Sustainability through trust

What do connection, sustainability, and social and planetary well-being have in common? The quality of our relationships greatly impact the way we experience life, but what does that look like in the big picture?

From a sustainability perspective, people navigating emotions, facing fears, and clearly communicating needs is consistent with what nature teaches as interdependent relationships emerge to ensure resiliency. Communities that understand the importance of creating space for building healthy relationships support the well-being of individuals and the whole community.

Healthy communities happen when we transparently work with our vulnerabilities as a show of good intention. From a community viewpoint, being clear about what we need to survive is essential, and being able to work towards that requires trust.

Trust is the way we relate to each other, the level of mutual understanding we’re willing to work towards in order to cope with trauma, overcome codependency, and engage as a community. 

Trust helps people find the courage to re-imagine and heal relationships through mutual support. With this support it becomes easier to see and acknowledge that blame, anger, criticism, excuses, guilt, punishment, and victim mindsets block pathways for personal healing. This is also true for building coalitions around sustainability.

As community members, we have the choice to align our collective power with the important work of building trust. Connection as community strengthens and expands our collective insight around the deeper moral implications of specific ecological and social issues. 

Still the lure to blame and reside in fear exists. As vulnerable social beings, we struggle with our sense of self, which can cause us to forget what we really need. Doing the work of nurturing healthy relationships in our everyday lives takes courage and commitment. Our ability to authentically assert our needs and thrive in abundant trust grows when we prioritize relationships as community.

Sometimes we need a little inspiration. Children can often accept challenging circumstances but they also hold a super power: they instinctively build community that will help support the potential they imagine. Children understand the pure need to express and receive love. They also learn to equate kindness with trust.

As community, we learn that it’s important to bear witness to the vulnerability each person lives with, no matter their ideals and perspectives. In doing this, we acknowledge that the quality of our collective relationship is central to how we as individuals experience life. Trust is invaluable.

People need space to build trust in their personal exchanges, identify misunderstandings, inform each other of unmet needs, and invent ways of supporting each other at all levels. Every cautionary tale we’ve heard since childhood warns us about what happens when communication and trust break down.

Today’s realities are very difficult to understand. The most challenging issue that communities face today is disconnection. The rawness of isolation can be very damaging, one person’s struggle can impact the community as a whole, no matter that person’s circle of influence. 

Stories individuals share provide not only relatability but also relevant insights necessary for designing sustainable initiatives. People are naturally more equipped to grasp first hand stories and the relatable insights and inspirations that feed our collective imagination. If we value personal and collective well-being, we need to be intentional about creating space for this to happen.

In Tompkins County, many local organizations make the time to learn and improve the way they function, especially when it comes to providing space for community members to share their concerns and ideas. The most effective of these are the ones that take time for each person to not only participate but also to share authentically, informing initiatives designed to serve the greater community.

Creating space for insights from community members is essential to deciding what to prioritize and how to develop solutions to complex challenges. Trust ensures that the work we do is relevant. It also honors our parent’s legacy and our children’s right to exist and experience joyful resiliency. 

Sustainability relies on weaving stories, creating, understanding, and designing together in social spaces. Asserting our individual uniqueness and worth adds value to our collective identity and contributes to our greater good.

Sharing our most challenging and rewarding experiences with others opens up emotional space to playfully imagine inclusive solutions. People initiate positive change through actively sharing their stories, repairing and nurturing relationships, and building community-wide understanding of the intricate interconnection between personal experience, community organizing, social systems, and policies.

People with the ability to understand experiences from a wholistic perspective can more readily access their own sense of “why” establishing sustainability and trust as community is relevant to their own well-being. It’s possible to listen with care to a mosaic of diverse personal perspectives, and then to address everyone’s needs collectively.

Lifting up universal truths and intentionally building inclusive and trusting spaces frees us all because we need each other in order to thrive.

Cathleen Banford is a community educator and a board member of Sustainable Finger Lakes. Signs of Sustainability is organized by Sustainable Finger Lakes.