Connection as the Practice of Equity: Lessons from Baltimore City on SBC, Healing, and Shared Power

In Baltimore City, oppression, racism, and trauma have long shaped systems that fracture connection-between communities, health institutions, and civic life. Yet care, creativity, and collective strength have always endured in the city's neighborhoods. This panel explores how Social and Behavior Change (SBC) contributes to healing those fractures and widening spaces of trust, reciprocity, and shared power. Across four interconnected initiatives-youth-led storytelling, harm reduction communication, engagement of men and boys, and relationship-centered partnership models-SBC is practiced as an expression of equity. Each initiative applies trauma-aware practice as both an ethic and a method, recognizing how generational and systemic trauma affect communication, and designing processes that foster safety, dignity, and agency. These efforts do not generate trust from scratch; they honor and amplify the trust that already exists within communities while challenging systems to meet that trust with accountability. Each initiative demonstrates how communication can operate as connective infrastructure: restoring alignment between people, institutions, and narratives. Together, they invite a reimagining of SBC not as messaging, but as a living process that helps systems become more relational, sustainable, and just.