About Us

People standing by Building Unity Bus with mural

What is Building Unity?

Building Unity connects individuals and organizations who are working for peace, justice, sustainability, and democracy through the power of nonviolent action. Our core belief is that by aligning our diverse gifts and working together in a loving community, we can discover the synergistic power needed to create meaningful social change.

We work with dozens of groups to coordinate and facilitate collaborative action. There is so much we can do when we take the time to share our ideas and strengths, make plans, and follow through together as a community.

What we stand for has been summarized in the Building Unity Solidarity Statement. Learn more and sign on here.

The 4 Pillars of Our Unity Movement

Peace

  • Investing in diplomacy, peacebuilding, and meeting essential human needs
  • Building safer communities through comprehensive gun law reforms

Justice

  • Advancing comprehensive justice and human rights for all, with equal protections regardless of race, gender, or any form of discrimination
  • Achieving economic justice with living wages and universal access to healthcare, housing, education, and nutrition
  • Implementing compassionate immigration reform grounded in gratitude for immigrants’ contributions

Sustainability

  • Taking urgent environmental action to address the climate emergency
  • Ensuring environmental sustainability for our collective future and the wellbeing of generations to come

Democracy

  • Strengthening democracy through restored voting rights protection and fair voting districts
  • Ensuring fair and accessible elections for all
  • Building real participatory democracy in the U.S.

What We Do

Inspire 

Inspiration comes from being in community. Our large public events strengthen collective resolve and welcome people at every stage of involvement.

•       Call to Action Weekends, Freedom Caravans, and Capitol assemblies

•       Faith leaders, elected officials, neighbors, and activists coming together

•       Events designed to be welcoming — whether it’s your first time or your hundredth

Visible, joyful expressions of our growing movement – 

Educate 

Knowledge and skills are the foundation of effective action. Our trainings meet people where they are — no experience required.

•       Workshops on nonviolent action, community organizing, messaging, and civic engagement

•       Virtual and in-person formats to reach as many people as possible

Connect

Effective organizing depends on clear, consistent communication. We make sure no one has to figure out what to do next on their own.

•       Weekly Signal messages to NAT Contacts, passed along to their groups

•       Simple, meaningful actions for peace, people, and planet — every week

•       Urgent rapid response alerts when the moment calls for immediate action

Share by text, email, or whatever works best for your group

Build Community

At the heart of everything we do is relationship. BUGS are our regular potluck-style community gatherings — joyful, welcoming, and rooted in care for one another.

•       Shared meals, conversation, and connection with neighbors and fellow organizers

•       Updates from local leaders and BU4NVA on current actions and opportunities

•       A place to belong — for newcomers and longtime members alike

When we build community, we build the movement

Join a Nonviolent Action Team with Your Friends

We’re building a Nonviolent Action Team Network—small circles of people committed to working together for positive change. Nonviolent action means using creative, peaceful strategies to challenge injustice and build the world we want to see.

When you sign up, you’ll receive a weekly message with a couple of simple actions you can take for peace, people, or planet. These are easy, meaningful ways to stay engaged and make a difference with your group.

Join a Nonviolent Action Team and become part of our growing movement for nonviolent action. Sign up here.

Get Connected

Please reach out if you’d like help thinking about your next steps toward building unity in your community. It’s time to find each other, align our gifts, and discover the synergistic power of unity.

Sign up: Fill out the Building Unity Sign-up Form to learn more and get involved. We’ll update you with our upcoming plans.

Call us: 608-630-3633 to share your ideas, questions, or concerns

Follow us: facebook.com/buildingunitywiHow do we do this?

We invite (or respond to requests from) our partners to join us in creating public awareness raising events that support policy changes that are in support of world peace, all forms of justice, sustainability, and democracy. 

In short, we will do whatever we can to make sure that we are lifting up the voices of those who are oppressed, marginalized and historically excluded. We support creative ways to bring people together for action.

There is so much that we can do, if we take the time to share our ideas and strengths, make plans and follow through in collaboration.

We all can do something and our chances of getting more people doing the things that need to be done will be increased if we work together with others in our community who share our passion for setting things right.

Please, reach out if you’d like some help thinking about your next steps towards building unity in your community. It is time to find each other, align our gifts, and find the synergistic power of unity.

What is “Building Unity for Nonviolent Action” (BU4NVA)?

Building Unity for Nonviolent Action is a coalition of over 25 groups that endorse our common goal to get our communities organized, trained, and ready to respond to the current violence of the U.S. Government with nonviolent action. We do this by hosting trainings and other events that help people get connected to others and ready to act. We also reach out to other groups, congregations, neighborhoods, and other communities in order to build a more connected and organized United Nonviolent Action Network that is ready to respond with united nonviolent action. For more information about BU4NVA, visit our frequently updated info page: https://tinyurl.com/BU4NVA-Info-Page

Get Connected with one of the Building Unity Teams!

To Learn more and hopefully get involved fill out the Building Unity, Sign-up Form: https://tinyurl.com/BUSignUpForm. We will update you with our upcoming plans.

You can also call Building Unity anytime at 608-630-3633 to share your ideas, questions, or concerns.

Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/buildingunitywi/