Our Village

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We welcome you to our culturally relevant Karen and Karenni community space. It's here where our youth are invited to reconnect with their cultural identity, begin their journey of healing, and launch into their wildest dreams.

A community space to connect, heal, and launch

Starting in May 2019, The Urban Village opened the doors of its culturally relevant community space for community-led programs. With bamboo walls, artifacts, a mural, and art, the Urban Village promotes cultural heritage and preservation in its very being. Sharing this space and our resources with community-led programming gives these programs and their leaders fertile soil to grow, launching them beyond what they would have been able to accomplish without a Village of support.

How we share our space

Incubating dreams

We offer our culturally relevant community space to all within the Karen and Karenni communities.

In sharing our space, we offer fertile soil for community led efforts and projects to grow and thrive. We've held countless community meetings, concerts, religious services, and gatherings.

Marketplace

When the pandemic hit, we decided to utilize our largely unused space as an access point for Karen and Karenni artists and entrepreneurs to sell their work. We've since continued this offering as well as empowered it through our online platform. Currently, we operate this online and physical marketplace to help promote cultural preservation as well as creating opportunity and revenue for our partners.

Solidarity/Advocacy

We have long used our space to promote solidarity and advocate on behalf of the Karen and Karenni people. We have hosted many trainings for local schools on Karen and Karenni history as well meetings with local government agencies and community organizers. We also continue to share our space with the broader SE Asian community.

Anyone interested in learning about the Karen and Karenni people is welcome to tour our Village.