Using Storytelling to Build Community Trust in Economic Development

Using Storytelling to Build Community Trust in Economic Development

Economic development announcements often arrive with numbers that are difficult for residents to translate into everyday life: billions of dollars in investment, thousands of jobs, millions in tax revenue, acres of development. But numbers alone don’t explain the importance of a new business entity.

For communities being asked to embrace a new industrial project, data center, or other major economic development initiative, the more important question may be simpler: How does this impact me, my family, and my community?

Across four very different economic development settings – in Louisiana, Virginia, South Carolina and Oklahoma – economic development leaders and communicators are finding that answering that question satisfactorily depends on storytelling. The most effective stories are not only celebrations of growth but also address concerns, opportunities, fears and hopes for a better life.

Storytelling Tip #1: Make a Massive Investment Personal

In Monroe, Louisiana, Madeline Stevison has seen firsthand how difficult it can be for residents to connect a multibillion-dollar economic development project to their everyday experiences.

As Marketing and Graphic Design Manager for Grow NELA, the regional economic development organization representing the 10 parishes of Northeast Louisiana, Stevison joined the organization in December 2025, nearly a year after Meta announced its Richland Parish data center. One of her priorities was to make Grow NELA a reliable source of information for residents trying to understand the region's rapid economic growth.

"A figure like $50 billion can be difficult to connect to everyday life," Stevison said. So Stevison translated the investment into tangible examples: opportunities for local businesses, workforce training, infrastructure improvements, increased public revenue and benefits for schools.

One of the clearest examples came from Richland Parish school employees. Some certified employees received supplemental checks of up to $50,935, while classified employees received up to $17,472. The payments were connected to increased collections from an existing parish sales tax, with economic activity surrounding the Meta project contributing significantly to that growth.

For Stevison, that is a story worth telling because it puts an abstract economic development figure into human terms. "We amplified that story by explaining where the funding came from and what it meant for educators, school employees and their families," she said. Grow NELA also tells stories about local businesses, contractors, students and workforce programs, showing what economic growth enables people to do rather than simply describing growth expectations.

As the manager of Grow NELA's social media accounts, Stevison sees major project questions firsthand. Residents ask about energy, infrastructure and other potential community impacts. Rather than dismissing those concerns, she said, her organization uses them to shape its communication.

"Trust is not built by repeatedly calling a project transformational," Stevison said. "It is built by showing people what is happening and providing information they can understand and verify."

Storytelling Tip #2: Communicate Positives Before Backlash Happens

Amy Holloway has seen what happens when communities don't have enough or complete information. Holloway, founder of Aha! consultancy and an experienced advisor to nationwide economic development committees, points to the 2017 national competition for Amazon's second headquarters as an example of a strategic misstep. Potential site communities were initially enthusiastic to entice Amazon to their towns, but that excitement cooled as details about incentives, public spending and potential impacts became more widely debated.

She also recalls existing businesses worrying that Amazon would compete for workers in places where qualified employees were already difficult to find. In some cases, she even advised communities not to compete for the project, as a way of demonstrating solidarity with their existing business community.

Similarly, Holloway points to backlash over big-box retail, fracking, and warehouse and logistics development as examples of how economic development can generate opposition when residents perceive threats to local businesses, the environment, infrastructure or quality of life.

Regarding today’s hot-button issue of data centers, Holloway advises clear and transparent messaging before opposition emerges. "Proactive communication is critical for those entities fielding data center inquiries," Holloway said.

That means addressing the questions residents are most likely to have (for example, concerning electricity, water, incentives, taxes, jobs and community benefits) before those questions become accusations. Too, she advises being specific. So, instead of simply saying a project will be good for the community, Holloway recommends explaining how it will pay for power, how water use will be managed, how much new tax revenue it will generate, whether local residents and contractors will benefit and what commitments will be made to schools and other community priorities.

To prioritize your messaging, Holloway emphasizes the importance of careful listening. "Actively listen to stakeholders with genuine curiosity about their position," she said. "Listen for common threads across audiences, asking what is one thing everyone can agree to?"

Storytelling Tip #3: Give Residents Something They Can See

In Henrico County, Virginia, the connection between economic development and community benefit can be seen in something far more tangible than a projection of future jobs: a house.

Jovan Burton, Executive Director of the Partnership for Housing Affordability, works with Henrico County's Affordable Housing Trust Fund, a $60 million initiative created to expand first-time homeownership opportunities.

The program provides funding that allows developers to reduce the price of qualifying homes for first-time buyers earning between 60% and 120% of area median income. The trust fund has officially awarded funding for 472 units, and as of August 31, some 90 households had closed on homes.

