Move at the Speed of Trust (4th story)
Today's story is about starting with listening and everyone's need to be needed
Today we bring you the third story in our Week of Citizening.
If you’re just tuning in, you can catch:
2nd story: on “participatory layoffs”
3rd story: overcoming divisions on a school board
🛑 Today’s focus: What if support began not with assumptions, but with listening?
Check out today’s story in this Instagram Reel. If you’d rather not further enrich Mark, here’s the LinkedIn version.
We’ve all seen the kind of help that talks at people — making assumptions, prescribing solutions, moving fast and leaving trust behind.
Today’s citizen story shows a different way.
Step By Step, a nonprofit in Lexington, KY, supports young single mothers. But they don’t start by telling them what they need. They ask.
And when these moms said they wanted Narcan training to save lives in their own communities — they got it. They led it.
“They all left with a sense of empowerment. We asked for this, it got done. And now we’re walking out with knowledge.”
— Tanya Torp, Executive Director
This is what happens when we move at the speed of trust. When we recognize people not just as recipients of help, but as leaders in shaping it.
💬 Seen something like this in your community, an org that asks first?
Visit stories.howtocitizen.com, join our list, and let us know you have a story to share. You can also comment on this post, reply or tag us on IG/LinkedIn. These stories are everywhere — and we need them more than ever.
🎥 Video produced by Alexa Lim. This story series is a collaborative effort of Shira Abramowitz, Jon Alexander, Elizabeth Stewart, and Baratunde Thurston.
Let’s citizen!
It's so moving to hear Tanya talk with such conviction about listening to what the young single mothers need --*offering* agency rather than taking it away. Walking alongside them, moving at the speed of trust, showing up consistently.
It makes me wonder, how often are we taking away vs. offering agency to the people in all the areas of our lives -- especially when we think we're doing something 'good'?