Between 2024–2026, these values shaped how we tried to show up in our work and relationships. We’re sharing them here as part of our legacy, in case they are useful to others thinking about tech justice and infrastructure.
Legacy note
Catalyst CIC closed in March 2026. This page is now part of a static archive of our work between 2024–2026, kept here so people can see and learn from what we did.
We try to behave in the way we want to see in the world.
Some people call this embodying your values. For us it means sharing power in ways that restore balance and avoid replicating systemic harms.
It means centering the experience and expertise of people with lived experience of injustice at the hands of technology.
Power at Catalyst
Within each network project, we design and make decisions together. This might include:
- Co-budgeting – sharing control and responsibility for a project budget
- Consent-based decision making – approving ideas that are ‘good enough for now, safe enough to try’
- Feedback loops – processes that enable feedback and learning to spread across the network.
Behind all projects sits a community interest company (CIC) providing governance. It co-designs strategies with the network.
Its directors ensure that Catalyst is financially compliant and sustainable.
Centering lived experience
We are a network of people who experience harm through technology. We experience minoritisation and oppression in different, intersecting ways. Those experiences fuel how we show up and work together.
We also work with other people who may not identify as being part of the network. These include people who live in the communities our members work with, and others working across the technology sector.
We center everyone’s experience by:
- Sharing power throughout a process or project
- Prioritising relationships: taking the time to build trust
- Using participatory means – giving people different ways to take part
- Building capacity by allowing everyone involved to build new knowledge and skills
- Reciprocity payments – offering exchange for their time and input
Our values: what makes us Catalyst
Our core DNA.
Love
Love creates the capacity to care and grow together.
Love allows us to be courageous and to brave discomfort.
We commit to acting out of love.
Equity
Our starting points are not equal.
We value equity over ‘equality’, ‘diversity’, and ‘inclusion’.
We act to address systemic barriers in our work.
Curiosity
We are open to possibilities and explore the unknown.
We test, learn and adapt.
We value growth over comfort.
Interdependence
Everyone and everything is connected. We depend on each other.
We reject lone hero narratives and move together towards collective liberation.
Catalyst’s story
Follow Catalyst's journey since 2019. Track its evolution from charity digital initiative to tech justice network. (Infographic)
Who we are
We’re a network of people both privileged by and harmed by technology. We imagine a different world… where equity is a reality and no one...
What we do
We're creating a future where tech is fair, regenerative and life-enhancing. Find out how we go about it.