What is the Let’s Connect – Peer learning program?

Let’s Connect is an open, fun, and inclusive peer learning program designed for all Wikimedians to share knowledge, connect, and develop the necessary skills to enhance their Wikimedia contributions. From 2022-2025, Let’s Connect was ran as a collaboration between the Wikimedia Foundation and a group of embedded community liaisons. Since 2026, Let’s Connect has transitioned to a fully community-organized model. Foundation-initiated clinics have concluded and any interested community group is invited to adopt and adapt the Let’s Connect program, including its materials, methodology, and branding. This enables communities to expand the program’s reach and tailor learning clinics to their local contexts and languages.

Communities everywhere are encouraged to experiment with hosting learning clinics, online or in-person. This page serves as a living repository of resources for learning clinics across the Wikimedia movement. Wikimedians are welcome to use, adapt and expand these resources, helping to grow peer learning and connection in the movement.

More about Let’s Connect

Let’s Connect was created in 2022 as a response to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Contributors were looking for support beyond funding, particularly opportunities to build skills and share knowledge with peers across the movement. The program is grounded in Movement Strategy principles such as people-centeredness, collaboration, and cooperation.

Designed for everyone in the movement—from newcomers to organizers and affiliates—Let’s Connect provides a foundation for creating safe, peer-to-peer learning spaces that can be adapted to different contexts. While approaches may vary, its core values and structures are flexible enough to work across languages, cultures, and areas of interest.

More than a program or brand, Let’s Connect is a curated set of resources, tools, and practices that enable meaningful live learning experiences, built on the idea that everyone has something valuable to share when the right connections, spaces, and support are in place.

The program promotes skill-building, networking, and knowledge exchange through workshops, called “clinics”, both online and at regional Wikimedia conferences. It also offers a repository of past learning clinics and resources for public reuse. The program previously maintained a skills directory to help participants connect based on skills, language, and region. In 2025, this shifted to the CapX Since its launch in April 2022, Let’s Connect has reached 730 participants across 44 countries and 70 language Wikipedias, engaging 64% of Wikimedia affiliates. The team has facilitated 71 Clinics on 30 topics, covering organizational, programmatic, and on-wiki skills. Details about measured impact can be found in the evaluation report.

From Foundation-organized to Community-organized

In 2025, Let’s Connect began a process of transitioning from a Foundation-organized program to a community-organized model. Early local versions of Let’s Connect were already taking shape: Let’s Connect Across Zones in Nigeria and Wikimedia UAE’s Connectathons are two programs adapted from the original, using Let’s Connect’s learning resources and logos to launch localized peer learning initiatives.. The Foundation team also initiated conversations and pilots with 3 community groups – ESEAP Hub, Volunteer Supporters Network Hub, and Wikimedia Iraq – to learn about the localization and adoption of Let’s Connect in practice.

Key learnings:

• Running a high-functioning online learning space requires significant time, coordination, and care. Even for groups with the resources to design and host meaningful learning clinics, these activities demand additional planning and effort.

• For some groups, limited capacity made it difficult to sustain regular clinics. In these cases, teams paused their efforts to explore whether future funding or additional support could help them continue building consistent peer learning programs in their communities.

• Sustaining this work is strongest when enough people share key roles. Learning clinics work best with a coordinated team that includes facilitators, chat moderators, and technical support, allowing the sessions to run smoothly and consistently. With shared responsibility, it becomes easier to maintain quality and keep the experience welcoming and reliable over time.

• Peer learning and community-led workshops have long existed across the movement. Let’s Connect is not intended to define or replace how communities organize workshops or learning spaces. Instead, the program offers a set of practices, structures, and tools that can support groups in designing, facilitating, and sustaining their own learning spaces, whether online or in person. Check out the toolkit for a thorough overview of templates and methodologies to run a learning clinic/learning program.

• Simple, adaptable templates and resource organization tools help groups curate and share their knowledge more effectively. These templates can also reflect a group’s own processes, workflows, and data organization structures, making them more relevant and practical to use. For communities already running learning clinics, these resources provide guidance on structuring content in ways that are accessible, useful, and easy for others to follow and build upon. Check out the toolkit to see what templates and tools can work for you.

• Consistency is key. The Let’s Connect working group noticed that by running well-organized clinics and curated safe spaces on a consistent basis, the program was reliable and easier for participants to engage with over time. When participants know they can count on a steady schedule and a dependable space, trust grows, and engagement can deepen and expand.

• Evaluating impact is a critical aspect of hosting a learning program. This includes reviewing participation data, understanding which topics resonate with the community, and assessing whether clinics contribute to increased engagement or contributions. One simple way to track these outcomes is to use the Event Registration Tool to monitor participant activity after the clinic.

Acknowledgements & Gratitude

Founder: We would like to acknowledge Jessica Stephenson, who has been instrumental in shaping this learning program since its inception. From early pilot efforts to the formation of the Let’s Connect working group, she has thoughtfully cultivated spaces for storytelling and connection. Grounded in the belief that everyone has something of value to share—given the right information, supportive environments, and logistical care—this program has grown into a foundation for community-centered peer learning. Thank you, Jessica, for your vision and dedication.

Let’s Connect Working Group: A group of talented and dedicated Wikimedians were selected to represent their respective regions and communities. Their skills, care, and commitment to organizing formed the foundation of Let’s Connect. They played a key role in shaping the program: supporting outreach, identifying relevant topics, coordinating clinics, and ensuring that activities remained grounded in community needs and contexts. Their deep understanding of local communities helped make the program inclusive, responsive, and meaningful.

• Bukola James - Sub-Saharan Africa
• Chinmayee Mishra - South Asia
• Serine Ben Brahim - Middle East & North Africa
• Justice Okai-Allotey - Sub-Saharan Africa
• Gorana Gomirac - Central & Eastern Europe
• Lucy Hinnie - Northern & Western Europe
• Anthony Diaz - East, South East Asia, & Pacific
• Rocío Aravena - Latin American & Caribbean

Translators: Our work would not have been possible without the dedicated support of our translators! Through simultaneous interpretation during learning clinics and connectathons, they helped make these spaces truly multilingual and accessible. Their contributions extended far beyond translation. They helped bridge contexts, meanings, and connections between people and content, enabling deeper understanding across diverse communities. Thanks to their work, we were able to reach and engage participants in regions and languages that would have otherwise remained out of reach.

Wikimedian Sharers: Every Wikimedian who shared in a Let’s Connect learning clinic came with something to offer and left with something new to learn. We are deeply grateful for the time, care, and commitment each sharer brought to the program. From preparation with the LC working group to the live clinic, Wikimedians shared not just their work, but also their stories, experiences, and the lessons they gained along their contributor journey. Their openness made each session richer and more meaningful. Because of these contributions, the clinics remained truly community-centered—shaped by the knowledge, perspectives, and generosity of those who took part.

Wikimedia Foundation Staff Sharers: We are grateful for the collaboration of Wikimedia Foundation staff across roles, from those already working closely with Wikimedians to those who rarely have the opportunity to engage directly with the community. It was especially meaningful to see staff who had not previously worked with community members share space in live, online settings with Wikimedians, while also strengthening existing relationships with community-facing staff. These moments created new understanding, connection, and trust. Bringing Foundation staff and the Wikimedia community together in this way became a natural and valuable outcome of Let’s Connect.

Former Let's Connect Working Group Members (Pilot phase)

We want to thank you for being part of this journey and Let's Connect is always your home!