Gaining a Community's Trust

While discussing how her community can be slow to trust, she noted that the Climate Ready Philly team was doing something right in their workshops by using a hands-on approach. In her opinion, this approach not only helps people retain what they’ve learned but it also helps communities help themselves which can encourage communities to rebuild their trust. 

Diane: But if we bring in something that is hands on, that they can see, constructive stuff, then I think we can work together.

Ali: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Diane: What is it? I don't know.

Ali: Yeah. We're going to work on that.

Diane: Okay. Work on that, then I'll work with you.

Ali: Okay.

Diane: I'll work with you.

Ali: I have your contact information, so I will, yeah.

Diane: Other than that, I don't know. It's got to be something that everybody ... All hands on stuff. It's got to be hands on stuff, because when we talk, it goes in one ear and out the other, because there's nothing there to hold it. We need hands on work. I need hands on work, because how am I going to hold this here up?

Ali: We try and make it about people... Because climate change, if you read climate change reports, it's all about very abstract, global level stuff. We try and make it about people's neighborhoods and homes, because we figure if we talk about what matters to people, and we explain climate change through your everyday lives in your homes, that is going to help people make connections between climate change and Philadelphia. I think we're doing better in that regard. We're not making climate change so scientific and abstract, but it's hard. I think we're still making it too inaccessible.

Diane: Well, we've got to start small in order for it to grow.

Ali: Yeah. Yes. This is where we're taking first steps here, yeah.

Diane: Yeah, baby steps, mm-hmm (affirmative). You've got to take baby steps with people in the community, because they're not trusting anyway.

Ali: Yeah, yeah.

Diane: You see, so much has happened that they just don't trust anybody. They just staying in their own cubicle, which they got to come out. If they come out, they can help, but you need something to pull them out.

Ali: Yeah, yeah.