Announcing Transitions with the Reframing Initiative

September 4, 2020

There have been recent changes announced with the National Reframing Human Services Initiative. Bridget Gavaghan, Director, and Georgia Deoudes, Consultant, are both moving on to new opportunities. We greatly appreciate their contributions to the Reframing Initiative and wish them both the best in their next endeavors.

Also, with the closing of our Reframing Initiative grant, we want to thank all of you for your energy and participation in this effort to build a more equitable society where all people have essential support in reaching their full potential. We are proud that over the last five years 12,000 participants have learned about how to more effectively be advocates to build a more equitable society where people have essential support in reaching their potential.

The National Human Services Assembly (NHSA) believes that this research-based approach to communications will make our sector more effective advocates in transforming our nation’s systems and policies. With this closing newsletter, we want to share how proud NHSA has been to spearhead reframing for the human service sector. Since its inception in 2012, the Reframing Team has:

Partnered with the FrameWorks Institute to understand how the public views human services and develop a research-based Building Well-Being Narrative to increase public understanding of, and support for, human service programs and policies.
Led nearly 200 presentations and in-depth trainings in communities across the country, attracting over 12,000 participants, since the recommendations were released in November 2015.
Provided guidance, a webinar and resources around communicating during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Developed an online Implementation Guide to simplify the process for incorporating reframing into organizational communications.
Delivered over one hundred Reframing Network Newsletters to over 2,800 human service professionals with bi-weekly reframing tips, resources, and real-world examples, since the beginning of 2016.
Developed communications guidance on tax policy, federal and state budgets, proposed changes to federal human service programs, healthcare and children’s health insurance, federal nutrition policies, nonprofit advocacy rules, and immigration policy.
Collaborated with several national, state, and local partners to implement reframing across their priority communications. Most recently, we worked with the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, the National Organization of State Associations for Children, SAFY, Saint Francis Ministries, Youth Advocate Programs, Illinois Partners for Human Service, Illinois Collaboration on Youth, Integral Care (Austin), Human Services Council (New York), One Voice Central Texas, and Seattle Human Services Coalition/King County Alliance for Human Service.

As a tribute to the Network, we’d like to recap some of our favorite partner achievements:

The Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, along with American Public Human Services Association, released a thoughtfully-framed report, National Imperative: Joining Forces to Strengthen Human Services in America, garnering much needed attention and focus on the structural and operational barriers community-based organizations face.
Seattle Human Services Coalition successfully used reframing in a 2019 policy advocacy campaign that resulted in a city ordinance to automatically adjust human service contracts annually for inflation.
Human Services Council’s Strong Nonprofits for a Better New York reframed campaign achieved big results in the state’s fiscal year 2019 budget for human services, including significant investments in nonprofit workforce and infrastructure.
Illinois Partners for Human Service applied reframing to a cross-platform digital marketing campaign and video, Our Shared Human Story, with remarkable results.
One Voice Central Texas co-authored a timely op-ed, published in the Austin American-Statesman, providing a well-framed explanation of how proposed immigration policies stood to disrupt the health and well-being of the entire state.

You can find all of the excellent examples of framing from partners across the country that we have featured in the newsletter on the NHSA website. By visiting the reframing section you can take advantage of all of the resources we have developed over the years to help you apply reframing to your organization’s communications, including:

Reframing Network Newsletter Archive
National Reframing Initiative Implementation Guide
FrameWorks Institute’s Building A New Narrative on Human Services Toolkit and Talking Human Services Message Memo
Reframing Initiative videos and webinars, including Building Well-Being: A New Narrative for Human Services

To learn about ongoing reframing efforts, please be sure to sign up for the NHSA Exchange for updates on the National Human Services Assembly and National Reframing Initiative. If we can answer any questions or to let us know about your efforts in reframing, please send us an email to reframing@nassebly.org.

We’re grateful to our funders, The Kresge Foundation, and previously The Annie E. Casey Foundation, for making the work possible over the years and for their leadership in the field. We’re also thankful to our Network members for their commitment to reframing implementation. Your efforts are creating a more equitable and just society, and we are honored to be your partner.