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Poverty

How can we can inspire widespread belief that poverty can be solved? It starts with telling a new story about poverty.

People tend to think that poverty is a thing of the past—or something that only happens in other countries. FrameWorks’ research is being used to change hearts and minds about what poverty is and why it matters.

Simply stating that poverty exists and is rising doesn’t dislodge deep—and unhelpful—assumptions. FrameWorks’ research reveals the need to unlock people’s desire for justice. Explaining how poverty works helps get around the belief that people simply need to try harder.

By leading with shared values and explaining causes and solutions to poverty, we can engage audiences, rather than prompt them to switch off or blame people experiencing poverty.

Explore ways to reframe the poverty narrative in these resources.

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Report

Mixing It Up: Reframing Neighborhood Socioeconomic Diversity

This comprehensive MessageMemo synthesizes FrameWorks research about socioeconomic mixing.

Report

“A House, a Tent, a Box”: Mapping the Gaps Between Expert and Public Understandings of Healthy Housing

This study compares public and expert understandings of housing.

Report

All Aboard: Explanatory Tools to Talk About Children’s Well-Being in Jacksonville

Systems thinking is hard - which makes explaining "systems of care" even harder. It helps to have a metaphor.

Report

Talking Human Services: A FrameWorks MessageMemo

This study details an investigation into how communicators can reframe human services to fundamentally reshape public understanding of the sector’s work.

Report

“If You’ve Got a Good Harness on Your Kids…”: Models of Child Well-Being and Learning Among Jacksonville Residents

This report explores the cultural models that Jacksonville residents use to think and talk about children’s issues.

Report

Handed to Them on a Plate: Mapping the Gaps Between Expert and Public Understandings of Human Services

This study compares expert and public understandings of human services, yielding strategies that communicators can use to navigate and shift public thinking.

Report

The Resilience Scale: Using Metaphor to Communicate a Developmental Perspective on Resilience

How can we talk about resilience in a way that disrupts people's assumption that it's all about inner strength and just a matter of "bouncing back?"

Report

Planning for Our Future: The Contribution of Simplifying Models to Conceptualizing Budgets and Taxes

This report presents "Forward Exchange" as an explanatory metaphor that prompts people to think about public budgets and taxes in new ways.

Report

Framing Child Poverty by Telling a Development Story

To build support for ending child poverty, we need a powerful framing strategy. This Message Brief offers guidance from the Core Story of Early Development.

Frame Testing Recommendations

How to Talk About Rural Issues

This Message Brief distills strategies for talking about rural health, rural economic development, and other rural issues.

Report

Fostering a Systematic View of Food and Fitness through Metaphor

What metaphors help people see food and fitness as systemic issues, not just lifestyle choices? This study weighs the effects of different comparisons - and finds that some offer more food for...

Toolkit

Talking Rural Issues

Welcome to Talking Rural Issues—a compendium of research on how Americans think about rural America and the issues that affect it as well as applications materials designed to engage the public...