After 30 years bridging the gap between public policy and communities, Darolyn Davis knows why most public health engagement efforts fail—and more importantly, how to fix them. In this episode of The Healthy Project Podcast, host Corey Dion Lewis speaks with Darolyn Davis, founder of D&A Communications, about the critical disconnect between well-intentioned public health initiatives and the communities they aim to serve. This conversation goes beyond surface-level community engagement to explore what it really takes to build institutional trust.
Darolyn shares the pivotal moment in her career when she realized that policymakers were making decisions for communities without including the voices of those most affected. Working in the California State Legislature, she witnessed firsthand how missing perspectives—particularly women and people of color—led to unintended harmful consequences in public policy. This realization launched three decades of work focused on equity-first communication strategies, where community voices aren't just heard, but actively shape outcomes.
Key Discussion Points:
Why Traditional Outreach Fails Darolyn explains why treating outreach as a distribution problem rather than a relationship problem dooms most initiatives from the start. Sending mailers, holding meetings, and posting information online doesn't equal meaningful engagement—and communities see right through it.
The Trust Gap in Healthcare. The conversation addresses uncomfortable truths about why communities, particularly communities of color, distrust healthcare institutions. With Black women facing maternal mortality rates 3-4 times higher than white women, and Black Americans comprising only 5-7 percent of clinical trial participants despite representing 14 percent of the population, historical and ongoing systemic failures shape present-day healthcare decisions.
Measuring What Actually Matters Most agencies measure engagement success by counting meetings held or materials distributed. Darolyn argues for a completely different approach: measuring sentiment, behavioral change, and whether you've actually moved people from one understanding to another. She reveals why superficial metrics waste resources and erode trust further.
Real-World Case Study: Six Years to Build Trust Darolyn shares the remarkable story of working with the Bayview Hunters Point community in San Francisco. When a public agency wanted to build a new 62 million dollar community facility, residents initially refused—they didn't trust that promises would be kept. It took six years of consistent relationship-building, honest dialogue, and demonstrating follow-through before the community agreed. The result: a state-of-the-art Southeast Community Facility that now serves as a healthcare, education, workforce training, and community hub.
This case study illustrates a critical truth: meaningful change takes time, and there are no shortcuts to building trust.
Institutional Responsibility vs. Personal Choice One of the most important reframings in this episode is shifting from "Why don't communities trust us?" to "What are we doing that earns trust?" When trust is treated as an institutional responsibility rather than a personal choice, the burden shifts from communities to the organizations that serve them.
What Keeps Failing After 30 Years Darolyn identifies recurring problems: communities brought in too late in the decision-making process, equity treated as a checkbox, budgets too small for genuine engagement, organizations moving faster than relationships allow, and failure to acknowledge historical harms that shape current perceptions.
The Question Every Public Health Leader Should Ask Before launching any campaign or initiative, Darolyn advises asking: "Who is not at the table?" This simple but profound question forces organizations to identify missing voices and perspectives before making decisions that will impact those very communities.
About This Episode's Guest:
Darolyn Davis is the founder of D&A Communications, an equity-first communications agency that has spent three decades specializing in public health, education, transportation, and workforce development. Her work focuses on authentic community engagement that doesn't just inform communities about decisions already made, but involves them in shaping outcomes. She built her agency on the principle that all people deserve a voice in policies that affect their lives.
Why This Conversation Matters:
Public health professionals, healthcare administrators, policy makers, and community organizers face increasing challenges in building trust and achieving meaningful health outcomes. Misinformation spreads rapidly, historical harms create justified skepticism, and communities increasingly push back against initiatives designed "for them" without "with them."
This episode provides both diagnosis and treatment for broken engagement systems. Whether you're launching a vaccination campaign, developing health policy, running a community health center, or working in any capacity where trust matters, this conversation offers practical wisdom earned through decades of on-the-ground experience.
Connect with Darolyn Davis: Website: https://davisimpact.com/
About The Healthy Project Podcast: The Healthy Project Podcast brings you conversations with leaders, innovators, and changemakers in public health who are transforming how we approach community health, equity, and wellbeing.
Host: Corey Dion Lewis
Show Notes
Episode Summary: Darolyn Davis, founder of D&A Communications with 30 years of equity-focused communication experience, reveals why most community engagement efforts fail and shares the six-year journey it took to build trust for a $62 million community facility in San Francisco's Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood.
Key Topics Covered:
- The policy-making disconnect: Why decisions made without community input fail
- Equity-first communication: Moving from "for communities" to "with communities"
- The distribution vs. relationship problem in public health outreach
- Why communities feel ignored despite official "engagement" efforts
- Trust as institutional responsibility rather than personal choice
- Historical context of healthcare distrust in communities of color
- Healthcare disparities: Black maternal mortality, clinical trial participation, pain treatment
- How to measure engagement impact beyond attendance numbers
- The true cost of superficial community engagement
- Case study: Bayview Hunters Point Southeast Community Facility
- What keeps failing after three decades in the field
- How quickly trust can be lost versus how long it takes to build
- Social media's role in spreading both information and misinformation
- The most important question to ask before launching any public health campaign
Notable Statistics Discussed:
- Black women are 3-4 times more likely to die in emergency rooms compared to white women
- Black Americans represent 14% of the U.S. population but only 5-7% of clinical trial participants
- Black patients receive pain treatment approximately 22% less often than white patients
- The Southeast Community Facility project cost: $62 million
- Time investment to build community trust for the facility: 6 years
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