Trust is a foundational element to our ability to co-exist in relationship with one another. However, many funders and leaders struggle to effectively build trust within their communities partially due to a number of factors, including but not limited to a misinterpretation of context, a commitment to maintaining status quo and comfort, a lack of value placed on lived-experience and expertise, and our society’s general trivialization of the importance of intentional trust and relationship building. Too often there is a rush to a predetermined outcome, hustle to achieve a quick win, or speed through a checklist instead of working through the nuances of harm, healing, and accountability to the point where trust can be possible. This approach furthers the disconnect between communities and effective, equitable change.
Trust and relationship building are essential to any effort that involves a community of people and the systemic adversities that harm many while benefiting a few. Trust provides a sense of safety, confidence, and security; where courage, connection, and innovation can thrive; all of which are elements that are critical to disrupting centuries-old, intentionally designed systems that keep communities divided. When the elements of trust are present, individuals feel empowered to contribute to their communities authentically; taking appropriate risks, working through conflict, and exposing vulnerabilities that can create viable and sustainable solutions. Without trust, challenges continue to grow while leaving little room for accountability, collaboration, creative thinking, and productivity. Lack of trust and broken relationships create environments where people lead with fear and scarcity, divide, and protect self-serving interests which in turn strengthens the existence of the inequities we’re working to address.
With a recent and heightened awareness of structural racism due to incidents of city-level systemic violence, disparities exposed by the pandemic, and more, new investments from the public and private sectors are transforming communities rapidly for the first time in generations. Our community is positioned for a restorative justice renaissance, and city officials, philanthropic leaders, and additional stakeholders have identified a critical need to engage and build trust and relationships with community members who live closest to the adversities. While leaders and community members navigate this new terrain, there’s great opportunity to root these efforts in a solid foundation of trust and one that disrupts cyclical patterns of injustice that are caused by diminishing the commitment, innovation, and investment necessary to advance trust and the emotional infrastructure of our community.
The time is overdue to convene stakeholders and community members, and partner with the lived experience and community experts who have been doing this work, in collective learning and unlearning, to steward our community toward a direction where accountability and trust are possible. As a woman of color working in the non-profit sector for over 12 years, I have directly experienced and observed the failures that are caused by the negligence of trust building amongst practitioners, funders, and communities, which ultimately harms the communities we work to serve the most. Due to my position and identity, I have been engaged in many conversations and efforts that claim to advance equity but have done little outside of exposing my vulnerabilities and exploiting my emotional labor as a Black woman, whether it was intentional or not. Because of these experiences that myself and so many other people of color that I know have had, many of us are cautious about the groups and spaces that we have these conversations in.
Generous Together is a local gathering of practitioners and funders in OKC experimenting in building trusting relationships with one another through informal gatherings, transparent conversations, and responsive listening. I am hopeful that the work through Generous Together is creating a model to show one of the pathways that communities can explore as they work towards more just futures. Just like in any relationship, the work is ongoing and is never truly over, but with a commitment and resources dedicated to this work like what has been done through Generous Together, it can be strengthened to help foster a community where everyone can participate and thrive.
