The Belonging Project
Practicing unity across the Americas — communities of belonging, reflection and reconciliation.
- Territory
- Edmonton · Mexico City · Maringá — The Americas
- Field
- Belonging · Trustbuilding · Reconciliation · Peacebuilding · Intercultural Dialogue · Interfaith Encounter · Migration · Social Cohesion · Conscious Leadership
Photo pending. The client has not yet assigned the project's own image. Until it arrives, this space stays empty on purpose: it is not filled with stock imagery.
Description & Objectives
The Belonging Project is a one-year pilot initiative bringing together communities in Edmonton, Canada; Mexico City, Mexico; and Maringá, Brazil to strengthen belonging, social cohesion, peace and trust across cultural, intergenerational, interfaith and social differences.
Developed through the Initiatives of Change (IofC) network and in collaboration with local facilitators and allied organizations, the project creates structured yet welcoming spaces for people to meet, listen, reflect, build relationships and practice reconciliation.
Its core proposition is simple:
Unity is not something we aspire to. It is something we practice.
The pilot combines community meals, reflection circles, training, mentoring and relational accompaniment. While beginning in three cities, it is intentionally designed as a scalable and evolving model, generating practical learning that can inform future expansion across the Americas.
Vision. The Belonging Project envisions communities where people of different backgrounds can experience Welcome → Belonging → Trust → Reconciliation → Shared Action. It seeks to strengthen a culture in which difference does not automatically produce distance, and where diversity becomes an invitation to deeper encounter.
The project brings together people across generations; cultures; faiths and spiritual traditions; migration experiences; social and economic backgrounds; and community and civic identities. At its heart is a recognition of shared humanity — while honouring the distinct histories, identities and wisdom traditions that participants bring. The longer-term aspiration is to develop a replicable framework for intercultural, interfaith and intergenerational peacemaking and trustbuilding that can travel across cities without losing its local character.
Diagnosis / Context
Across the Americas, migration, displacement, inequality, polarization and social fragmentation are reshaping communities.
Migration is both a structural reality and a deeply human experience: people cross borders in search of safety, dignity, opportunity, relationship and meaning. Host communities, in turn, are also called to negotiate questions of identity, belonging, hospitality and social cohesion.
Indigenous perspectives such as Abya Yala offer another lens for understanding the Americas — not simply as a collection of political borders, but as a living and relational whole. The histories of Indigenous peoples and the African diaspora likewise remind us that movement, displacement, resilience and cultural continuity have profoundly shaped the continent.
The Belonging Project does not seek to resolve these complex realities through a single narrative. Instead, it creates spaces where people can encounter one another beyond categories and ask: What does it mean to practice unity in the Americas today? And: How might meaningful encounter restore a sense of shared humanity and nurture belonging across difference?
A shared calling: from Agape to Abya Yala. The project draws from a meeting of traditions and experiences within the IofC ecosystem. One important source is the legacy of Moral and Spiritual Rearmament, carried forward through Initiatives of Change: the conviction that personal reflection, honesty, unselfishness and love can become foundations for social transformation. Another is the contemporary experience of a diverse Americas — a continent shaped by Indigenous civilizations, migration, diaspora, faith traditions, cultural crossings and movements for justice and reconciliation.
The project brings these perspectives into conversation through two complementary movements: Agape — love expressed through relationship and action; and Abya Yala — a relational imagination of the Americas beyond imposed divisions. Rather than treating either as a fixed doctrine, the project uses them as invitations to practice hospitality, humility, truth-telling, reconciliation and shared responsibility.
Theory of Change
The Belonging Project works through a relational sequence:
Encounter → Listen → Reflect → Belong → Reconcile → Act
The premise is that meaningful encounters can create conditions for people to listen beyond assumptions; reflection can deepen self-awareness and ethical responsibility; repeated experiences of welcome can strengthen belonging; belonging can create greater trust; and trust can make reconciliation and shared action more possible. The project therefore understands belonging not merely as an outcome, but as a practice.
