What we’re reading…

Last year PolicyLink released it’s Housing Justice Narrative Toolkit.

Lately, ashley’s been thinking about how this connects to the FrameWorks Institute's 2016 research “You Don’t Have to Live Here,” Why housing messages are backfiring.

Narrative Toolkits...

We love the storytelling themes in the Housing Justice Narrative Toolkit. Abundance, Joy, Care, To Neighbor. These are themes we explore and embody in our art and engagement work. This aligns with the Backfiring article’s recommendation based on research: “we have found that messages that lead with values (like prosperity and ingenuity) more consistently position our concerns as collective problems with collective benefits.” 

In Backfiring the recommendations lean heavily into narratives that help the audience understand cause and effect, systemic barriers to housing, and linguistics. Talk of “home” vs. “affordable housing”.  Bridging to the Toolkit - there’s no mention of “affordable housing” but instead the "right to an affordable place to call home".  The storytelling themes in the Toolkit aren’t explicitly naming systemic issues, but rather creating a tone that is inspired, joyous, and grounded in present day community solutions. So while Backfiring does recommend using “robust examples that show how new housing policy works,” those concepts are couched in a systems/policy approach to communications. The toolkit believes "we already know the policy solutions and need a different way to intensify the narratives that support these policies”.

Backfiring was developed through a proprietary Strategic Frame Analysis lead by the Frameworks Institute (a think-tank). The Toolkit was created by advocates and organizers coming together to develop the tone and vision for a housing justice story platform (coordinated by PolicyLink). 

What narratives are you using in your own work or seeing in your community?