Local Leadership in Times of Change
The URI North America region reflects the heart of URI’s grassroots model in action. Across the United States and Canada, Cooperation Circles lead locally rooted, interfaith responses to some of the most pressing social, environmental, and humanitarian challenges of our time.
While URI does not directly fund or manage these initiatives, we proudly share the work of our Cooperation Circles, autonomous, grassroots groups that embody URI's mission through locally-led action.
URI North America has 86 active Cooperation Circles and 300 individual members.
Stories from Our Network
These initiatives, led independently by URI Cooperation Circles, illustrate the region's grassroots impact.
Climate Resilience Rooted in Compassion
As climate impacts intensify, interfaith cooperation has also become a critical vehicle for protecting vulnerable populations.
Climate, Compassion, and Community Care
During periods of extreme heat, Arizona Faith Network CC established cooling centers, offering safe, welcoming spaces for those most at risk. This life-saving response demonstrated how interfaith action can meet urgent environmental challenges while centering human dignity and care for the most vulnerable.
Innovation at the Intersection of Faith, Family, Art, and Science
Beyond crisis response, North America Cooperation Circles are also exploring innovative, interdisciplinary pathways to peace and wellbeing.
Think Round Inc. CC
Think Round, Inc. CC a nonprofit organization established in 2004, is teaching thousands of elementary school children and their families using their innovative art and science curricula. It has brought together faith leaders, educators, artists, and scientists to explore how art, science, and spirituality can nurture the well-being of families and communities. By integrating multiple disciplines and belief traditions, this work highlighted how interfaith cooperation can strengthen homes, the foundational spaces where values, resilience, and peace are first cultivated.
North America and Global Connection
URI’s engagement with the United Nations, rooted in its North American origins, amplifies community-based interfaith peacebuilding on the international stage. This relationship ensures that lived experience, moral leadership, and grassroots cooperation inform global conversations on peace, human rights, and shared responsibility.
Digital Storytelling as a Unifying Force
Because North America’s work is highly decentralized, digital storytelling plays a central role in making an impact visible. Through URI’s website and social platforms, stories from the region are shared across the global network, amplifying local voices, strengthening collective identity, and allowing donors and partners to witness how URI’s purpose comes alive in diverse contexts.
A Quiet but Powerful Contribution
Rather than a single flagship program, URI North America’s strength lies in its breadth: many communities, many faith traditions, many leaders, each responding faithfully to local realities while remaining connected to a global movement.
Together, these efforts form a mosaic of interfaith action advancing URI’s purpose to end religiously motivated violence, promote daily interfaith cooperation, and cultivate cultures of peace and justice.
Looking Ahead
As URI continues to strengthen systems for storytelling, learning, and network connection, the depth and reach of North America’s grassroots impact will become even more visible.
The region’s future lies in elevating Cooperation Circle leadership, deepening connection across communities, and ensuring that local interfaith action continues to inform and inspire URI’s global work.
