Aligning Our National Narratives During an Election Year and Beyond

Cosponsors: Economic Opportunity Funders; Grantmakers for Children, Youth & Families; and Grantmakers In Health

Who:

• Richard Kirsch, Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, Senior Adviser to USAction and USAction Education Fund, and Progressive Economic Narrative Group
• Jared Bernstein, Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
• Meg Bostrom, Founder, Public Knowledge & Topos Partnership
• Patrick Bresette, Director of Programs, Public Works
• Frank Clemente, Campaign Director, Americans for Tax Fairness
• Melissa Boteach, Director, Poverty and Prosperity Program for Center for American Progress and Director, Half in Ten for Center for American Progress Action Fund
• Katie Paris, Senior Vice President, Media Matters

What:

There is a tremendous amount of communications and outreach work going on to support state policy and advocacy networks actively working to engage in and inform the ongoing national debates over debt, deficit reduction and budget and tax decisions. Federal and state governments continue to face critical decisions to cut crucial public services and raise revenues which will have profound and lasting consequences for all Americans, especially low-income families and children. This will inevitably be a component of national and state election conversations and be addressed by Congress and state legislatures in early 2013.

Several key communications partners have developed larger national narratives around the economy and role of government to support messaging across issues and positively influence federal and state policy and practice to build a healthy public sector, and create positive, long-term outcomes for families and communities. These narratives, our current fiscal debates and election-year messaging are all coming to a head in the next few months. In response, the Communications Collaborative held a webinar to share the alignment of larger narratives around government and the economy and to provide state policy and advocacy networks access to the information and tools available to support their work.