New Research: How We Talk About Kids Impacts Public Support of Programs Aimed at Improving Their Lives
The FrameWorks Institute and Leading for Kids Show that Current Messaging Is Not as Effective as Advocates Believe and Offer Recommendations for Change
WASHINGTON and REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Sept. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The FrameWorks Institute and Leading for Kids today released the second report from their research project, Building a New Narrative about Our Kids. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Children's Hospital Association, the project seeks to develop a new narrative for how we think and talk about kids, with the goal of increasing the salience of children's issues and building our collective responsibility to better address them.
"The U.S. has countless advocates for children, but our advocacy messages have not been fully effective in creating the broad public support for programs we know would improve the lives of kids," said David Alexander, president of Leading for Kids. "We cannot begin to shift public thinking through framing and narrative efforts without understanding how advocates currently frame children's issues."
The current research explores the frames and narratives child advocates currently use to communicate about children's issues and explores how these narratives influence public thinking and solutions support. The research identifies opportunities to change the frames we use when we talk about kids issues and offers recommendations that advocates can use to effectively influence public thinking and demand the changes necessary to better support children and young people.
Today's publication follows the May 2021 report Why Aren't Kids a Policy Priority?, which explores people's deep assumptions and implicit understandings that contribute to the lack of prioritizing children in our public policy. A third report will be released later this year that analyzes current and historical framing of children's issues in the news media. The final phase of the project will create and test new effective narratives and framing strategies.
"We now have another critical piece to use in developing an overarching narrative to shape how we talk, think, and act on behalf of children," said Nat Kendall-Taylor, CEO of the FrameWorks Institute. "By understanding current narratives, we can see framing opportunities and challenges and develop frames that expand public thinking, and impact actions and policies."
Download the report: How Are Advocates Talking about Children's Issues? An Analysis of Field Communications.
About FrameWorks Institute
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About Leading for Kids
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Media contact:
Lindsay Okamoto
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SOURCE Leading for Kids; FrameWorks Institute
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