Strategies for Shifting Narrative: Handouts, Worksheets, and Outline Templates
In the pursuit of social justice, effective storytelling and narrative strategies have emerged as powerful tools to counter misinformation, inspire collective action, and support equitable policy change.
One such resource is the Center for Story Based Strategy, which published the book "Re:Imagining Change: How to use story-based strategy to win campaigns, build movements, and change the world" in 2010. The book offers insights into building narrative power rooted in the real, lived experiences of communities.
For those focusing on housing unaffordability, insecurity, and homelessness, the Housing Narrative Lab provides narrative resources and messaging guides. In times of crisis or breaking news, the Narrative Initiative offers a rapid response worksheet to advance narrative strategy.
Practical resources for social justice narrative work include guides and reports from organisations like Greenlining and the Center for the Humanities, worksheets and templates from groups such as ReFrame and Campaign Bootcamp UK, and podcasts and media platforms that emphasise the role of independent media and cultural ecosystems in advancing social justice narratives.
Language guides are essential for maintaining clarity and consistency in messaging, while platforms like The Digital Storytellers offer tools like The Story Canvas to guide the creation of powerful stories. The Commons librarians have collated live lists of narrative and storytelling directories, libraries, training, and planning tools for easy access.
The Opportunity Agenda offers the "Shifting the Narrative" podcast, and the Leading Change Network has released a guide on Public Narrative based on the works of Marshall Ganz in 2022. The Public Interest Research Centre PIRC published a report titled "How Do We Frame Ourselves out of this Mess?" in 2018, and the Center for Story Based Strategy has published a guide titled "Story Based Strategy 101" in 2017.
PowerLabs offers webinars on visual strategy to help create images that win, and the Butterfly Lab offers narrative design toolkit worksheets. Greenpeace offers PDFs of templates and exercises, and the PIRC has designed a series of Framing Climate Justice worksheets.
The Frameworks Institute introduced a model of narrative form for use in social change work in 2021, and Anat Shenker Osorio published a guide named "Messaging this Moment: A Handbook for Progressive Communicators" in 2017. Thomas Coombes published an article titled "From Megaphone to Mosaic: Five Principles for Narrative Communications" in 2020.
A directory of messaging guides for social justice impact, including Frame the Debate, The Common Cause Handbook, and Narrating Change During 'Psychic Breaks', is also available. A shareable resource for social justice leaders, "Telling a New Story: A Collaborative Checklist for Social Justice Leaders Using Narrative Strategies for Change", is available to be shared on various social media platforms.
These strategies and resources emphasise the importance of narrative discipline that clarifies differences while uniting around a vision for justice, employing story arcs that extend beyond immediate crises, and fostering public opinion and political culture conducive to equitable policymaking.
- The Center for Story Based Strategy published a book called "Re:Imagining Change" in 2010, offering insights into building narrative power.
- The Housing Narrative Lab provides narrative resources and messaging guides for those focusing on housing issues, while the Narrative Initiative offers a rapid response worksheet in times of crisis.
- Practical resources for social justice narrative work include guides and reports from organizations like Greenlining and the Center for the Humanities, worksheets and templates from groups such as ReFrame and Campaign Bootcamp UK, and podcasts and media platforms that emphasize the role of independent media and cultural ecosystems.
- The Commons librarians have collated live lists of narrative and storytelling directories, libraries, training, and planning tools for easy access, while platforms like The Digital Storytellers offer tools like The Story Canvas to guide the creation of powerful stories.
- The Opportunity Agenda offers the "Shifting the Narrative" podcast, and the Leading Change Network has released a guide on Public Narrative based on the works of Marshall Ganz in 2022. Other organizations, like the Public Interest Research Centre PIRC and the Center for Story Based Strategy, have also published guides on narrative strategies and storytelling for social change.
