From Service to Social Trust: Lessons from 100-Day Campaign
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Updated: 2 hours ago
From February 20 to June 1, 2026, UPF invited its chapters, associations, Ambassadors for Peace and partner organizations to take part in the 100 Days of Serving Community campaign. March focused on partnerships, April on service and May on families. The campaign concluded on the United Nations Global Day of Parents.
The campaign began with a question: How can an international peace organization become more useful in the communities where its members and partners live?
Peace is often discussed through negotiations, institutions and international agreements. Yet public trust is also formed through ordinary experiences. People learn to trust one another when they cooperate on a local need, keep their commitments, share responsibility and continue working together after an event has ended.
This understanding connects the campaign with the United Nations designation of 2026 as the International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development. Volunteer action supports communities not only through the work completed, but also through the relationships created. It brings people of different professions, generations, cultures and beliefs into direct cooperation.
A midpoint review documented local meetings, service projects, educational programs, new partnerships and growing public communication across participating teams. More important than the numbers was the emerging pattern. Service was moving beyond isolated activity and becoming connected with relationships, institutional cooperation and continued local engagement.
These are some of the activities that emerged:
At the Tanzanian Peace Leadership Seminar, 65 faith leaders, youth leaders, educators and civil society representatives studied principles of peace, interfaith cooperation and project planning. Twenty-eight participants committed to initiating peace projects in their communities.
In Côte d’Ivoire, UPF entered a partnership with the national tourism sector to prepare young people for tourism-related professions while promoting social cohesion and values of peace.
In Russia, family activities in Moscow and Kazan brought together children, parents, grandparents, artists, educators and religious representatives. Art, music, intergenerational chess and interfaith dialogue provided accessible settings in which participants could strengthen family relationships and develop new community connections. Other Russian initiatives during the campaign included environmental education, cultural programs and cooperation with volunteer networks.
In Canada, the continuing partnership between UPF and Lions Clubs connected community service, youth initiatives and a public Peace March. The relationship had developed over several years, showing that trust grows through repeated cooperation rather than through a single agreement or ceremony.
Across Latin America and the Caribbean, regional webinars connected national chapters while local programs engaged parliaments, municipalities, religious communities and Ambassadors for Peace.
In Peru, cooperation with the Congress of the Republic brought environmental responsibility, civic participation and peace education into a national public institution.
In Argentina, UPF and Rotary recognized immigrant communities at the Buenos Aires City Legislature, combining cultural identity, civic recognition and community partnership.
Asia Pacific chapters used the campaign to improve regional coordination, strengthen digital communication and prepare new humanitarian and youth programs. A Religious Youth Service project at a remote school in Sri Lanka demonstrated how young people can develop leadership through direct service. The wider Religious Youth Service model brings participants from different religious and cultural backgrounds together for community work, shared learning and peacebuilding.
In Thailand, a Global Day of Parents program, organized with government institutions and community partners, combined education for couples and parents with scholarships for twenty students. The program illustrated how marriage and family initiatives can connect personal relationships, education and public responsibility.
These experiences produced several lessons:
The first is that service strengthens trust when it grows from an existing relationship. A single activity can create interest, but repeated cooperation creates confidence. Regular interfaith meetings, youth education, family programs, environmental projects and community service foster familiarity with partners’ reliability, values and working methods.
The second lesson is that partnerships become meaningful through shared work. A public event or partnership agreement may open a relationship, but trust develops when each participant contributes something specific. One institution may provide professional knowledge, another a venue, another volunteers, communication or access to a community. This reflects the purpose of Sustainable Development Goal 17, which encourages effective partnerships among public institutions, civil society and other sectors. Partnerships become meaningful when they serve a recognizable local need, demonstrate a repeatable form of cooperation, and attain an observable outcome.
The third lesson is that communication and service must support each other. When local work is documented, communities can understand its purpose and achievements, and others can learn from it.
The fourth lesson concerns the value of UPF’s international network of Ambassadors for Peace. They bring professional experience, community relationships and knowledge of local realities that can amplify the effectiveness of UPF projects. An Ambassador for Peace can serve as an educator, organizer, adviser, partner or project leader.
The campaign also showed that results depend on people and local capacity. Some chapters have active teams, established partners and regular programs. Others rely on a small number of volunteers with limited time and resources. International campaigns can provide direction, materials and encouragement, but lasting local work grows through trained leadership, stable relationships and realistic forms of support.
This is not a reason to reduce ambition. It is a reason to define progress carefully. A small project that continues, develops local leadership and earns community confidence may contribute more to peace than a large event that leaves no working relationship behind.
The founders of UPF, Dr. Hak Ja Han and the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon, placed service to others at the center of their vision for peace. Their understanding of humanity as one family under God calls people to look beyond national, religious and cultural boundaries while accepting responsibility for the well-being of others.
The 100 Days of Serving Community campaign showed how this vision can take practical form. Social trust grows when people serve together, learn from one another and discover that cooperation can produce visible benefits. Families, youth groups, religious communities, educators, public institutions and civil society organizations all have a place in this process.
UPF welcomes continued partnership with organizations and individuals interested in developing practical forms of service suited to their own communities. UPF’s ongoing Summer Events 2026, leading toward the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, will continue to bring regional and international partners together for further dialogue, education and practical cooperation.
The experience of these 100 days suggests that peace becomes more viable when shared values are expressed through consistent action and relationships that endure.
Dr. Tageldin Hamad, President, UPF-International July 20, 2016