Resources Needed
Human. Local facilitators and community hosts in each city · co-leads and local leadership · trainers in dialogue, trustbuilding and facilitation · mentors for relational accompaniment · practitioners in community hosting and leadership through service.
Methodological. Community dinner and brunch formats ( Jeffersonian Dinners and related IofC practices of meaningful conversation) · reflection-circle formats · Life Balance Sheet and related IofC tools · dialogue, facilitation and trustbuilding workshops · evaluation and learning frameworks.
Relational. Partnerships with churches and faith communities, community and spiritual centres, migrant and host-community organizations, civil society organizations, educational institutions, peacebuilding and trustbuilding networks, local facilitators and community leaders, Indigenous and intercultural initiatives and international networks working for reconciliation and social cohesion.
Financial. Funding for community dinners and reflection spaces, facilitator training, mentoring and accompaniment, local coordination, evaluation, documentation and participant access across the three cities.
Milestones & Evidence
The project builds on decades of experience within the wider IofC ecosystem in dialogue, personal reflection, reconciliation, trustbuilding and community encounter. Its current team brings together complementary experiences across Canada, Mexico and Brazil. The initiative also builds upon relationships formed through international IofC programmes, the Americas network and encounters such as the XV Encuentro of the Americas in Porto Alegre in 2024.
The first-year pilot translates this wider experience into a simple and testable community model: 30 community dinners + reflection spaces + training + mentoring + accompaniment + evaluation.
Learning will be gathered through participant feedback; facilitator reflections; stories of personal and relational change; continued participation; new invitations into the community; and evidence of increased capacity for dialogue and reconciliation.
Two central dimensions of impact will be observed:
- Belonging — Do participants experience greater safety, welcome, authenticity and meaningful connection?
- Engagement & Transformation — Do participants remain engaged, invite others, and translate values such as honesty, love, responsibility and reconciliation into everyday relationships?
2026–2027: the three-city pilot. The first phase focuses on Edmonton, Mexico City and Maringá. Each city provides a distinct social and cultural context in which to explore the same fundamental question: How can communities practice belonging across difference? The pilot will establish core practices, develop local facilitation capacity, document learning and strengthen partnerships with churches, faith communities, community organizations and other spaces of hospitality and encounter. The intention is not to create identical programmes in three cities, but to discover what must remain consistent and what must remain locally adaptable.
Scaling the model. Year 1 — three cities: Edmonton · Mexico City · Maringá — establish core practices, relationships, care structures and learning mechanisms. Year 2 — potential expansion to six cities: deepen partnerships, strengthen facilitator development and refine the model. Year 3 — potential expansion to nine cities: consolidate a replicable framework, develop local leadership and strengthen long-term sustainability. Expansion will depend on learning, local readiness, relationships and available resources rather than growth for its own sake.
Methodology & approach. Community Dinners are at the heart of the initiative: lightly moderated brunches and dinners bringing together approximately 8–12 participants around a shared meal and a meaningful question. These gatherings are designed to be welcoming and respectful; confidential; open to diverse backgrounds and beliefs; grounded in listening rather than debate; and small enough to allow genuine encounter. Themes may include belonging, identity, migration, reconciliation, spirituality and community. Reflection Circles — online reflection spaces providing continuity between gatherings, inviting quiet time, shared reflection, ethical inquiry and selected readings. The intention is not comparative theology, but shared reflection across difference. Relational Accompaniment — one-to-one listening, group reflection and ongoing relational accompaniment: not clinical therapy or hierarchical pastoral authority, but a practice of presence, care, attentive listening and mutual support. Training & Capacity Building — workshops strengthening participants and facilitators through quiet time and reflective practice, personal development, the Life Balance Sheet and related IofC tools, dialogue and facilitation, trustbuilding, community hosting and leadership through service. The aim is to develop local capacity so that belonging can become a sustainable community practice rather than a one-time event.
