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Building Trust and Relationships in Cleanup Community Engagement, from Theory to Practice
Citation:
Maxwell, K. AND B. Kiessling. Building Trust and Relationships in Cleanup Community Engagement, from Theory to Practice. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-22/104, 2022.
Impact/Purpose:
Remediation, time-critical and non-time critical removals, and redevelopment of contaminated or potentially contaminated sites require interactions with diverse communities. Community engagement, building relationships and trust are important components of cleanup work. This research advances environmental social science on this topic by ethnographic research with personnel who work in Superfund, brownfields, emergency response, and other contaminated sites in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This report marries social science theories on these topics with research findings on practices used for community engagement, trust, and relationship building, in cleanup work at EPA. It may be informative for federal and state environmental agencies and applied social scientists.
Description:
This report is intended to support practitioners who are involved in contaminated site cleanup to effectively integrate evidenced-based CE practices into cleanup efforts. It explains the science behind engagement and shares insights from social science research with personnel from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The report analyzes the social scientific foundation of community engagement as part of environmental remediation, removal actions, and redevelopment of contaminated sites (e.g., Superfund, brownfields, emergency response). It synthesizes existing practices and strategies gathered through interviews and surveys with EPA personnel, guidance from EPA and other agencies, and the scientific literature. It is intended to complement existing EPA resources on community involvement and public participation by connecting theory with practice. It demonstrates the importance of community engagement, building relationship, and trust to cleanup processes and outcomes, especially when trying to advance normative values such as justice, equity, and empowerment.