Building Community Trust: Lessons for Health Practitioners, Funders, and Community Leaders

Hosted November 2025

We explored what it truly takes to build and sustain trust with communities who have been systematically excluded from health systems, policymaking, and resource decisions. Panelists shared lessons from years of community organizing, public health practice, and cross-sector partnership—clarifying that trust is not simply a value or a tactic, but a long-term practice that shapes outcomes, shifts power, and determines who has agency in their own health and future.

The conversation offered a grounded look at how trust is built (or lost), how institutions can reorient their practices, and how community-rooted strategies lead to more effective and equitable health outcomes.

A public demonstration; people are leaning against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan offices, with picket signs. The one in the forefront is a young man wearing a wide brimmed hat holding a yellow sign with dark text that reads "Your greed makes me sick".

Building Community Trust: Lessons for Health Practitioners, Funders, and Community Leaders

from Rx Foundation’s Power is a Social Determinant of Health series

Building trust takes time, transparency, and consistency—and the work looks different in every community. This session unpacks what communities need from institutions, what institutions often misunderstand, and what it takes to transform relationships into real power for health equity.

Watch the Recording

Session Highlights

Trust-building requires proximity, humility, and long-term consistency
Panelists emphasized that institutions must move beyond transactional engagement. Community members respond to people who show up consistently—not organizations who appear only during crises or grant cycles.
Traditional systems often underestimate the time needed to build trust
Funding cycles and institutional timelines rarely align with community reality. True trust-building takes years, not quarters. Organizations that fail to understand this create harm by overpromising and underdelivering.
Trust breaks when institutions ignore community expertise
Panelists shared examples of programs that failed because community input came too late or was treated as optional. Trust erodes when communities do not see themselves in the solutions meant to serve them.
Headshot of Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick with a quote from the RX Foundation power session, "We must be willing to embrace solutions that respond directly to community feedback even if it sounds foreign, risky and non-academic. People want relatable messaging. This builds trusts which can increase engagement and close care gaps.
Community trust expands when institutions share power, not just information
True trust-building requires giving communities real influence over decisions, not just soliciting feedback. Advisory roles, leadership opportunities, and shared governance structures all build power and deepen trust.
Trust is a determinant of outcomes: where trust is high, participation and impact increase
Panelists noted that initiatives with higher community trust led to increased participation in health programs, better continuity of care, and stronger local advocacy. Trust is not ancillary—it is core infrastructure.

Notable Quotes

  • “Innovation has to reach people where they already are — through phones, social networks, the grapevine. If we don’t meet people there, we’re talking to ourselves.”— Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick, Grapevine Health
  • “Communities already have the wisdom and networks to counter misinformation — but they need support, not surveillance.” — Jamala Rogers, Organization for Black Struggle
  • “Change happens when we share information, build trust, and turn those conversations into collective action.”— Leevones Fisher, Bay Area Women Coalition

Speakers

  • Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick, Founder & CEO of Grapevine Health, and her team are already leading the way with data-driven, people-centered health communications that meet communities where they are, creating access to trusted health information through social media and direct engagement.
  • Jamala Rogers, Organization for Black Struggle
  • Leevones Fisher, Bay Area Women Coalition, Inc.

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