Based on interviews with successful community and water utility partnerships, River Network and WaterNow have developed a set of 8 best practices for building trusting partnerships:

1. Prioritize Transparency and Accountability
2. Restore Community Confidence
3. Deepen Community Understanding of Utilities Roles and Responsibilities
4. Highlight Shared Goals to Leverage Mutual Benefits
5. Include the Community as Part of Utility Decision Making
6. Adopt a Community-Facing Orientation
7. Cultivate Long-Term Community Relationships with Intention
8. Build from Personal to More Formalized Relationships

These foundational steps for building trust are a constellation of practices that can be applied in any order depending on where a particular utility and community fall on the trust spectrum.

Click the link below to download a 2-page summary of the Building Blocks of Trust report. Click here to read the full report.