The trust fund's revenue stream can include sources such as data center revenue, but Burton is careful not to suggest that the housing program was created simply to make people feel better about data centers.

"This program was not designed to build trust in data centers," Burton said. "It was implemented to generate transformational impact on an issue that is increasingly pricing out more and more residents."

Altogether, the housing fund’s success reinforces an important lesson about economic development storytelling: community benefits are most credible when they address needs residents already recognize. Rather than constructing a narrative around economic development first and searching for benefits to attach to it later, Henrico is addressing a community priority directly. The story is not merely that economic development generates revenue. It is that public resources can be translated into something a resident can experience: the ability to purchase a home.

Henrico has used media coverage, community events, and outreach to educate potential buyers and connect them with builders. These communication strategies of showing and connecting with people using the program are a much more vivid, compelling and effective community engagement than any large numbers in an impact study alone.

A great example of a community sharing both the numbers of its developmental impact and impactful visual representation of personal benefits from development is from Charleston County, South Carolina. Ashley Richardson, Deputy Director of the Charleston County Economic Development Department, said, “We’ve been working on how we tell the story of our existing industries beyond the traditional jobs and investment numbers. One piece of that has been our ‘Storytelling Through Industry’ video series, which highlights local companies and, more importantly, the people behind them. The goal is to help our community better understand who these companies are, what they do, and the role they play in Charleston County.

“More recently, we completed an Economic Impact Study that puts data behind that story and shows the broader impact our existing industries have on the local economy.” According to Richardson, the narrative these components tell in tandem is easy to understand and memorable, because “One puts a face to economic development and the other puts numbers behind it,” she said.

Storytelling Tip #4: Build Trust by Creating a Track Record

At MidAmerica Industrial Park in Pryor, Oklahoma, MidAmerica Director of Business Development and Communications Sherry Alexander has a powerful storytelling tool: time itself.

Alexander describes MidAmerica as fundamentally different from a traditional private development. Operated by the Oklahoma Ordnance Works Authority, a self-sustaining public trust created more than 65 years ago, MidAmerica has a public purpose even though more than 80 private companies operate within the park.

"We explain each project in terms of both economic opportunity and long-term community benefit," Alexander said, including elements such as jobs, tax revenue, infrastructure, schools, workforce development and quality of life.

The park's experience with Google offers an especially compelling example for today's data center conversation. Google purchased an existing building at MidAmerica in 2007 and began operating its Mayes County data center in 2011. Nearly two decades later, the facility has grown into Google's second-largest data center in the world.

This history gives MidAmerica something communities considering their first major data center do not yet have: a record of actual performance. Families live, shop and use parks and trails near Google's campus. Housing has developed nearby. West 530, a multifamily residential community in MidAmerica's District development, is fully leased, has a waiting list and is expanding.

Alexander describes Google as a "quiet neighbor," but she stresses that the phrase only works when it is supported by evidence. "The larger story, however, is not simply that the facility operates quietly," she said. "It is that a responsibly developed data center can become a catalyst for broader regional advancement."

That advancement can be seen in schools, workforce programs, housing, childcare and recreation. MidAmerica has committed $10 million to Rogers State University for an on-site campus and another $1.5 million for the MidAmerica Career Center. Industrial tax revenue has helped Pryor Public Schools invest in facilities, technology and teachers.

The District, a 162-acre development created by MidAmerica, adds another layer to the story, combining housing, retail, gathering spaces, parks and trails near the industrial park's employers.

The message, Alexander said, is not that one company is responsible for everything. "MidAmerica, its employers, local governments, schools, the Cherokee Nation and other regional partners each have a role," she said. That shared-credit approach may itself be part of building trust. Economic development is rarely the work of a single company or organization. When communicators acknowledge that complexity rather than claiming every positive outcome as their own, the story becomes more credible.

Storytelling Tip #5: First, Listen Closely

One point stands out across all these case studies: Successful communications begin with attentive listening.

Holloway's research into community trust, captured in her book Trust Builders: The Key to Thriving Communities, found striking similarities among local leaders across the country. Reliable follow-through, proactive information sharing, regular engagement including listening, and giving others the spotlight all emerged as important trust-building practices. "These might sound simple," she said, "but they require consistency and intentionality."

That may be the most important lesson for economic development organizations facing skepticism about large-scale projects. Storytelling doesn’t erase concerns about water, power, infrastructure, incentives or environmental impacts. And it shouldn't try to.

Instead, storytelling can create a framework in which communities can see, question and evaluate what development actually means. Stevison puts the philosophy simply: "The strongest storytelling combines personal experiences with information that can be verified."