Loyola University Maryland has received a $500,000 Trust in Practice Award to support the creation of the University’s new Rooted in Trust program, to be launched with three Greater Govans nonprofit partners. Loyola is one of 11 national projects selected to receive a Trust in Practice Award, which is co-sponsored by Aspen Institute’s Alliance for Social Trust and the Allstate Foundation.

The Rooted in Trust program will build on Loyola’s longstanding, collaborative York Road Community Day program to strengthen social trust across racial, generational, and socioeconomic divides. The project’s overarching goal is to train, support, and connect an intergenerational network of neighborhood leaders who revitalize and activate public spaces as a pathway to building trust among residents, institutions, and communities that have been historically divided. 

“The Rooted in Trust Program will start with community dialogues in order to understand how historic divides have shaped relationships, access, and use of space. Then, through intergenerational environmental stewardship and placemaking activities, we hope deeper connections can form—both among people who might not otherwise interact and with spaces they reimagine together,” said Gia Grier McGinnis, DrPH., executive director, neighborhood resilience and community engagement. “We are honored that the Aspen Institute and Allstate Foundation have given us this incredible opportunity, and we look forward to sharing what we learn with others across Baltimore and across the country.”

Rooted in Trust is a two-year project which runs through April 2028. The program is anchored by Loyola as the lead agency along with three key partners from the York Road corridor in North Baltimore:

• The Govans-Boundary United Methodist Church, established in the 1760s, has served the Govans and York Road communities since 1850.
• The York Road Partnership is a neighborhood coalition of 30+ member organizations with more than 30 years of experience mobilizing residents to advocate for community resources and improvements.
• The York Road Improvement District (YRID) was established in 2023 as a Special Benefits District through a vote of local commercial property owners. YRID delivers corridor clean-and-green services, placemaking and beautification initiatives, public safety services, and economic development strategies along York Road.

The Rooted in Trust program will begin with several months of community dialogues and listening sessions, fostering discussion between York Road residents from the historically divided east-side and west-side communities. These sessions will inform the selection of five large-scale greening and public space activation projects. The neighborhood greening and placemaking projects will be co-led by a pair of lead stewards, one from an east-side neighborhood and one from a west-side neighborhood, intentionally creating shared leadership across historically divided communities. Each project site will have interpretive wayfinding signage that will describe the history and culture of the surrounding area.

“Rooted in Trust builds upon Loyola’s longstanding, place-based community development efforts in the Greater Govans and York Road corridor neighborhoods, which emphasize community-university collaboration and partnership,” said Deb Cady Melzer, Ph.D., vice president for mission and student development. “We are incredibly grateful to the Aspen Institute and Allstate Foundation for this transformational award, which empowers Loyola and our neighbors to continue this important work.”

Prior to the launch of these projects, 10 resident Rooted in Trust stewards will participate in six cohort convenings and engage in a training curriculum focused on project management, community mobilization, and field skills. A parallel Rooted in Trust youth stewards program will engage youth and young adults ages 14 to 21 from York Road corridor neighborhoods. Over a five-week period in summer 2027, youth participants will support volunteer and service-learning activities at the five Rooted in Trust spaces, working alongside adult stewards to create intergenerational learning opportunities.

Loyola students will connect with Rooted in Trust projects through an enhanced York Road Community Day Program. There will also be a Rooted in Trust student intern and options for experiential learning.

Upon project completion, project sites are invited to have culminating celebrations to drive traffic to their sites. The final project deliverable will be a Rooted in Trust Community Leader Toolkit that will be disseminated through a culminating workshop and across the city with the help of the local non-profit Healthy Neighborhoods Inc. Nationally it will be shared through Aspen’s network.

About Aspen Institute

Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization committed to igniting human potential to build understanding and create new possibilities for a better world. Its work spans ideas, leadership, and action—driving change through dialogue and convening. The Trust in Practice Awards support non-profit organizations that are collaborating on new initiatives to build trust across local or virtual communities. Grantees will be part of a national network dedicated to fostering trust through the Alliance for Social Trust’s programs and storytelling platforms. Award recipients will also participate in the annual Trust in Practice Summit to celebrate the work of trust builders.