Although relationship building continues throughout the engagement process, relationships are the starting point of any collaborative work. 
Take time to build trusting, respectful, reciprocal relationships with community partners. This involves being present, showing up at community events, volunteering, etc. It also means leading with your humanity rather than your expertise.
Think critically about who you are building relationships with. Often, there are differences in background and experience between community members and the people who work in government agencies or nonprofits that serve them. The latter are those with whom researchers are most likely to interact, but they cannot be assumed to understand community members’ experiences or speak for them. Once you have built strong relationships among the partners, it is critical to maintain these relationships through explicit attention and care.

Center relationships as the foundation of engaged research.

Relationships are at the heart of all forms of community-engaged research. These relationships shape the partners’ work together and can outlive specific projects. The shared understandings and actions developed through collaboratively created projects emerge from relationships among partners.

• Prioritize spending time together without an agenda or expected outcome.

• Create opportunities to spend time together during “slow times” on the project, including periods when individual projects are inactive.
• Advocate within community and academic institutions for the recognition of relationship-building work.

Build trust through transparency and care.

Many communities have experienced harm and exploitation as a result of research activities. Building trust in these communities requires thoughtful care. 
•    Be transparent about what motivates research partners to conduct the work.
•    Be open about the constraints and institutional pressures that research partners face and how these factors can influence the partnership’s work.

Respect community self-determination and consent.

Building relationships within community-engaged research includes honoring the community's right to understand and authority to approve research at all stages of the process. Community partners have the right to stop or slow down the work, or they may choose to allow the work to continue but to disengage from the process. Community partners have autonomy as co-collaborators in the research process, and their approval and participation should be considered ongoing throughout the project’s life. 

• Do not assume that a lack of response is consent.
• Revisit self-determination as relationships, goals, and contexts change.