Offerings. Communities of Belonging — small-group gatherings over a shared meal designed to cultivate welcome, dialogue and meaningful connection. Reflection Circles — online spaces for quiet reflection, shared inquiry, ethical exploration and continued relationship-building. Trust & Reconciliation Dialogues — facilitated conversations across cultural, interfaith, intergenerational and social differences. Training & Facilitation — capacity-building for community hosts, facilitators and emerging leaders. Mentoring & Relational Accompaniment — ongoing spaces of listening, reflection and mutual support. Community-to-Community Learning — exchange between cities and local initiatives across the Americas, turning experience into shared learning.
Team Profile
6.1 Team Profile — Lead Team
Yiyi Datar — Co-Lead, Edmonton. Born in Rangoon, Burma, Yiyi Datar experienced migration across Burma, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Canada before settling in Canada in 1973. She encountered the MRA/IofC tradition in 1977 and participated in Caux in 1979. Her journey includes work and learning within the IofC ecosystem, including summers at the Bocock farm while studying Agriculture. Yiyi has remained connected to IofC through events and initiatives in Alberta and British Columbia and currently serves on the Board of IofC Canada. She has also co-organized Jeffersonian Dinners and works part-time as a church administrator, while volunteering at Fort Edmonton Park's carving shop and with the Sculptors Association of Alberta. Her contribution to the Belonging Project is deeply rooted in hospitality, continuity, migration experience, community life and relationship across cultures.
Rodrigo Martínez Romero — Co-Lead, Mexico City. Rodrigo has been engaged with IofC since 2010, with experiences including international programmes, trustbuilding and leadership development. His work through the School of Conscious Politics and Spiritual Politics Lab explores the relationship between spirituality, political life, peacebuilding, ancestral wisdom and conscious leadership. Within the Belonging Project, Rodrigo contributes to conceptual development, coordination, cross-cultural bridge-building, learning and the translation of spiritual and ethical inquiry into practical approaches to social cohesion.
Sandra Lima — Local Leadership, Maringá. Sandra Lima brings more than three decades of experience in education and human development. She lived for 17 years in Uruguay as part of Elenco Latinoamericano Gente que Avanza and founded Sandra Lima Capacitação e Coaching, focusing on values-based training and leadership development. Her contribution connects education, values, faith, family and community care, supporting the development of the Maringá dimension of the pilot.
6.2 Extended Team & Facilitation Ecosystem
Institutional collaboration. The Belonging Project is anchored in the Initiatives of Change network, while remaining intentionally open to collaboration with local and allied organizations. Potential partners include churches and faith communities; community and spiritual centres; migrant and host-community organizations; civil society organizations; educational institutions; peacebuilding and trustbuilding networks; local facilitators and community leaders; Indigenous and intercultural initiatives; and international networks working for reconciliation and social cohesion.
The project understands partnership itself as part of the methodology: working as a network is both our strategy and our practice.
Partnership ecosystem. Initiatives of Change Canada, Initiatives of Change partners across the Americas, the Regional Trustbuilding Programme in the Americas, the School of Conscious Politics, Sandra Lima Capacitação e Coaching, Mentors and Creators of Peace networks, Global Indigenous Dialogue connections and Creative Leadership and other IofC learning communities.
Contribution to Conscious Politics
The Belonging Project contributes to the School of Conscious Politics by testing, at community scale, the proposition that belonging is a political practice.
It takes the abstract language of unity, reconciliation and social cohesion and grounds it in the most concrete possible setting: a shared meal, a small group, a meaningful question. In doing so, it demonstrates how the School's principles — shared humanity, healing, self-governance, praxis — become everyday practice rather than declaration.
The project also contributes a replicable model: a framework for intercultural, interfaith and intergenerational peacemaking that can travel across cities without losing its local character. Its learning question is precise: what must remain consistent, and what must remain locally adaptable?
The Belonging Project begins with a modest proposition and a far-reaching possibility: when people have places where they can meet, listen, reflect and belong, they can begin to imagine a different kind of community. From three cities, the project seeks to learn how unity can become a lived practice across the Americas — one meal, one conversation, one relationship and one act of reconciliation at a time.
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