Connor Cantrell | 2/27/2025
Trust comes up a lot in our work and it comes up a lot in conversations we have with the communities we serve. Internally, we talk about how the status quo for many of these communities is distrust.
No matter who we conduct outreach to – community solar subscribers, program participants, struggling households – our communication always happens in the context of all the outreach that came before us.
In the wake of that outreach, those door to door sales, the overpromising and underdelivering from all manner of organizations and programs, we find shipwrecked trust and learned apprehension. Even without those experiences, regardless of income or housing status, we are sold to every single day.
Daily pitches from billboards, pop-ups, and social media ads train us to look past their messages and tune them out. We end up unknowingly conditioned to dismiss anything resembling a sales pitch. And the alarms really start to go off when someone offers us a seemingly good thing for free. How ingrained is our societal trauma that generosity feels like a trap?
And how does a well meaning non-profit – with actually free, sustainable, and money-saving programs – build trust in this environment?
Trust Is Built in Relationship
I asked our outreach team about their experiences and I think one of our Bilingual Community Coordinators, John Garay, made it clear:
“Be human. And be sincere. Luckily, we have a sincerely altruistic organizational mission to guide us and beneficial programs to offer to the community… with no strings attached. So, without overselling or pushing too hard, we communicate from a place of empathy and service.”
Which is not to say good intentions are the only thing MHET relies on, or that our approach to outreach is a single monolith. Communities differ. Households differ. Individuals differ. We embrace bringing our own history and identity to work every day.
John also shared:
“As a child of Spanish-speaking immigrants, it is not a stretch for me to express my connection to, and solidarity with, immigrants living in a precarious political climate – and to earn their trust.”
Our outreach also happens at an organizational level, alongside other nonprofits, religious organizations, and community programs. In these spaces, trust is often relational and shared. Earning the trust of a pastor, for example, can open the door to trust within a congregation.
These relationships don’t just expand our reach — they strengthen the web of support surrounding the people we serve.
We don’t give out emergency grants, but we know United Way of Ulster County does. We don’t run food pantries, but we know where to find them.
In this way, successful MHET outreach connects someone not only to our programs but to the broader regional network of programs that we collaborate with in order to benefit priority populations.
Rejecting the “Savior” Narrative
Trust requires us to stand beside communities, not above them.
When I asked Erin Jaramillo, also a Bilingual Community Coordinator at MHET, about our work, she spoke at a conceptual and organizational level:
“Implying that an organization solely ‘helps’ and ‘serves’ communities can lend to white saviorism and paternalism.” she said. “We are not ‘saving’ anyone.” Our approach must “transpose responsibility from individuals and their realities to the myriad harmful, systemic and compounding barriers that impede individuals and their communities’ ability to sustain, thrive, and build their futures with agency and dignity.”
Which is the point of our work: to deliver material improvement through our expertise, full stop.
Pairing that material support with a humanizing approach is ultimately how we earn trust.
Proof, Not Promises
To quote J.B. Childs, a pastor at Pointe of Praise Church, “Trust is what happens when action meets expectation.”
When we connect with someone individually, meet with a group, or talk with a program director, we are building the expectation of what we have to offer.
And when we meet that expectation with action – with a fixed heating system, respite from electricity bills, or fewer hospital bills after home health upgrades – we’ve started to build a real, reliable relationship. One we must maintain day after day after day by continuing to align expectations with action.
Trust is more easily lost than won and, once lost, is much much harder to reclaim.
What Comes Next
Everything we do centers people first. Our programs are built for and by the communities we’ve built trust in, and we aren’t finished building.
We bring energy expertise. But we do not claim expertise in what our neighbors need and want next. That is why we’re supporting a community-led planning process led by Kingston residents.
If you live in Kingston and want to participate, you can start with this survey.
If you want to see what we achieved in 2025, check out our impact report.
And if you want to stay connected to what comes next, join our newsletter.
