Building and sustaining trust across communities: Lessons from a large-scale, community-based cancer needs assessment in New York City

BackgroundTrust is central to healthcare engagement yet remains underexamined in the context of large-scale community needs assessments. The Cancer Community Health Resources and Needs Assessment (Cancer CHRNA) was developed and implemented to identify multilevel determinants for cancer prevention and disparities; and examine the structural and system levels factors influencing healthcare access and prevention behaviors across populations represented in New York City. This study examines how trust emerged as a dominant theme and the relational and technical strategies community health workers (CHWs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) used to establish and sustain trust during survey implementation. MethodsCancer CHRNA was implemented in community- and clinic-settings in nine languages: English, Arabic, Bangla, Chinese-Simplified/Traditional, Haitian-Creole, Korean, Spanish, Russian, and Urdu by bicultural and bilingual CHWs, in partnership with a network of CBOs. This qualitative process evaluation draws on data from CHW interviews, field notes, and a research team focus group. Analysis was guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), with secondary coding informed by Metz et al.s theoretical model for trusting relationships, which distinguishes relational and technical strategies of trust-building. ResultsThree overarching themes related to trust emerged: 1) CHWs as trusted messengers embodying trustworthiness; 2) the role of CBO partnerships in enhancing trust; and 3) the development of sustained trust with both CBOs and community members. Across these themes, CHWs and CBOs employed relational strategies (authenticity, empathy, bi-directional communication, vulnerability) and technical strategies (cultural and linguistic concordance, demonstration of expertise, frequent interactions, responsiveness). These strategies activated trust, which in turn enabled successful recruitment and sustained engagement. ConclusionTo our knowledge, Cancer CHRNA is the first needs assessment to assess cancer behavioral and social priorities in nine languages, providing a unique exploration of the role of trust within such an assessment. Findings demonstrate that culturally and linguistically concordant CHWs, working in partnership with trusted CBOs, were central to fostering trust across the relational and technical strategies of trust building and facilitating broad community participation. By highlighting trust as the mechanism underpinning recruitment success, this study offers practical insights for designing future multilingual, community-based assessments.