Section 4: Additional Tools, Readings, and Resources

Photo by the UK Department for International Development, CC BY 2.0.

Organizations

• RadComms offers resources, trainings, and network building to grow and strengthen the ecosystem of social-change communications and movement building that focuses on building narrative power.

• Narrative Initiative:  Narrative Initiative supports an emerging field of narrative change practitioners, researchers and trainers. We are exploring key openings where narrative can align movements, commissioning landscape assessments and research, and organizing strategy labs and global convenings to drive deeper collaboration. Every program and investment is designed to have long-lasting impact.
   
• The Solutions Journalism Network is leading a global shift in journalism, focused on what the news misses most often: how people are trying to solve problems and what we can learn from their successes or failures.
   
• Berkeley Media Studies Group
   
• ReFrame

Projects

• Voices—interdisciplinary performance arts project and campaign grounded in Black women’s stories by V-Day to unify the vision of ending violence against women: cis women, trans women, and non binary people across the African Continent and African Diaspora. “Art is not so much about reactive expression as it is intentional presence. It is our unothering. We do not create because we have the answers. We create because we are possessed by our questions. Art for the people by the people and from the people is crucial and necessary. Art is how we do ideas. It is how we heal.” (Aja Monet, Voices https://voices.vday.org/statement-from-the-artistic-creative-director/)

• We, As Ourselves: Shaping the Narrative About Black Survivors; narrative change campaign from ‘me too.’ International, National Women’s Law Center, and TIME’S UP Foundation

• Broke—narrative project around poverty and wealth
   
• Love WITH Accountability: Digging Up the Roots of Child Sexual Abuse (Anthology by Aishah Shahidah Simmons)
   
• His Story: Shifting Narratives for Boys and Men of Color - Perception Institute https://perception.org/publications/hisstory/
   
• From Stories to Systems - Pop Culture Collaborative https://popcollab.org/learning/from-stories-to-systems/
   

Tools

• The Social Justice Phrase Guide provides a concise way to discuss issues of social justice from the Advancement Project and The Opportunity Agenda.
   
• A Progressive’s Style Guide developed by the SumOfUs, this is an all-inclusive style guide that harnesses language in support of intersectionality and cross-sector power building. 
   
• Racial Equity Tools offers resources on narrative change to counter harmful racialized narratives and create new narratives.
   
• Framing Community Safety: Guidance for Effective Communication, a joint publication by FrameWorks Institute and Prevention Institute
   
• Moving toward prevention: A guide for reframing sexual violence
   
• W.K. Kellogg Foundation Strategic Communication Planning Hub
   
• The Features of Narratives: A Model of Narrative Form for Social Change Efforts | FrameWorks Institute https://www.frameworksinstitute.org/publication/the-features-of-narratives-a-model-of-narrative-form-for-social-change-efforts/

Reports

• For Love of Country: A Path for the Federal Government to Advance Racial Equity: includes five guiding principles for racial equity:
  
  • Understand the past, present, and your influence
  • Consistently address root drivers
  • Adopt a continuous learning and adaptive approach
  • Work in partnership with impact in relevant communities
  • Be transparent and accountable
     
• Funding Narrative Change, An Assessment and Framework, a report by Convergence Partnership and an accompanying webinar recording for practitioners
   
• Narrative Change: Policy and Practice Brief. APHA. October 2021. Transforming How We Communicate About our Past, Present and Future, Including Direct Conversations in Multiracial, Multiethnic Tables in Communities. Including:
  
  • Executive orders, resolutions, ordinances and declarations to advance racial equity
  • Mapping, data collection, and analysis efforts to understand and address inequities and measure progress
  • Racial impact assessments, frameworks, and other systems to achieve accountability
  • Redesigning public spaces to equitably honor our shared history
  • Creating curricula that are respectful, inclusive, and honor the diverse communities in children’s schools
     
• Building Narrative Power for Racial Justice and Health Equity. Open Society Foundations. April 2019. Accessed at https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/publications/building-narrative-power-for-racial-justice-and-health-equity.
   
• New Report Examines How Immigration Narratives Take Hold. 
   
• Toward New Gravity - The Narrative Initiative

Articles

• The Secret to Better Storytelling for Social Change: Better Partnerships – No single organization or individual can pull off an effective storytelling campaign alone. Reaping the benefits of storytelling requires that we build better partnerships between three important players.
   
• Blog post from Berkeley Media Studies Group: From fear, division, and scarcity to hope, unity, and abundance: building narrative power over the long haul.
   
• Measuring Narrative Change: Moving From Theory to Practice (SSIR) https://ssir.org/articles/entry/measuring_narrative_change_moving_from_theory_to_practice
   
• What Makes Narrative Change So Hard? (SSIR) https://ssir.org/articles/entry/what_makes_narrative_change_so_hard
   
• Systems Language for Narrative Power - Narrative Initiative https://narrativeinitiative.org/blog/systems-language-for-narrative-power/

Podcasts and webinars

• Lessons Along the Journey: Taking Action Toward Racial Justice in Public Health Systems, a Prevention Institute webinar recording

• Inspiration for You[th] Podcast: Created by A New Deal for Youth Changemakers, a group of young activists leading the change they want to see across the country, the podcast serves as a platform for young people to share their voices, their stories, and the ways they’re creating change in their communities.

• Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast features movement voices, stories, and strategies for racial justice. The episodes uplift narratives of hope, struggle, and joy, to build the momentum needed to advance racial justice in our policies, institutions, and culture.
   
• Prevention Institute's Moving Upstream podcast features several episodes with violence prevention leaders at the intersection of narrative change and policy, including: Community safety through investing in youth: Harris County youth justice community reinvestment fund and Community organizing to prevent violence.
   
• Adopting a narrative transformation strategy for policy and systems change: This session of Prevention Institute’s three-part virtual learning series, Lessons Along the Journey: Taking Action Toward Racial Justice in Public Health Systems features a discussion on PI’s learnings and efforts to better integrate our narrative and policy strategies.