Opening Remarks and Awardee Announcement from Tom Wilson

Good morning. Welcome to our second annual Trust and Practice Awards and thank you Dan. Dan's always so insightful. I love listening to him. Vivian Cassanza, Jimmy, they really worked tirelessly to put this together for all of you. Without the Aspen Institute's expertise, their convening power and their wisdom, we wouldn't be here and we wouldn't be working on improving trust. I just want to thank you for joining us. I know you all have things to do in your life. You all have people who want something from you. And we appreciate you being generous with your time and sharing with us. This is really an amazingly talented group of leaders. And you have the expertise and the resources necessary to build a better future. Now, of course, we're here because societies around the world are in trouble. And that includes America because trust is the foundation for society. And you can look at every philosopher ever written and trust has been declining, right? And it's really shaking the foundations of our institutions, our relationships, and in fact, our freedom. But there's hope and momentum to turn this around. And that hope is you. It's your leadership, your lived experience, your day-to-day work in the communities. So today, my role is to help celebrate you and to help motivate you to continue to innovate to improve trust. So to start, I'd like to tap into some feelings by listening to some music. So if you could stand up, stand up a little bit. I want you to get the blood flowing a little bit and we'll have some music. What I would say is, let the music, I feel like music can oftentimes be underused because it really helps you emotionally. So let it seep into your veins and in your heart. If you feel like swaying, you can do that. If you want to mouth the words, if you want to sing, just make sure your team members are okay with that. So let's play some music. It's really amazing. You get a different view from everywhere you're at, right? So you're looking up the side and you're looking at me, maybe moving a little. But my view from up here is that this is a room full of leaders making a difference, connecting with each other, and building on that over the next two days. You're all leaders of a movement which America needs. And we're building momentum. The next two days will be about celebrating and learning from that work. You're going to hear data on where we're at. We're going to announce the first Trust and Practice Awards that will show how trust can be designed into community engagement. It doesn't have to be separate. We can just embed it into other things we're doing. And we're going to hear positive stories that can be used to amplify that work so we get over those naysayers and so that others join you. So this is going to be a great couple of days. For me this is really a vision come true. It's a vision where we allow individual differences, then we accept individual differences. You move along that path. So we build respect for each other which improves trust. And trust is like a magic elixir, right? It just nourishes hope. And when trust is given to us it enables us to be stronger together. And it's reciprocal, right? When you give it to another person, they give it back to you. It powers our institutions. It encourages citizenship. On a more meta level, trust is really necessary for freedom because it's like oxygen to the brain. With less trust, we think less clearly. Anxiety takes over logic and we feel like we're in quicksand. And we stop believing. And when we stop believing, we stop dreaming. And when we stop dreaming, we diminish our future. And without trust, we don't try new things. So trust enables us to be who we were meant to be. So you've accepted leadership to improve trust, which we're very grateful for. So thank you for being courageous and committed to that. You're at the cutting edge of a movement and Americans really are seeking your leadership. And I could be guilty of selective perception. That's where you think something and everywhere you look. So, you buy a red minivan and you never saw one before and you leave the dealership and you see 10 red minivans before you get to the first stoplight. I could definitely be guilty of that, but I believe it and I have facts around the fact that this is the beginning of a movement and the response to the Trust and Practice Awards really highlights this movement in this state. When we did this, we weren't really sure how many applications we would get for the $5 million. We upsized it to five and we thought, will we get enough people? It's not really that much time. I was a little worried about that. Well, demand far exceeded supply. We got over 1,600 proposals from 3,000 organizations together requesting $800 million. So clearly there's demand to improve trust. It's out there and you're leading that front. From that wealth of ideas and good work, it was really difficult to create a portfolio of efforts because we wanted to get a portfolio approach that will help us learn, share, and scale ways to improve trust. So this morning marks the inaugural Trust and Practice Awards and these are going to support a wide range of efforts all across the country. In Uvalde, Texas, they're going to create healing focused play spaces, playgrounds that build connections. New Orleans is going to use cross-neighborhood leaders and intergenerational storytelling. In central Appalachia, communities are going to be brought together around flood recovery and long-term resilience. Along the Mississippi River corridor, people got to come together to heal cultural trauma with indigenous populations. In Baltimore, New Jersey, Cleveland, revitalizing shared spaces that will bridge social divides. In Los Angeles, focusing on intergenerational healing related to incarceration, which will improve interpersonal trust. In New York City, connecting refugees and longtime residents through food and conversation. And here in Chicago, using youth as peace builders to build trust. So let's take a look at this year's awardees. How do you practice trust? You start at the beginning by listening, talking, sharing. You work together. You take action. Again and again until trust takes root and begins to grow, inspiring others and creating change. This is trust in practice and these are people who do it every day.

So, if you're a Trust and Practice Awardee, could you stand up so we could celebrate your commitment to helping us learn, make a difference, do that. We promise to support you and amplify your success so the movement expands and scales. This event is also an opportunity to advance your individual leadership. So commit to finding one or two things that you'll do differently when you return home. Introduce yourself to someone new and follow up after the meeting to see if they can be of help to you or you can be of help to them. Because being a leader in a movement is hard work. There are setbacks, there are mistakes, there's plenty of naysayers out there. Resources can be hard to find. And all of that requires your energy. So find ways to increase your energy through relationships and celebration. You can also find more energy by linking this work to your purpose. So take time over the next couple of days to invest in yourselves. Sometimes we get so focused on the day-to-day we forget that we're actually the engine that drives our growth. So take some time to invest in yourself. Reflect on your purpose. Ask yourself, why are you here? I don't mean in this room, but on this earth, part of this community, what relationships are important to you. Think about what gives you joy, what impact you want to have on your community. And whatever your purpose is, it's right for you, right? It's yours, it's got to be yours. But by focusing on your purpose, you can create more energy because you're doing what you love. It helps to write your purpose down. It doesn't have to be a manifesto. It could be two or three sentences. But when we write it, it forces us to be specific and to be truthful to ourselves because we won't tell ourselves those little lies sometimes we tell ourselves in our head about what we're doing if we actually write it down. So use a break today or tomorrow or this evening and take a shot at writing your purpose and then share your purpose with others, maybe when you get back to your organizations, because sharing it publicly increases our commitment to it. The other thing I found is that people will rally to help you achieve it. Sometimes we think, oh, I don't want to make them do what I want to do. If you share your purpose, people will rally around and that will create more energy for you. It'll create more energy for them because they'll feel like they're helping you and you'll be helping them. You can also create energy by believing. So believe that our joint efforts to improve trust will make the world a better place. Believe that your voice in amplifying this effort will convince others. But most importantly, believe in yourself because you have the talent, the experience, the relationships to make a difference. And whatever you lack, resources or some other help, can be overcome through passion and energy. So when you have a bad moment or a day, and you will have some, stop, take a deep breath and say, 'I believe. I believe I can make a difference.' Believe in yourself because the time to act is right now because it's just us. There's nobody else around here working on this stuff other than your organizations. And if we think about it, it's just us. We're the only people here. We can make a difference because when it's all said and done, success is going to be measured by the amount of difference we made for others, the smiles we created, the opportunity we provided, and improving trust will create a better future for all of us. So let's do this together as one team. Thank you for your leadership. Have a great conference.