By sharing creative expression, URI members cultivate appreciation of each other on a human level.
Music, painting, performance, sculpture, storytelling, poetry, and other methods of artistic expression are ancient methods of creating community. Through the arts, URI Cooperation Circles transcend language and cultural barriers to build deep interpersonal connections.
By uniting to address threats to our shared ecosystem, we can find literal common ground, since every member of every faith tradition depends on necessities like clean water and access to natural resources to survive.
URI addresses widespread conflict at a human level, encouraging individuals to break down barriers created by stereotypes and work towards building the foundations of lasting peace.
URI Cooperation Circles work at every level, from influencing policymakers to providing training at the grassroots level, to building peace, healing existing tensions, and preventing new conflicts.
Examples of our work in this Action Area:
The URI MENA Jordan office, and many URI groups (CCs), capitalize on the fact that all religious traditions call for love, respect, justice and peace. They organize gatherings and workshops to enhance interfaith dialogue and build peace at the grassroots level. They provide cooperative, constructive, and positive interaction opportunities between people of different religious traditions and/or spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional level.
URI is committed to the equitable participation of women and men in all aspects of our organization.
Many Cooperation Circles are devoted to projects for women, which focus on issues like leadership, domestic violence prevention and counseling, job and skills training, gender equality, education, and preventing female infanticide.
Examples of our work in this Action Area:
- TRUST WIN, a URI CC based in Jerusalem, brought together 30 Christian, Druze, Jewish, and Muslim women working to achieve peace at the grassroots level.
Empowering Women Economically
- URI MENA Women’s Initiative conducts workshops across the MENA region that are focused on financial management skills as well as project management for small startup businesses. So far, several workshops have been held in Jordan, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia, and there was also a special workshop organized for Syrian refugee women living in Jordan.
URI respects wisdom from voices of all generations.
URI encourages a diversity of ages in leadership positions. All Cooperation Circles work towards equity and fair representation in intergenerational peacebuilding.
Examples of our work in this Action Area:
- The Hope Flowers School in Israel brings together young people from different cultures, faiths, and nationalities to overcome conflict trauma and to unite in one culture of peace, justice and equality.
- Salam Shabab CC in Morocco is made up of young people who mobilize for peace both nationally and internationally. With the support of the Moroccan media, they administer peace education courses for children ages 8-16. Additionally, they collaborated with David Adams, founder of the Culture and Peace Alliance of Civilization, to create an international report on the culture of peace. Their peacebuilding work includes organizing an annual summer camp in Turkey for 120 young adults from over 50 countries to learn and practice skills in creating cultures of peace.
