Relationships are at the core of human life: a fundamental human experience that begins at birth.

As we grow, we interact with friends, family, teachers, coaches, and more who help us find who we are and who we can become. These developmental relationships allow us to learn new skills, forge our identities, and develop our dreams and goals. But because of the familiarity of relationships, it is easy to default to assumptions about who we have them with, what they look like, where and why they happen, and how and when they take place.

In partnership with the Search Institute, FrameWorks Institute’s researchers developed a framing strategy—guidance on what points to emphasize and what to leave unsaid—for experts, advocates, and practitioners to make an effective case for investing in relationships.

These recommendations form an overarching strategy with four main objectives:

1. It explains what developmental relationships are and emphasizes their importance in young people’s lives.
2. It engages messengers who can highlight their own experiences with developmental relationships.
3. It highlights the environments that support relationships, and points to policy changes that can make them more widespread.
4. It centers inclusion and equity in the overall messaging about why relationships matter.

This toolkit is a resource for bringing these four strategic goals to life in your messaging and communications about developmental relationships.