Framing Narrative

Effective communications and messaging are a key collective challenge in advancing Opportunity to Purchase campaigns. Faced with monied opposition in communities across the nation, advocates need more tools to combat disinformation about what some see as a complex policy solution while also…

With sample language and user notes, FrameWorks’ issue-based toolkits offer practical framing strategies that communicators can put to immediate use.

Work requirements for public assistance programs come from a long history of racism in the United States, are ineffective, and are bad for the economy. So, what keeps them alive today?  Means-tested forms of structural racism, such as requiring a person to work to receive public benefits,…

Papers and Presentations Focused on Strategy, Infrastructure & Content for Culture Change and Narrative Change Strategies

Now, folks use the term “underrepresented” instead. It may feel like the safest option among the minefield of language and politics we all traverse, but I’d argue the term — for all its seeming inoffensiveness — is not just deeply harmful, it’s inaccurate. As an equity-informed brand…

Coined by Janelle Jones (2020), “Black women best” is an economic principle that argues if Black women—who, since our nation’s founding, have been among the most excluded and exploited by the rules that structure our society—can one day thrive in the economy, then it…

This paper intends to provide a collective framework that addresses the intentional disinvestment, dehumanization, and exclusion of Black people from economic prosperity. The authors provide a detailed and thorough guide on how changemakers and policy experts can center Blackness at the forefront of…

Three social change leaders discuss how to move the narrative about housing away from a focus on individual actions toward values, racial justice, and the well-being of all.

What does it take for people to change their minds and shift dominant narratives about social issues? It starts with having conversations that can dismantle inaccurate perceptions. Stories must be told through an affirmative lens and focus on shared values. The narrative you are trying to advance…

Successful business relies on one thing—communication. We communicate with our employees, customers, suppliers and more. Using inclusive language means consciously working to find ways to name, honor, and value experiences and identities. By learning to speak to diverse audiences, you can…

These inclusive language guidelines are written for those working to champion equity, diversity, and inclusion in the spaces that they learn, teach, work, or conduct research. This includes, but is not limited to, APA staff, volunteer leaders, members, students, affiliated organizations, and EDI…

This paper provides up-to-date estimates of the magnitude of racial wealth inequities, explicitly focusing on Black and White populations, and highlights how personal responsibility, bootstraps, and anti-black narratives have distorted society’s understanding of racial wealth disparities and…

While these commitments are critical, the hard work of building inclusive cultures comes down to the conversations happening every day in boardrooms, in virtual team meetings, and in one-on-one interactions. The language we use when discussing our DEI efforts matter. The words and phrases we use…

And because metaphors give us a new mental framework for thinking and talking about a topic, they can open up dead-end conversations and repetitive debates. Using metaphor can help us advance ideas and avoid wasting energy by rebutting talking points that halt progressive change. Metaphors are…

Narrative is now a big buzzword in the field of social change. That is more a testament to people wanting to understand narrative, however, than it is a testament to people actually understanding it. Evaluating our overall approach to narrative, as well as the specific narrative changes we have…

The toolkit focuses on that broader goal—identifying universal themes and values that tie together a range of issues. When our shorter-term campaigns and other communications efforts begin to add up to a larger, more cohesive story about values and a positive vision, we will each begin to see…

From the article: In 1933, faced with a housing shortage, the federal government began a program explicitly designed to increase — and segregate — America's housing stock. Author Richard Rothstein says the housing programs begun under the New Deal were tantamount to a…

Race Forward’s Race Reporting Guide aims to provide critical support for the use of responsible language and story framing that reflects ethical and rigorous journalistic standards and affirms the dignity and human rights of people of all races. This is not meant to be comprehensive,…

This report explores the role of narratives in shaping racial bias. Narratives are a powerful mechanism to challenge ongoing racial discrimination.

Framing builds upon an understanding of the science of cognition that tracks how the brain processes information and prompts certain analytic frames through which facts are sorted. The most effective way to frame a message to achieve an advocacy outcome may differ from the way advocates talk…

The use of a narrative in advocacy.  MLRI's "storytelling project" that led to an advocacy tool that public housing resident leaders used at the statehouse to shine a light on the good work that public housing residents do in their communities which goes mostly unseen.