About Us | Catalytic Communities (CatComm)

HISTORICAL RETROSPECTIVE — 2000–2026

TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF COMMUNITY ADVOCACY

Since 2000, Catalytic Communities (CatComm) has partnered directly with thousands of Rio de Janeiro favela organizers to build sustainable grassroots networks, publish investigative community journalism, advocate for appropriate infrastructure and land rights, and champion local self-determination.

FOUNDATION & CO-CREATION THROUGH CSD AND CASA

CatComm was initially established to pioneer community-driven web documentation through our Community Solutions Database, and collaborative capacity-building through our Casa Community Technology Hub, supporting over 200 favela neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro, and elevating local resident solutions.

1200+

2000 — 2008

Community Leaders Served

NARRATIVE-SHIFTING THROUGH MEDIA ADVOCACY & RIOONWATCH

With community partners facing existential evictions, we trained grassroots partners in strategic social media and launched the bilingual news site RioOnWatch to document mega-event impacts, counter media stigmatization, and provide international visibility to favela rights and anti-eviction movements. We worked with grassroots and global media to realize this narrative shift, while also providing continuous technical assistance to community anti-displacement efforts.

2,500+

2009 — 2016

Articles Published

SHOWCASING SOLUTIONS: SUSTAINABLE FAVELAS AND CLTS

For the past decade, CatComm has led efforts to recognize favelas' powerful qualities, to support and promote sustainable and grassroots infrastructure, community data collection and establish the extraordinary potential of their appropriate and full integration into our cities by seeding and growing the Sustainable Favela Network and pioneering Community Land Trusts as the most appropriate way to advance land rights for lasting climate resilience and tenure security.

2017 — 2026

REALIZING JUSTICE: ADVOCACY FOR FULL INCLUSION AND INVESTMENT

With your help, in addition to expanding on our existing work, we will more assertively act to inform and advocate for the implementation of public policies in Brazil and around the world that invest in favelas in order to guarantee full rights, climate justice, appropriate infrastructure and the valuing of community history, knowledge and culture.

2027 —

Donate to Our Annual Fund

400+

Favelas Supported

01 / CLIMATE & ECOLOGY

9 elements of our approach

Connecting community-led initiatives across Rio de Janeiro to catalyze ecological sanitation, renewable energy installations, community gardens, and local climate resilience hubs led primarily by grassroots women organizers.

190+ Community Projects • 120 Favelas

Strategic Framework

Our Community-Controlled Methodology

Anchoring sustainable local solutions, collective land stewardship, and narrative power in favela communities.

CatComm seeks a systemic, structural transformation in how Rio de Janeiro—and cities everywhere—perceive and integrate their homegrown settlements. From newer communities in urgent need of dignified alternatives, to established ones longing for full rights and quality infrastructure, we work alongside grassroots organizers who dedicate themselves—day and night, year after year—to these goals. We applaud and join forces with the "by us for us” ethos of the favelas, and work to build a society as a whole that learns from them!

02 / LAND SECURITY

our life cycle

Pioneering the Favela Community Land Trust (F-CLT) model in Brazil to safeguard residents against displacement, secure collective land titles, preserve affordable housing, and build intergenerational security for working-class families.

Permanent Tenure Security • Collective Ownership

03 / NARRATIVE JUSTICE

ASSET-BASED COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Bilingual community journalism and narrative advocacy amplifying hyper-local reporting, dismantling stigmatizing media tropes, documenting urban policy impacts, and broadcasting grassroots victories to global audiences.