Glynis Shea

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

• Goals
• Get a taste of framing
• Discuss the publics dominant frame for youth
  and youth programs
• Discuss messages, strategies and techniques for
  re-framing
• Participation required
• Evaluation

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Prevention Research Center
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Konopka Institute
I would liketo leave as a legacy people who
can work with young people with strength,
knowledge, imagination and deep caring.
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An advertisers POV

• Its all about the audience
• Positioning
• Presence

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Communications telling stories
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PRACTICE Telling stories

• Think about an experience youve had with youth
• Share the story with your neighbor
• In 1 minutes or less

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Its all about the audience
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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

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Communications gurus

• Frameworks Institute Strategic Frame
  Analysis
• Cultural Logic
• Berkley Media Studies Group
• Communications research
• Test statements in focus groups
• Analyze cognitive patterns through 11s
• Goals
• ID dominant frames
• Find re-frames that work

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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.

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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

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DISCUSS Name a frame

• Frames in the news
• sound byte
• themes or ideas that tell you how to think
  about theissue or story

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Implications for communicating

• If the facts dont fit the frame, its 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

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Framing lessons

• Start where they are at?

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DISCUSS Elephants

• What elephant-like phrases, approaches, stories
  have you encountered specific to our field?

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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

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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

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Framing applied
Success/Future of Community
Personal Privacy
Personal Responsibility
Youth Development
Adolescent health
Reproductive health
Teen Pregnancy Prevention
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Communications research findings
Adolescent Frame
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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

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Teenager
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Framed
Bostrom Content Analysis, 2001
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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
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Adolescent frame

• Ecological model

Apply your expertise here
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Adolescent frame

• Individual
• Owner bootstraps
• Personal journey
• Limited understanding of developmental process
• Container to be filled with knowledge and values
  (vs. a material process)

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Adolescent frame
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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

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DISCUSS Sound Familiar?

• What rings true?
• Does it feel right?
• What would you add?

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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)

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Messaging StrategiesLong live healthy youth
development

• Healthy Youth Development isa 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)

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Messaging StrategiesDont 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?

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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

OBJECTIONYouth make contributions, have value
NOW!
Key wordBENEFIT
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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

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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

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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

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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

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Messaging Strategies Brain architecture

• Concerns
• Emerging science
• Too many variables
• Biology is destiny
• Cuts both ways
• Opportunities
• Already on agenda
• Effective way tocreate receptivity for
  discussing environmental concerns (stress)

Be answer ready!
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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 brains exuberant
  development is one of those things.
• Whats 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 cant learn something unless you
  practice it. And wouldnt you rather they
  practice on something relatively safe like the
  color of their hair, versus borrowing a car?

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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 it 1 Avoid it

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Messaging strategy summary
Story outline
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Tactics

• Effective Spokespeople
• Researchers/Scientists
• Elders
• Hardworking Images
• Include adults!
• In community - active, engaged
• Express shared values
• Establish situation
• Dont assume audience knows about cut-backs,
  limits, etc.

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Tactics Naming

• Minnesota Out of School Time Partnership

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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.

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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.

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Tactics Print products
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Tactics Print products
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Beyond tactics
grass roots mobilization
promote

• tell a story

campaign
argue
advocate
SELL
persuade
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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

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When to tell a story

• Media opportunities
• Leverage headlines
• Give news context

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When to tell a story

• Conversational opportunities
• Purple hair
• Taking risks
• Youth involvement
• Understanding consequences

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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)

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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

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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

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Go tell this story

• Briefing outline
• Sell youth development Story outline
• Frameworks
• Messaging notes
• Resources

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Thank you

• Resources www
• www.frameworksinstitute.org
• www.youthcommunityconnections.org/resources/FWIres
  earch.htm
• Glynis Shea
• 612-624-3772
• sheax011_at_umn.edu