Opportunity Agenda Unveils New Narrative Toolkit

The Opportunity Agenda recently unveiled a new narrative toolkit—Future Over Fear: Tools To Build A Different Story—it hopes will help organizations working in communities across the country push back against “a moment of intense narrative backlash.”

“We’re hearing from partners across the field who feel exhausted, overwhelmed and under-resourced in the face of this fear-based messaging,” TOA President Traci Lester said during a webinar to unveil the toolkit late last month.

“What they need is a different kind of narrative, one that doesn’t ignore fear, but offers a bridge through it, one that grounds people in a realistic and hopeful future. A narrative that names our problems honestly and shows a path forward that includes all of us.”

Lester said most nonprofit organizations don’t have in-house narrative experts, and the toolkit was developed to “translate complex research into practical, useable guidance.”

Said Jade Wilenchik, TOA’s Program Strategy and Cohort Manager: “This toolkit is ultimately designed to help civic and cultural leaders strategize boldly in response to fear-based narratives. It’s practical, flexible, and rooted in the long-term vision that we all share.”

Wilenchik said the toolkit is meant to be useful for a wide range of users but is specifically designed to help four priority audiences: people who are new to narrative and cultural strategies; artisan culture makers; social justice leaders and advocates; and communicators for working on rapid response products.

The specific goals of the toolkit:

• Strengthen communication strategies by championing a vision, rather than focusing on short-term messaging; shifting the deeper narratives that shape mindsets, culture, and systems; and building toward long-term transformation.
• Use cultural and narrative strategies together to shift culture—not as separate practices, but as interconnected forces that can change what people believe is possible and achievable. Narrative change and culture shifts happen through organizing, policy, and creative work alike. Users can build and support collaborative networks to share strategies, possibilities, and joy between these distinct spaces.
• Build momentum for a multiracial democracy by giving people the language, tools, and strategies to amplify the values users want to see in the world. Narrative change doesn’t happen overnight, but when integrated into all aspects of an organization’s work, it can create the drumbeat that moves hearts, minds, and policies.

In addition to its traditional areas of focus, TOA is also adding three new future narratives to the tool kit: Racial justice, immigrant opportunity, and multiracial democracy.

Chrystian Rodriguez, the Training and Partner Engagement Specialist at TOA, was asked during the webinar how organizations can lead with values or radical vision without seeming disconnected from the struggles many Americans are facing right now

“This is a question that we get a lot, and it really makes sense, right? Because a lot of our work is sometimes reactionary,” Rodriguez said.

“But we can hold space for the very real struggles people are facing, while also pointing to the future that we’re working toward. Leading with values, which is what we really focus on, and a lot of our research has really made that the center of how we approach our work. It connects us to what matters most, and grounding big ideas and concrete examples makes them feel real and possible. So, by naming oppression while lifting up hope, we invite people to see themselves as part of building a more liberated future with us.”