Talking about Poverty Creating - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Talking about PovertyCreating change with a new strategy for communicating about poverty in the UK

Enver Solomon, Director of Evidence & Impact

, NCB

Kate

Stanley, Head of Strategy, NSPCCSlide2

A new two-year project funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation FrameWorks Institute, based in the US, conducting empirical research into how the public thinks about poverty National Children’s Bureau managing the project and engaging stakeholders in the processAim to create an evidence-informed strategy for communicating about poverty in order to achieve policy and social change

What is Talking about Poverty?Slide3

13 million people in the UK live in poverty, half in a working family, and child poverty is projected to increaseThe notion of poverty is contested by public, the media and politiciansDominant public and political narrative around poverty entwined in a toxic debate about welfare dependency and ‘feckless’ families and individualsThose seeking to tackle poverty in the UK need to find a new and more effective story to use to shape public and political understanding of the issue and motivate support and action

What is the problem JRF is seeking to address?Slide4

JRF has commissioned the US-based FrameWorks Institute to develop a strategy for communicating more effectively and consistently about poverty – its causes, consequences and solutions The evidence-informed communications strategy will provide a set of values, metaphors and tools for talking about poverty in ways that engage the public and stakeholdersIt will be based on empirical evidence about: the content JRF and its stakeholders are seeking to communicate (the what); the public’s understandings of poverty (the how they think); and how to use communications to garner support and trigger action (the how to communicate the what)

It will be disseminated widely among stakeholders

The aim of the project Slide5

Establish the content that JRF and its stakeholders are seeking to communicate – the evidence-based expert story Investigate the deep understandings that members of the public use to think about poverty

Identify

and explain the gaps between the

expert story and how the public think

Develop a communications strategy – a set

of values, metaphors and other

tools that bridge the gap between the expert story and how the public think

E

mpirically test the strategy to ensure it expands public understanding of poverty and enables the public to think in new ways(causes, consequences and solutions)

MethodologySlide6

It focuses on how members of the public think about poverty, not just what they say It is informed by theory and methods from psychological anthropology and cognitive linguisticsIt builds on existing work on public

opinion on poverty

This approach has been effective in the US in changing the way campaigners talk about, and the public and politicians think about, early childhood development, education and other issues

What makes this project unique?Slide7

The evidence-informed communications strategy changes the ways that organisations concerned with tackling poverty communicate Changes in communication, in turn, lead to

changes in

the

public discourse on

poverty and related

issues

Following

such changes in discourse,

public understanding of the issue changesWith

changes in public understanding, there

is more

space, demand and pressure for

evidence-based anti-poverty policies to be adopted, improving outcomes for children, families, communities and society

The project’s ‘theory of change’Slide8

Communications strategy for Harvard University focused on ‘toxic stress’ Changes in communication – ‘toxic stress’ used in NGO and children’s service communications

Changes in discourse – ‘toxic stress’ appears in print and broadcast media

Changes in public understanding – ‘infants can communicate before they learn to speak’

42% in

2002 → 96% in 2011

Changes in policy –

California senate passes

resolution

asking government to make policies to alleviate ‘toxic stress’ in children

An example of impact from the USSlide9

Reflections from NSPCC Slide10

Communicating child cruelty

Kate Stanley

Strategy Unit

NSPCCSlide11

To develop a

single, evidence-based narrative

shared across the whole organisation about the causes, consequences and solutions to child abuse. This is our core story.

To communicate this narrative in way that

we can demonstrate will resonate with a wide audience.

PurposeSlide12

Bringing the communications strategy to lifeSlide13

Mapped the expert story on the causes, consequences and solutions to child abuse and

neglect, the

‘story’ we wanted the public to understand.

Mapped the

public’s stories

about

child

abuse and neglect. AKA

‘the swamp’.

Mapped

the gap

between the expert story and the public swamp

identifying

the productive

ways of thinking that we can tap into and

traps to avoid.

4.

Produced

communications tools and training.

What we didSlide14
Slide15
Slide16

Topline

The public:

has a good awareness of child abuse and neglect

they see it as a societal responsibility to address it

they judge it as reprehensible

they suspect it has widespread impacts on the individual & society

But

:

Continued focus on prevalence will be counter-productive

Focus on the immorality of abusers distracts attention from the social drivers of abuse & undermines support for prevention, intervention and treatment

Express

comms

: value, fact, solutionSlide17

Goal of re-framing

To

help people see prevention & intervention as common sense responses to a solvable

problem.

To create a sense that collective solutions exist and are possible and that investments in the NSPCC are a step to this

end.Slide18

Producing an evidence-based expert story, through interviews with experts on poverty in UK In-depth interviews with members of the public to identify common cultural understandings that shape the way individuals think about povertyMapping the gap between the expert story and the public’s cultural understandings

Key outputs and activities: phase 1Slide19

Developing and testing a communications strategy – a set of metaphors, values and tools for talking about poverty and its causes, consequences and solutionsProduction and dissemination of a final communications toolkit – an interactive, multi-media document containing the final refined set of tools for talking to the public about poverty Considering resource for additional dissemination activities beyond phase 2

Key outputs and activities: phase 2Slide20

Thank you National Children’s Bureauwww.ncb.org.uk@ncbtweets

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