Glynis Shea Communications Coordinator Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center A presentation for CityMatCH Urban MCH Leadership Conference Framing Adolescent Health Framing Adolescent Health Communication Strategies for Building Public Will

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Agenda Goals  Get a taste of framing  Discuss the public’s dominant frame for youth and youth programs  Discuss messages, strategies and techniques for re-framing Participation required Evaluation

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Prevention Research Center

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Konopka Institute “I would like to leave as a legacy people who can work with young people with strength, knowledge, imagination and deep caring.”

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center It’s all about the audience Positioning Presence An advertiser’s POV

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Communications = telling stories

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center PRACTICE: Telling stories Think about an experience you’ve had with youth Share the story with your neighbor  In 1 minutes or less

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center It’s all about the audience

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Situation analysis Communications objective  Build support for adolescents and youth development programs Challenges  Many hats status and lack of financial resources for communications  Audience perceptions (frame) restrict adoption of HYD model

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Communications gurus Frameworks Institute – Strategic Frame Analysis  Cultural Logic  Berkley Media Studies Group Communications research  Test statements in focus groups  Analyze cognitive patterns through 1:1s Goals  ID dominant frames  Find re-frames that work

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Frames Handle lots of information -- fast! Look for cues to “connect” information to what you already know, think and feel  Make mental shortcuts Simplifying concepts “triggered” by symbols, pictures, metaphors and messengers -- the grammar of storytelling. Once evoked, frames provide the reasoning necessary to process information and solve problems.

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Frames & Framing Frames are organizing principles that are socially shared and persistent over time, that work symbolically and meaningfully structure the social world. Reese, Framing Public Life, 2001 Framing is the way a story is told and the way it cues up the shared and durable cultural models that people use to make sense of the world. Bales, 2001 What is in your head that drives how you think and react Structuring what you say and how you say it to best work with what is already in someone’s head

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center DISCUSS: Name a frame Frames in the news  “sound byte”  themes or ideas that tell you how to think about the issue or story Pro life Pro choice War on terror Death tax Gay marriage Family values Big government Climate crisis

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Implications for communicating If the facts don’t fit the frame, it’s the facts that are rejected, not the frame Challenge: change the lens through which they see the information Be intentional: go beyond presenting information and facts Effective: persuasive, incorporated

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Framing lessons Start where they are at?

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center DISCUSS: Elephants What elephant-like phrases, approaches, stories have you encountered – specific to our field?

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Framing lessons Levels of Values  Hierarchy of ideas and issues that track and direct thought  Cascading affect creates ability to reframe by changing levels  Level 1 values as re-framing and bridging strategy

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Framing lessons Level 1 - Big ideas like freedom, justice, community, success, prevention, responsibility, progress, stewardship Level 2 - Issue types like the environment or child care Level 3 - Specific issues like rain forests or teen pregnancy prevention

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Framing applied Level three Level two Level one Youth Development Success/Future of Community Teen Pregnancy Prevention Adolescent healthReproductive health Personal PrivacyPersonal Responsibility

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Communications research findings Adolescent Frame

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Adolescent frame “People are absolutely convinced that teens are dangerous and in danger, silly and self-absorbed and corrupted by consumerism.” Susan Nall Bales, Frameworks Institute

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Teenager

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Framed Bostrom Content Analysis, % of all youth news coverage crime victimization accidents violent juvenile crime

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Adolescent frame Adolescents as other Shares my values most Older people………………..55 White people……………….27 Poor people………………..27 African-American people….21 Immigrants………………….17 Young people under 30……16 Rich people…………………11 People on welfare………….7 Gallup poll cited by Bostrom, 2003

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Apply your expertise here Adolescent frame Ecological model

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Adolescent frame Individual  Owner – bootstraps  Personal journey  Limited understanding of developmental process  Container to be filled with knowledge and values (vs. a material process)

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Adolescent frame Peers  Teen world Family  Owns success and failure  Family bubble Society, Community  Fuzzy on role  Environmental impact minimal School  Owns learning and economic future; undercut HYD programs

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Youth programs frame Broad, shallow support  vs. polls Murky and conflicted on benefits  Education competes See no lack, no big problem  “Over-scheduled” media theme skews perception towards abundance

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center DISCUSS: Sound Familiar? What rings true? Does it feel right? What would you add?

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Messaging strategies Long live healthy youth development Avoid negative, counterproductive frames Frame messages around shared values: future benefit to community Educate on adolescent development (brain, connections, experiences)

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Messaging Strategies: Long live healthy youth development Healthy Youth Development is a frame shift  Away from problem-centric towards strengths  Recognize impact of ALL areas (Ecological model)  Broadening learning (Social Emotional Learning)  Broadening health (Being, belong, becoming)

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Messaging Strategies: Don’t cue negative frames Avoid crime/risk prevention messages  Cues negative frame  Minimizes value of programs  Send mom home Avoid “at risk” segmentation  Replace with “all youth” Support parents  Include parents!!!!!!! Science-based?

