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This initiative is a project of the National Human Services Assembly and is generously funded by The Kresge Foundation and Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Keeping People in the Story
Human service organizations have long relied on telling stories of personal success or struggle to convey the impact and importance of a service or policy. We often include these examples in our fundraising appeals, advocacy campaigns, and media outreach with the goal of inspiring the public’s engagement and support. But we’ve learned through our partnership with FrameWorks Institute that this type of storytelling can have unintended consequences when the examples are episodic in nature. The good news is, that doesn’t mean we need to completely excise people from our communications.
In Storytelling for Social Change: A Wide Angle Lens Approach to Reframing (password: nhsa), a recent webinar conducted on the National Assembly’s behalf, Mackenzie Price of the FrameWorks Institute provided helpful guidance on how to include personal stories without cuing up unproductive misconceptions about human services. In particular, examples of individuals in our communications should contribute to telling a thematic story, one that helps the audience see the broader trends, systems, and solutions, rather than focusing narrowly on an individual’s actions or challenges. Using examples of personal stories that we collected from the field, FrameWorks walks through specific strategies for reframing the stories so that they cultivate in the audience a deeper understanding of what human services are, how they work, and how we all benefit from the solutions that our communications are promoting.
Watch the webinar
We’re excited to make this free 90 minute webinar available to the entire Reframing Network, and we hope it inspires all of us to transform our stories.
This week, we’re highlighting one of our favorite reframed examples from FrameWorks’ Storytelling for Social Change webinar (password: nhsa). FrameWorks’ example below charts out a process for including a program participant in a broader thematic story. The story begins by explicitly drawing the connections between housing and well-being. From there, the story provides a step-by-step explanation of how the organization’s services promote the health and well-being of their participants. Each of these “mediating factors” gives details about how a participant (like Randy) was impacted by services. The story closes by connecting their work to the broader needs of the community.
Source: FrameWorks Institute Webinar. Storytelling for Social Change: A Wide Angle Lens Approach. March 21, 2017.
The National Reframing Initiative team was on the road again with workshops in Illinois, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., including:

  • Two days of workshops with the folks from the Quad Cities Open Network, in collaboration with our statewide partner Illinois Partners for Human Services.
  • A half-day workshop with the public policy team at the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities in Washington DC.
  • A half-day workshop with Northern Virginia Family Service, a member of our national reframing partners, the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities. Thanks to the fabulous staff at NVFS for having us back for their second workshop this year. 
Coming up this week are workshops and presentations in Philadelphia, Seattle, and Spokane.

If you’re interested in bringing a reframing presentation, workshop, or webinar to your network, contact Ilsa Flanagan, Director of the National Reframing Initiative, for details.
We have a robust set of free tools to better equip you integrating this new narrative into your communications strategies.
Contact Us
For more information on how your organization can join the reframing mobilization, please contact Ilsa Flanagan at iflanagan@nassembly.org.
For any questions about this newsletter or the online tools or website information, please contact Bridget Gavaghan at bgavaghan@nassembly.org.

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