This article reflects on an experience of action research aimed at improving the understanding of the problem of chronic violence, raising awareness of its causes and implications, and promoting initiatives that seek to combat it through the assertion of rights. The research was developed as part of a university diploma taught in two Mexican states where chronic violence is an issue. The diploma aimed to build and support networks that promote cooperation between social actors. The action research was designed to offer a shared space in which diploma participants could develop joint initiatives aimed at raising awareness of the nature and dimensions of violence, and to confront the problem. Through building trust, the experience resulted in the creation of new approaches to the complex problem of violence, and new ways to understand it.