single tactic; it’s about persistence, creativity, and trying again until something works.

5️⃣ Take it step by step: Consistency builds change

Resilience, to me, means consistent, deliberate action. Step by step, we worked to defend the judiciary and uphold the rule of law. In the most difficult moments, we reminded ourselves to keep going and to remember the successes we’d already achieved.

Growth and resilience are built in these challenging moments. Just keep doing your thing, and you will change the world for the better.

Our resilience has helped slow the destruction of the judiciary and shown the power of solidarity, persistence, and purpose. These lessons apply not only to our fight but to anyone working in civil society. As part of the REWIRE Incubator, I’m continuing to train that ‘hope muscle.’ Resilience is a skill we can all strengthen, and it’s just as important for movements and communities as it is for individuals. Together, we can build a brighter future, step by step.

What resilience lessons can your community learn from this story? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

⚒️ Toolbox for Change

Building resilience: Joy and Self-Awareness as tools for change

By Zsofia Banuta, Co-founder of Unhack Democracy

We chose to work in the civic space because we care deeply about creating well-functioning, fair societies, and the work we do often takes place in challenging, emotionally heavy spaces. Without resilience, we know how burnout can take hold of us, how our creativity can stall, and the momentum for change can slow.

How can we fuel our creative change-making machine and keep going in the face of adversity? Two powerful approaches to becoming more resilient are cultivating joy and practicing self-awareness.

1. The power of joy for changemakers

Joy is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. It’s the fuel of activism and the foundation of sustainable change. Joy gives us energy to imagine, create, and keep going in the face of challenges. Without joy, we risk burnout, losing our imagination and resilience. Joy is resistance itself.

As author Krista Tippett says: “The capacity to reach for joy, and to know that it is actually part of the struggle, keeps other things like hope alive.”

By embedding joy as a daily practice, a ritual in our lives, we can build the energy and creativity needed to navigate difficult times and find new pathways for change.

Some practical steps to embed joy into your day-to-day:

• Spend time in nature. Go for a walk, visit a park, or just take a moment to appreciate the outdoors.

• Embrace humor. Have a laugh with colleagues or find ways to bring lightness into your work.

• Move your body. Stretching, exercise, dance, or a few minutes of deep breathing can re-center you.

• Lift your spirits with art. See an exhibition or listen to music that inspires you..

• Build connections. Foster a sense of belonging by engaging with your community or support network.

And while joy provides the energy and creativity to sustain us, self-awareness ensures we channel that energy effectively toward meaningful change.

2. Practicing self-awareness to build inner strength

Resilience begins with understanding and managing your emotions. Just as democracies thrive on pluralism, individuals need to recognize and integrate the full spectrum of their emotions, from anger and fear, to hope and purpose.

The work we do as civil society leaders requires self-awareness and accountability. When we acknowledge and manage our emotions, we strengthen not only our individual resilience but also our capacity to collaborate, empathize, and lead.

Practical ways to build self-awareness:

Practice mindfulness meditation and compassion. Engage with the present moment. As Tara Brach, leading Buddhist psychologist and meditation teacher recommends, follow these 4 steps to practice radical-self compassion (also known as RAIN):

1. Recognize what is happening;

2. Allow the experience to be there, just as it is;

3. Investigate with interest and care;

4. Nurture with self compassion.

You can use these steps when you experience a challenging situation or a standalone mediation.

Resilience doesn’t happen by accident; it’s built through intentional practices of joy and self-awareness. When we integrate joy and self-awareness into our daily lives, we not only build resilience but also cultivate the creativity and energy needed to shape a better future.

Let’s make joy and self-awareness part of our daily toolkit for change, and part of the way we practice democracy in action.

🔗 Resource Round-Up

Dive deeper: Resources to build resilience and creativity

If you’re looking for more tools to build your resilience and fuel creativity, here are some resources we love:

• The Ahead app: Dubbed the ‘Duolingo for emotional intelligence,’ Ahead is designed to help users ‘rewire their brains’ (sound familiar?) and develop emotional and mental well-being. Civil society leaders can use it to take a quick five-minute mental health break while gaining insights into their emotions. The app offers a free 7-day trial before transitioning to a paid subscription. Let us know if you try it! — Gabriella

• In-Sight Collaborative’s Humanitarian Wellness Toolkit: Developed by humanitarians and mental health specialists, this toolkit offers practical resources grounded in the latest research to promote mental and emotional well-being in the humanitarian sector. A must-have for civil society leaders navigating emotionally taxing work. — Gabriella

• Tara Brach’s Program, 2025 - A Year of Courageous Love: This year-long program provides tools to cultivate compassion, courage, and resilience in challenging times. Perfect for those looking to deepen their self-awareness and emotional strength. — Zsofi

• Krista Tippett’s On Being Podcast: Explore inspiring conversations on joy, resilience, and the intersections of humanity and activism. A rich resource for finding hope and staying grounded in your values. — Zsofi

• Action for Happiness monthly calendars: These free, downloadable calendars provide daily actions to boost mental well-being and foster positive habits, for example: ‘say hello to a neighbor’. Perfect for embedding small, actionable moments of joy into your routine. — Elliott

• Joyful Human Rights by William Paul Simmons: This book challenges the conventional framing of human rights by focusing on joy as an integral element of resilience and recovery. By emphasizing joy as a transformative force, this resource provides fresh perspectives for anyone working in human rights or civil society. — Elliott

Have any other resources for the community? Share them in the comments!

✨ Ready to become more resilient?

Now you know: resilience isn’t just about surviving, it’s about thriving—yes, even in challenging times. We hope this edition has inspired you to prioritize your own resilience and provided you with some practical tools to fuel your creativity and sustain momentum.

What helps you stay resilient in your line of work? Share your thoughts in the comments. And remember to find your moment of joy today; you deserve it.

See you next month!