One of the foundational values of Project Nexus is that we want to help people innovate with a focus on relationships and communities. We don’t want to innovate products or ideas. It needs to help people, and communities, with the ultimate goal of sustainable social change.
One of our guiding principles is from a quote by the Rev. Jennifer Bailey, “Relationships are built at the speed of trust, and social change happens at the speed of relationships.”
That is, without trust, there are no healthy relationships. And without healthy relationships, there will be no social change. We will focus on social change in our next newsletter. We often want to jump over trust and relationships and focus on creating social change. But, if we do not start with trust, there is no lasting social change.
How do we innovate with a focus on trust-building and relationships? We keep people close to us. People are hard to ignore when they are in front of you, and you are in a relationship with them. With people close by, you notice when you have built some trust and when you have broken it.
This sounds simple, but with innovation and a desire to create new things we can often lose sight of people. They disappear into the group of people out there, people we have heard about but don’t know personally, people we have seen on television or YouTube but have never met.
People are hard to hate up close, so move in. People are hard to ignore up close, so move in. People are easy to notice and understand and build trust with up close, so move in. Now you have material with which to innovate.
This is an extension of what Jesus asked us to do. “Love God, and love our neighbours as we want to be loved.” How do we do that? Move in. Move in emotionally. With God and our neighbours. It is built on relationships. It is built on trust. It can result in social change, but not without trust and relationships first.
Subscribe to our newsletter
Thank you!
Courses
Connect with us
Copyright © 2026
Created with
