When Coming Together Changes Everything: Lessons for Building Trust Between Young People and Institutions
When Coming Together Changes Everything: Lessons for Building Trust Between Young People and Institutions
“Those who converse, trust.”
This statement captures one of the main findings emerging from the work of NuestraBarranquilla, an initiative led by Fondation Botnar, Fundación Corona, and Diseño Público, dedicated to understanding how trust is built—or broken—between young people, institutions, and other actors across the territory.
It all began with a simple question: Is it possible to increase trust between groups that have historically distrusted one another?
Through research, listening exercises, and a series of trust-building activations carried out in Barranquilla since 2022, a consistent lesson emerged: when people have the opportunity to meet as equals, share experiences, and engage in meaningful conversations, trust can grow.
This publication brings together the key lessons from that journey and offers a practical perspective on trust—not as an abstract value, but as a condition that can be intentionally activated, cultivated, and strengthened to promote collaboration and participation.
Throughout this publication, you will discover:
The questions that inspired trust-building explorations in Barranquilla, and the findings that helped uncover how relationships are formed between young people, organizations, and institutions.
The results of different activations and experiences developed across the city, designed to explore the connection between dialogue, empathy, and trust.
Evidence on the factors that enable—or hinder—collaboration, including biases, perceptions, stereotypes, and barriers that shape relationships among different groups.
Insights from behavioral science and cultural change approaches, helping explain why people choose to trust—or distrust—others and institutions.
Practical recommendations for public, private, and civil society organizations interested in strengthening their relationships with young people and creating more effective participation and collaboration processes.
More than a publication about trust, this document is an invitation to rethink the value of human connection in a context where distrust often seems to be the norm. Because when people are given the opportunity to listen, recognize one another, and build together, trust stops being an aspiration and becomes a shared experience
When Coming Together Changes Everything: Lessons for Building Trust Between Young People and Institutions