What does peacebuilding look like in everyday life?
Sometimes it’s youth from different religions sitting together for the first time and realizing how much they share. Other times, it’s local leaders stepping in to prevent conflict before it escalates. In many communities, it’s people from different faiths working side by side to protect the environment or support those in need.
These quiet but powerful moments are happening every day across the United Religions Initiative (URI) network.
The 2025 Annual Impact Report captures these stories, showing how local leadership, shared values, and global connection are creating meaningful change across communities around the world.
Impact at a Glance
🌍 120+ countries connected through URI’s global network
🤝 71 new Cooperation Circles joined the movement in 2025
📚 46 global learning and connection events brought members together
👥 2,100+ Individual Members across 122 countries
Together, these numbers reflect something much deeper than growth they represent thousands of people choosing cooperation, dialogue, and shared action.
A Global Movement Built on Local Leadership
For more than 25 years, URI has connected communities across faiths, cultures, and traditions to build cultures of peace, justice, and healing.
At the heart of this movement are Cooperation Circles, locally led groups that bring together community leaders, youth, educators, and faith representatives to address the challenges facing their communities.
Each circle is unique. Some focus on dialogue between religious communities. Others work on youth leadership, environmental protection, or preventing violence.
What unites them is a shared belief: meaningful change begins with relationships.
Preventing Violence Through Relationships
Across the URI network, members are actively working to prevent violence and build trust within their communities.
Through dialogue, mediation, and community awareness initiatives, URI members help address tensions before they escalate into conflict.
Many of these efforts happen quietly through conversations between community leaders, youth dialogues that challenge stereotypes, or local campaigns that promote nonviolence and mutual respect.
These actions may seem small, but together they contribute to something powerful: communities that are more resilient, more connected, and better equipped to address conflict peacefully.
Youth Leading the Future of Peace
Young people continue to be one of the most dynamic forces in the URI network.
In 2025, youth initiatives created spaces for young leaders from different regions to connect, collaborate, and share their experiences. Programs such as the URI Youth Challenge encouraged young people to take meaningful actions related to interfaith cooperation, environmental care, and building cultures of peace.
Through dialogue spaces and global events, youth leaders are not only participating in peacebuilding, but they are shaping its future.
Their leadership reflects a growing global movement of young people committed to building bridges across cultures and beliefs.
Healing the Earth and Our Communities
URI’s work recognizes that care for the Earth and care for one another are deeply connected.
Across regions, Cooperation Circles are leading initiatives that combine environmental restoration with community cooperationfrom tree planting and water protection to sustainable agriculture and environmental education.
These projects show how shared responsibility for the planet can bring people together across faiths, cultures, and generations.
Evisioning Together
In 2025, URI began implementing its new Strategic Framework (2025–2030), which focuses on strengthening the global network, expanding opportunities for collaboration and learning, and increasing impact in violence prevention and Earth restoration.
After 25 years of movement-building, URI continues to grow not only in size, but in its ability to connect communities and support grassroots leaders working for peace around the world.
The movement continues to expand, guided by a simple but powerful truth:
Local voices can create a global movement for change.
Read the Full Report
The stories shared here are only a glimpse into the work happening across the URI network every day.
