Innovations: Rebuilding community trust

William Mills, editorial page editor, Cape Cod Times

[EMAIL: wmills@capecodonline.com; WEB: http://www.capecodonline.com]

I have become increasingly concerned about the crisis in trust of all of our major institutions: government, business, church and media. I am thinking about coordinating a year-long project leading up to the 2004 presidential election, titled "Rebuilding Trust."

On our Sunday Forum front, I would run interviews with leaders in each sector -- government, business, church and media -- about how the public has lost trust in their institution; what the consequences of that has been; and what they are doing to rebuild the trust. I would focus on one institution each week, for a four-part series.

Second, I would then ask a different set of experts in each field to respond to the interviews and/or write their own thoughts in a guest column about the issue, again one each over four weeks.

Third, I would invite readers, in our monthly YOUR TURN feature (that's when I ask our readers to respond to a specific timely question), to suggest ways institutions could restore trust.

Finally, in a public journalism-type endeavor, I would try to team interested and informed citizens with leaders from each of the institutions and initiate "citizen academies." These would consist of about 12 citizens interested in learning more about government, media, biz or church. They would be similar to the community-policing "citizens police academies" sprouting up across the country.

A final editorial would feature the best ideas developed by the readers and leaders.

9/22/03