Written by Rachel Ellis
Blog originally posted here by Smart Growth America. America Walks is a partner in their Community Connector program.
Community Connectors is SGA’s program to help equip leaders in 15 small and mid-sized communities to repair the damage of divisive infrastructure. A few weeks ago, members from all 15 teams gathered in Washington DC to receive some extra technical assistance on two challenges that had emerged over the last 18 months of the program: 1) How to encourage investment while preventing displacement, and 2) how to engage their communities and build trust.
As someone who was able to sit in on these conversations for the first time since the inception of this program last year, I heard several powerful themes ring true in a lot of the conversations. Here are my five takeaways from the work being done so far to reconnect 15 communities across the U.S:
1. Good projects move at the speed of trust
Trust is the foundation of all successful projects, and as Nellie Graham and Sam Kling from Equitable Cities (a Community Connectors program partner) explained during a session on building trust, it’s much easier to lose it than gain it. Trust is built through sustained, meaningful relationships, consistently over time—not just during a singular phase in a project.
And thanks to Charles T. Brown, Founder and CEO of Equitable Cities, I learned about the different types of trust—contractual, communication, competency, and caring trust—and why you need each type. These serve as a strong framework for building deep relationships with a community. Following through on commitments and showing that you’ll do what you say is a way to demonstrate contractual trust, while communication trust is about being open, honest, and clear. Competency trust focuses on having the skills and knowledge needed to deliver on promises and establish credibility, and caring trust demonstrates empathy and a genuine understanding of others’ perspectives.
Trust is built through small, deliberate actions—something we all learned through a few activities during the convening, like having to do a puzzle as a team but without using any spoken words.
2. Keep community engagement authentic and creative
Authentic, creative engagement is another key to building trust and fostering a sense of shared ownership in community projects. And what’s more important, it doesn’t need to be formal or rigid. Rather than seeing engagement as a transactional “check-the-box” activity, one Community Connectors team talked about holding community dinners and how that helps people feel comfortable and heard. This type of creativity is essential to fostering caring trust, where people know their perspectives are valued.
Nick Buenviaje from Caltrans, part of the National City Community Connectors team, emphasized that no one will engage a community better than the community itself. It’s critical to lean on these connections and relationships, not just to get projects done but to ensure that they reflect the community’s needs and aspirations. Building relationships within a community and alongside external partners creates a web of support that can turn ambitious ideas into a reality.
3. Invest in people, not places
A powerful strategy for avoiding displacement is to pair investments in vital new infrastructure—whether a street designed for safety, new parks, new housing, or transit systems—with investments in the people who live in those areas.
The entire group took a tour to learn about the 11th Street Bridge Park in DC, which has allocated more funding toward workforce development, homeownership initiatives, support for arts and culture, and small business support than the actual concrete and steel of the ambitious new park breaking ground next year. This is one exciting example of how a community-centric plan can bolster development while providing support for long-time residents. The project’s Equitable Development Plan is an excellent blueprint for other communities because it demonstrates how investing in relationships can shape a development project. For more information, check out this short video outlining the project’s seven-step process in engaging local residents.
These kinds of investments in people build stability, ensuring that communities benefit from improvements without being displaced, and send a powerful signal that the existing residents matter just as much as the shiny new infrastructure.
4. You cannot use yesterday’s tools of exclusion to prevent displacement today
Many urban planning practices of the past, such as redlining, highway construction, restrictive zoning, and mandatory minimum lot sizes were tools of exclusion that fueled displacement and systemic inequities. Today, efforts to prevent displacement must actively dismantle these outdated methods, replacing them with inclusive, community-driven strategies. Those same tools can’t be used to prevent displacement. Instead, cities must use tools like equitable development plans, anti-displacement policies, and strong ongoing community engagement to ensure that future growth benefits existing residents, particularly those most vulnerable to displacement. True progress requires a shift in both mindset and approach, focusing on equity and inclusivity.
“While we talk about repairing damage from past infrastructure projects, new investments continue to create harm. This duality must be addressed with every project. We must stop repeating the mistakes of the past and actively work to prevent future displacement and disruption.” – Chris Mobley, Deputy Director of the Department of Planning and Economic Development for the City of Orange Township
4. It’s okay not to have an answer or to say “I don’t know”
Something that came as a surprise to me was that acknowledging that you don’t have all the answers can actually build trust within a community. When leaders or planners admit they don’t know something, it shows humility and a willingness to learn. This fosters stronger relationships, invites collaboration rather than imposing top-down decisions, and can be a bridge to finding the right answers together. It signals that you’re committed to a thorough, thoughtful process alongside the community rather than rushing into potentially harmful decisions.
All in all, being surrounded by this group of passionate planners, advocates, and city leaders showed me that preventing displacement and building trust in a community is not easy, but when done right, it can be a vessel for new growth, opportunity, and prosperity. I realized that rebuilding and reconnecting communities that have been divided isn’t just about repairing physical damage—it’s about addressing racial and social inequities that have long been embedded in our systems. That process takes time and persistence, and the willingness of every single individual in the cohort to keep showing up, even when progress feels slow, was one of the most powerful takeaways of all.
