Trust Up originates from a self-organizing group called "Kingston Resilience" during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its Currency and Exchange committee believed a system-shift would be needed for the Kingston, NY community to be supported of in this time of crisis. Rob Jameson was hired to lead an exploration into what solutions could work to help all in Kingston have greater resource access through uniting various existing efforts in the community and by local organizations.

The project was piloted under O+ Festival for 1 year, focused around listening to the community. This helped identify a central problem: Many resources exist, but are often not found/accessed by community members. The next year (2022), Trust Up was formed as Low Profit Limited Liability Company (L3C) and began resource circulating pilots with local communities and organizations to help give the local Kingston community greater resource access.