Directors’ Forum

Values-Based Messaging for Impact

Thursday, June 9, 2022

2pm-4pm

We’ve all seen the explosion of bills in other states as well as in Virginia that scapegoat communities (e.g. anti-immigrant and “don’t say gay” bills), limit access to reproductive health options, and bring forth a host of other outcomes that negatively impact survivors of sexual and domestic violence.

The work to end violence and the work to end oppression are one in the same; our work is by its very nature political and requires us to confront policies and messaging that promote division, violence, and oppression.

At the June 2022 Directors’ Forum, the Action Alliance would like to introduce a proven messaging and organizing framework that counters divide and conquer politics and advances a worldview in which all of us thrive by weaving together race and class in its messaging. The Race Class Narrative builds cross-racial solidarity and promotes policies and approaches that serve us all and link shared economic prosperity directly to racial justice. Research consistently shows that speaking affirmatively about race strengthens our ability to mobilize people who care about our issues while challenging and undermining messages that feed on and stoke fear, xenophobia, and resentment.

We think that we can apply this framework to issues that impact survivors, weaving gender-based violence prevention into the proven race class narrative messaging structure. We can both persuade and win hearts and minds when we employ messaging frameworks that work!