The world young people are inheriting is defined by conflict, displacement, and division. By the end of 2024, over 49 million children were forcibly displaced, and rising polarization is fragmenting communities, eroding empathy, and silencing the youth most affected. In conflict-affected contexts, young people face trauma, disrupted education, and exclusion from the conversations shaping their futures. In high-income countries, refugee and immigrant youth often experience marginalization, while their peers are exposed to narratives that deepen division.
Traditional peace education has not kept pace. It is often top-down, language-heavy, and disconnected from how young people communicate, create, and connect, leaving those most in need without meaningful entry points to express themselves or engage across difference.
Peace Tracks was created to meet this need. Through collaborative songwriting, music production, and digital storytelling, we create safe, inclusive spaces where refugee, immigrant, conflict-affected, and global youth co-create original work that expresses identity, builds empathy, and bridges communities increasingly isolated from one another.
Since 2021, Peace Tracks has engaged over 2,000 youth across the U.S., Palestine, Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Germany, and Afghanistan, including Afghan girls excluded from formal education. New programming is launching at Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, with partnerships developing across East Africa.
Peace Tracks addresses the need for inclusive, youth-centered peacebuilding through a virtual and in-person exchange where young people across borders co-create original music and digital storytelling. The program meets youth where they are, including those in conflict zones, refugee camps, and low-resource communities, amplifying voices often missing from global conversations.
In practice, participants share their cultures, identify global challenges that matter to them, and collaborate on original songs and music videos with peers worldwide. With guidance from teaching artists, including local artists when possible, participants use collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Google Spaces, or WhatsApp to connect, Soundtrap to produce music, and WeVideo to create music videos. Each session concludes with a livestream YouTube concert. To bridge the digital divide, we partner with local organizations to provide devices, internet, interpreter support, and safe in-person spaces.
Peace Tracks integrates AI as an ethical, empowering creative tool, supporting real-time translation, accessibility for youth with disabilities, and AI-assisted songwriting. For a young person who has a story to tell but has never written a song, or who feels hesitant to begin, AI can be the bridge between silence and song, turning feelings and ideas into lyrics so their voice can be heard.
Since 2021, Peace Tracks has engaged over 2,000 youth and produced more than 80 original songs.
Over the past two years, Peace Tracks has grown in reach, partnerships, and visibility. We completed our two-year U.S. State Department grant through the Stevens Initiative, engaging youth across the U.S., Palestine, Jordan, and Morocco, and were selected for the HundrED Global Collection 2026.
Recent achievements:
In Brandenburg, Germany, we co-created "Zusammen (Together)," an original song and music video with local and refugee residents, our first programming with refugee communities in Europe.
In Afghanistan, we partnered with Flying Wings School for a Peace Tracks session with Afghan girls excluded from formal education, who wrote and recorded "I Am an Afghan Girl," an expression of identity and resilience. Peace Tracks will soon be integrated into the Flying Wings curriculum.
In Jordan, we confirmed a partnership with Save the Children Jordan and UNHCR to launch programming with displaced youth at Zaatari refugee camp in early 2026.
Despite a challenging global funding landscape, we have continued to grow through resourcefulness, creative problem-solving, and the dedication of a global volunteer team spanning Morocco, India, Kenya, Germany, the U.S., and beyond, allowing us to scale impact while keeping costs low.
Over the next 2-3 years, we aim to deepen programming across these partnerships, develop collaborations across East Africa, integrate ethical AI tools for translation and accessibility, and grow toward serving 4,400 youth across 20 countries by 2031.
Since our 2026 submission, Peace Tracks has expanded both its programming and its organizational foundations.
We have deepened our hybrid model, combining virtual exchange with in-person, locally facilitated sessions for youth in conflict, refugee, or low-resource contexts. We have expanded partnerships to include Save the Children Jordan and UNHCR for programming at Zaatari refugee camp, Flying Wings School in Afghanistan supporting Afghan girls excluded from formal education, and a refugee community in Brandenburg, Germany. We are also partnering with local teaching artists from the communities we serve when possible, and our curriculum is increasingly adaptable to local cultural and linguistic contexts. Interactive workshops on conflict resolution and peacebuilding have been integrated, using music-based scenarios to practice active listening, empathy, and nonviolent communication.
Despite a challenging global funding landscape, we have used this period to strengthen our organizational foundations. We have developed a robust monitoring, evaluation, and learning framework, including a logic model and theory of change. We have formalized our mission, vision, and values, adopted a comprehensive Code of Conduct, and established a safeguarding policy with designated leads.
Looking ahead, we are exploring the ethical use of AI for translation, accessibility, and creative support, ensuring technology is used to bridge divides rather than widen them.
Send an email to sandra@peacetracks.org