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Messaging Strategies: Lead with shared values Benefit to community -- exchange  Community needs healthy, productive, well-rounded young people  Who will be able to give back and sustain the community OBJECTION : Youth make contributions, have value NOW! Key word BENEFIT

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Messaging Strategies: Lead with shared values Adolescents as “Us”  Envision adolescents and young adults as our neighbors, voters, taxpayers, employees and employers, soccer coaches, congregation members, etc.  Therefore a healthy adolescent is one with…  the experiences that create/build “us”  the connections to “us” they need to belong

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Messaging Strategies: Educate on adolescent development Greater understanding of developmental process creates receptivity for investment messages Broaden the health frame to include needs central to developmental process Getting there: 2 interconnected messages  Development needs …  Brain architecture Adolescent vs. teenager vs. youth

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Messaging Strategies: Development needs Adolescents have a unique developmental need for…  Relationships and connections  Positive, healthy experiences Results  Emphasizes the protective value of connection and HYD  Reframes HYD efforts as centrally important for development  Provides a rationale and value for the experiences offered by HYD efforts

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Messaging Strategies: Brain architecture Scientific breakthroughs!  14 – 25  PFC = CEO  Use it or lose it Talking about the brain is the strongest way to make development a material process  Brain architecture as simplifying model Creates room for developmental requirements met by programs:  Experiences, connections  Decision making

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Messaging Strategies: Brain architecture Concerns  Emerging science  Too many variables  Biology is destiny  Cuts both ways Opportunities  Already on agenda  Effective way to create receptivity for discussing environmental concerns (stress) When a youth experiences chronic or extreme stress, the brain releases chemicals that prevent neurons from growing and forming connections with each other – thereby impeding the development of health brain architecture. Be answer ready!

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Messaging Strategies: Brain architecture response Everybody makes decisions! Not always good ones, not matter what your age. Lots of things effect those decisions all the time. For adolescents, the brain’s exuberant development is one of those things. What’s important is what we do with this info. Knowing what adolescents need, our role is to:  Offer tangible “support” for decision making:  Provide the information they need  Be there to help them work through the pros/cons and implications of their decisions.  Give them safe ways to practice/experience it  After all, you can’t learn something unless you practice it. And wouldn’t you rather they practice on something relatively safe like the color of their hair, versus “borrowing” a car?

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center DISCUSS: The brain debate Concerns? Clarifications? Question:  How should we as the youth-serving community handle this message? Vote: scale of 1-10  10 = Use it1 = Avoid it

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Messaging strategy summary Level three Link developmental need to HYD effort Level one Establish adolescents as us Level two Share an adolescent development fact Story outline

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Tactics Effective Spokespeople  Researchers/Scientists  Elders Hardworking Images  Include adults!  In community - active, engaged  Express shared values Establish situation  Don’t assume audience knows about cut-backs, limits, etc.

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Tactics: Naming Minnesota Out of School Time Partnership

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Tactics: Press questions We hear a lot in the news media about the “critical hours between 3 and 6” when most juvenile crime takes place. Is that true? Will these programs lessen crime in our communities?  Studies show that the hours between 3 and 6, when children are unsupervised until their parents return from work, are the primetime hours for juvenile crime. Supervised programs can keep kids safe and out of trouble.

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Tactics: Press questions We hear a lot in the news media about the “critical hours between 3 and 6” when most juvenile crime takes place. Is that true? Will these programs lessen crime in our communities?  Strong, healthy communities depend on engaged, committed citizens. When young people become engaged in the community -- through volunteer work, or teams and clubs -- they grow up to become adults who are committed, engaged citizens which builds strong communities for the long-term.

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Tactics: Print products What does this photo communicate? Kids are cute. Lotsa kinds of kids Kids doing … What frame do we give our program? It’s all about us Otherwise empty buildings Safe haven

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Tactics: Print products What does this photo communicate? IN community Shared values With adults What frame do we give our program? All about youth & community Big 3 points Benefits all

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Beyond tactics advocate grass roots mobilization SELL promote campaign persuade argue tell a story

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Tell a story Be intentional! Use stories to:  Gossip success  Share your views with the people you know and meet  Take advantage of teachable moments  Ask people to do something

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center When to tell a story Media opportunities  Leverage headlines  Give news context

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center When to tell a story Conversational opportunities  Purple hair  Taking risks  Youth involvement  Understanding consequences Identity Decision Making

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center How to tell a story Tap into your passion Tell a story that includes … adolescents as us … healthy development requires  opportunities for positive experiences  a chance to experience and build connections to community (relationships)

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center PRACTICE: Telling stories Tell the story (or re-tell the story) + developmental fact Story material: Accomplishments Celebrations A challenge overcome Surprise! That was me Witnessed

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Who should tell a story We are the medium Culture change Make more messengers  Your friends and family  Your co-workers  Your patients and their families  Community partners  Everyone you meet

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Go tell this story Briefing outline Sell youth development: Story outline Frameworks  Messaging notes  Resources

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center Thank you Resources – www   esources/FWIresearch.htm Glynis Shea  