Co-Director, MigAct
Prague, The Czech Republic

Community: Bridging in Local Civil Society in Prague

Natallia Allen is a non-profit leader with over 15 years of experience in the NGO sector, working at the intersection of active citizenship, civil society practice and theory, education, and intercultural communication. She holds an MA in Civil Society Studies from Charles University in Czechia. Throughout her career, she has worked in various NGOs in leadership roles, focusing on civic engagement, migration, and participatory learning. She currently serves as co-director of MigAct, where she focuses on strategic development, fundraising, and program design, as well as bridging practice through the organization’s activities and programs. As a naturalized Czech citizen with roots and family connections across several countries, she draws on intercultural and lived experience to bring diverse perspectives together and explore questions of belonging.

Co-Director, MigAct
Prague, The Czech Republic

Community: Bridging in Local Civil Society in Prague

Mónica Márquez Bobadilla is co-director of MigAct and a community organizer with more than 15 years of experience working with civic initiatives and participatory processes. Her professional path began first in documentary film, then intercultural mediation and later expanded into community organizing, civic participation, and civil society development. At MigAct, she co-leads strategic and program development and facilitates processes that connect active residents, grassroots initiatives, and public institutions, creating opportunities for collaboration and civic engagement. Originally from Mexico and living in the Czech Republic for 20 years, Mónica brings both personal and professional experience that helps bridge people from different backgrounds. She is strong in her facilitation skills, her ability to connect people across sectors and backgrounds, and her creative, trust-based approach to collaboration. Drawing on her background in anthropology and long-term practical experience, she combines curiosity about people and social dynamics with creative and trust-based approaches to participation.  She is deeply motivated by her belief in the power of collaboration, trust, and human connection.

Co-founder and Executive Director, BreachBuilders e.V.
Mexico City, Mexico

Community: BreachBuilders

Dina Sintia Kapleu is the Co-founder and Executive Director of BreachBuilders e.V., a pioneering youth-led non-profit organisation dedicated to three fundamental pillars: Equity and Inclusion, Youth Empowerment, and Growth through Knowledge. With a robust background in Social and Political Sciences and International Relations, she combines her professional and academic expertise to drive meaningful change. Dina's research decisively addresses critical areas such as Sustainable Development Goals, migration, gender studies, Peace and Conflict, Good Governance, Diaspora Studies, and Democracy. She has written and published on migration and diaspora issues.

Founder, The Mythic Plurality Project (MPP)
Texas, United States

Community: Mythic Plurality & Belonging: Remythologizing the Stories that Shape Our Democracies

Naya Díaz is a cultural strategist, narrative practitioner, and nonprofit leader based in Texas whose work explores how stories shape belonging, civic life, and democratic possibility. She currently serves as a national Member Services Director at YWCA USA, where she supports leaders across the country in navigating governance, organizational strategy, and systems change. Naya is the founder of the Mythic Plurality Project (MPP), a cultural framework that examines how inherited myths and narratives influence political institutions, social systems, and collective imagination. Through writing, convening, and cultural dialogue, MPP explores how remythologizing dominant narratives can open pathways toward pluralism, dignity, and shared futures. Her work draws from borderlands thinking, anthropology, philosophy, narrative strategy, and cultural practice. Naya’s approach is influenced by thinkers such as Gloria Anzaldúa and traditions of storytelling, ecological wisdom, and mythopoetics. Across Central and South Texas, she is interested in creating spaces where cultural workers, organizers, educators, and civic leaders can reflect on the stories shaping our institutions and communities—and explore how new narratives of belonging might emerge.

Heart-Based Consultant and Human-Centered Facilitator

Community: Mindful listening

At the core of Sara's work lies a belief in the power of collaborative, embodied, and trusting environments to make the invisible visible and the unspoken heard. She is a heart-based consultant and human-centered facilitator with more than two decades of experience in the field and proven track record of success in facilitating change within government organizations, grassroots movements, and corporations. She holds a master's degree in Public Administration, certification in Power Intelligence combined with being a diplomate in Processwork (the highest level in Process Oriented Psychology). Sara specializes in crafting transformative spaces that foster connection and collaboration. Using generative conflict to drive progress. Sara draws from various disciplines, including Deep Democracy, the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Method, Theory U, and the experience she gains from every engagement she facilitates. As a collaborative consultant she navigates the C's of transformation - curiosity, conflict, and change through the cycles of growth with care, complexity, and consent as compass. Fostering fresh ways of being and doing within living systems. By sourcing and utilizing the wisdom of the crowd. By asking questions to bring awareness and hold space for greater things to emerge. She focuses on building agility and resilience with and through people. Her greatest joy is to support powerwise leaders who are keen to develop and serve powerful teams. Leaders who see the limitations of ‘power over’, and are committed to create more ‘power to’ & ‘power within’

Co-founder, Community Café La Guinguette du Touroulet and Local Non-profit Le Cocon des Canailles
Dordogne, France

Community: Créer des ponts dans la fracture / Create Bridges in the fracture

Xavier Arrateig has extensive experience in community building and bridging practices. He co-founded an association focused on ecological education, organizing monthly sessions that promoted environmental awareness and reconnecting people to ecological principles. Xavier also initiated Le Jardin des Dingues, a self-managed, participatory festival where attendees contribute to all aspects of the event—food, camping, culture, logistics—creating an immersive environment that fosters connection and collaboration among diverse individuals. Additionally, Xavier co-founded Le Cocon des Canailles, which includes La Guinguette du Touroulet, a community café serving as a local empowerment hub. Through workshops on non-violent communication, conflict resolution, and theater in schools, he creates opportunities for people to work together, build trust, and strengthen their sense of belonging.