The roots of conflict are wide ranging, far reaching and run deep.

So deep that tensions, whether relating to religion, race or politics, have the potential to cause unrest within our communities.

Five years ago and before the major terror atrocities in New York and later London shook the world, Bradford was at the heart of the worst riots in mainland Britain.

Businesses weren't the only ones counting the costs. Communities were torn apart and, for a time, people were living in fear. Many argue Bradford will never be the same, but positive moves have and are still being made to create a better community.

Lessons were learned and much bridge-building is being done to restore peace to the city. However, everyone is aware Bradford, like any other city, still has problems.

Dr Fiona Macaulay, a lecturer in the Bradford University's Peace Studies department, said: "As a city we know Bradford has social problems; quite high levels of poverty and lack of communication between different communities in the city.

"It is a city with a long activism in peace issues. It has contemporary problems and a willingness to tackle them."

The department is internationally renowned for its work. It also had a close relationship with the late nuclear scientist and peace activist Professor Joseph Rotblat who received an honorary doctorate there in the Seventies, impressive credentials which, no doubt, helped Bradford secure the bid to become a host university to an international peace-promoting organisation.

Peacejam UK is the British off-shoot of an American education programme set up a decade ago. It is said to have been inspired by a rock musician talking a gang of gun-toting youngsters into doing something positive and less destructive.

Today Peacejam works alongside the world's elite, the Nobel Peace Laureates, inspiring the next generation into resolving conflict and promoting peace within their home communities and, ultimately, the wider world.

Its debut UK conference was held at the university in March when Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan McGuire, joint founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement (renamed Community of Peace People), a non-violent organisation uniting young people from different backgrounds, discussed global issues and conflict resolutions with the city's scholars. The aim was to pass on the spirit, skills and wisdom for them to tackle issues on their own doorsteps.

Says Dr Macaulay: "The whole point about Peacejam is bringing young people together and working with them over a weekend so they get to meet people from different communities and different schools and realise that actually we are all facing common problems - bullying in schools, vandalism, perhaps fear of going out at night, lack of communication, racism - so young people go away with a new perspective, a new kind of confidence.

"They can tackle various problems in schools and communities and will also be involved in solving conflict in the wider world."

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama are fellow Nobel Prize winners, and some scholars from the university, Beckfoot and Nab Wood schools and other educational establishments involved in Peacejam throughout the country, met them during an unprecedented gathering earlier this week. The event, at the University of Denver, Colarado, was held in celebration of Peacejam's tenth anniversary "It was quite extraordinary. Desmond Tutu is an elderly Archbishop and was greeted like a rock star," says Dr Macaulay, who believes the words of the Nobel Prize winners will go a long way to inspire young people to strive for peaceful solutions within their home communities.

"I think it's absolutely essential that young people learn how to dialogue and how to resolve tensions and differences of opinion peacefully because we all know violence breeds further violence, it can never breed a peaceful world.

"Desmond Tutu said the 21st century was in their hands. They are the ones who have to make it better."

So far more than 200,000 children have taken part in Peacejam which now operates in nine other countries.

Kyoko Tadaoka, a peace studies student at Bradford, became a mentor for Peacejam through her interest in peace education. Her ambition is to see Peacejam in her home country of Japan.

In the meantime she's busy promoting it through Bradford University. She was involved in organising the March conference and is working on a follow-up event to be held there next month for scholars who she accompanied on the Denver trip.

The event will be a platform for students to give presentations on the progress of projects they're currently undertaking focusing on issues affecting their communities such as bullying and safety in and out of schools; the development of fair trade and environmental issues.

Kyoko believes meeting the Nobel Laureates is essential in demonstrating to young people how the actions of ordinary people can make such a significant impact. "I believe everybody faces difficult times in their lives, particularly teenagers. They may be facing problems with family or at school and they may suffer low self-esteem," says Kyoko.

"It's important to meet the Laureates because they have their own stories to tell. They have been through difficult times and they share them with the students directly. They are a living role model of how they dealt with their difficulties in a non-violent way and so many have been inspired by it."

Some of the Bradford students were interviewed about their experience in Denver for a series of programmes by the BBC on the Nobel Peace laureates and Peacejam.

Tony Myers, organiser of Peacejam UK, admits he was initially sceptical whether the Stateside organisation would work in the UK. Witnessing the effect it is having on youngsters has convinced him otherwise. "It isn't about telling children what they should do or saying they must agree, it's saying here is a situation, what would you do? It's involving them as much as possible and getting them to use their own minds."

And he says the Nobel Laureates are the most inspiring people to do it because the perception is often they hail from privileged backgrounds when actually they're ordinary people who've gone on to achieve great things in their lives. "And I think that is effective," says Mr Myers.

"It's understanding they (the young) can do something on their own and make a difference. It's giving them the beliefs and the self-confidence."

l For more information about Peacejam visit www.peacejam.org