Formal partners of the DSX are community intermediaries and points of contact for organizations, networks, and individuals looking for digital security training assistance and capacity. They act as connectors and verifiers as they bring organizational leaders, organizers, and technologists to the exchange platform.
In addition, formal partners collaborate to verify and vet incoming capacity building volunteers, ensuring that only trainers with a high degree of technical knowledge and cultural sensitivity are connected to those seeking assistance.
To be a formal partner, you must be one of the following:
- A movement or technology organization working with frontline communities, including but not limited to African American, South Asian, Muslim American, Latino, immigrant, refugee, LGBTQ, women’s rights, journalists, religious minorities, and other communities;
- Cohorts and networks of loosely-connected individuals working within and on behalf of these communities;
- Individual technology experts, capacity builders, or movement leaders with deep connections to either tech communities or frontline communities.
In practical terms, DSX formal partners:
- Identify requests for assistance and route them through the DSX network.
- Through the DSX, connect tech-savvy people in communities and organizations to capacity builders and incoming orgs seeking assistance.
- Develop and implement a strict vetting system for volunteer capacity builders to ensure technical expertise and cultural sensitivity.
- Work with other DSX partners to identify funding opportunities to move resources to communities and trainers.
- Collaborate on a set of guiding principles and processes underlying the DSX platform, including its approach to curriculum development, it’s strategy for connecting those in need with qualified assistance, and its mission to build digital security capacity for frontline communities and civil society organizations.
- Pledge to “do no harm.”