July 29, 2020
Hollie Russon Gilman and Sonal Shah wrote for Medium about the need to rebuild trust in institutions.
To achieve greater equity, we first need to build trust between people and institutions, both public and private. Trust is low. While growing inequity (not just inequality) contributes to the lack of trust, shifting that requires new mechanisms to communicate, collaborate and make structural change. Building and maintaining trust must be intentional, we can not go back to business as usual. It will not be easy. This will require power shifts. Each group will need to give up some power to achieve impact. Over the next few weeks, we will write about various steps needed to build trust. This note is focused on how engagement needs to change from public relations to creating effective collaboration and feedback loops.
There are models of participation and collaboration in governance that have been tested locally and globally. We can learn from what has worked through some illustrative examples. The recent calls to Defund the Police, for example, have sparked new civic energy and a willingness for experimentation inside and outside of government. But defunding is only half the equation: Building out an affirmative alternative is just as urgent. Communities across the country have shown that having greater public empowerment in budget decisions, through for example participatory budgeting — especially for Black and Brown communities — leads to different outcomes. But, this requires decision makers being willing to give up some of their power to communities in a genuine manner that builds trust.
Creating opportunities for people and communities to engage is a first step towards building public trust, especially in shaping the experience for disenfranchised/overlooked communities to participate. Public leaders should anticipate that their calls for engagement will be viewed with suspicion. However, community champions can create bridges. Too many people see civic engagement as an exclusive club. Moving beyond the usual suspects requires reaching beyond our bubbles and building new partnerships, especially those that are racially equitable. There is much to learn from different communities like the disability rights community about how they built partnerships to achieve outcomes and build language and spaces that are more inclusive.