Developing the Community Peacebuilding Toolkit has been one of the most significant and enriching experiences of my life. It was a deeply collaborative effort among young leaders from YMCA Canada, the United States, and El Salvador, who united our voices and knowledge to create something with real impact.

From the beginning, our goal was clear: to contribute to a Just World, as proposed by the YMCA’s Vision 2030, empowering communities to address violence through dialogue, reflection, and collective action.

The most powerful aspect was working across cultures. Sharing such different—but equally valuable—experiences allowed us to recognize how structural and cultural violence manifests in different contexts. And more importantly: how communities can organize to respond with empathy, respect, and concrete solutions.

This intercultural approach not only enriched the content of the Toolkit; it also strengthened our bonds as a team. We learned to listen to each other, to question our own approaches, and to create a resource that reflects lived realities from different corners of the continent.

In a world marked by exclusion and violence, this type of initiative demonstrates that it is indeed possible to build peace with practical tools, education, and genuine collaboration. This experience not only transformed me as a person but also reaffirmed the power of working collectively for real change.