With a challenging and fast-moving policy landscape ahead of us, it's important for issue advocates to have strong and reliable framing strategies as a central part of their repertoire. Here are seven issues where reframes are ready to go. Not only have these frames been rigorously investigated by FrameWorks researchers, but they've also been field-tested by advocates and used to good effect in campaigns and other public education efforts. Bonus benefit: As organizations join in new coalitions and find common cause with new allies, these resources can jump-start their ability to make a powerful case on unfamiliar social issues. 
Criminal Justice
 
The current punitive approach is failing to prevent crime, reduce recidivism, or make communities safer. But public assumptions about who commits crimes, why, and what to do about it often block advocates' assertions about the benefits of more rehabilitative approaches. One of the biggest challenges for advocates is helping people see the role of systems and policies in shaping public safety. The Justice Maze metaphor allows people to maintain to a role for individual agency but clarifies how contexts shape choices, conscribe behaviors, and affect individual outcomes. Using tools that give people practice thinking about the role of systems in shaping outcomes should be on all of our New Year's resolution lists. Learn about the Justice Maze and other criminal justice communications tools.
Human Services
 
Advocates are bracing for cuts to federal services that support people in need. A new narrative about human services--and the critical role they play in our society--has the power to build support and potentially protect vital services from the chopping block. Americans tend to attribute success or failure to individual agency--whether or not people try hard enough. To overcome this way of thinking, lead communications with the value of human potential to help people understand that everyone needs support and that human services benefit us all. Learn how to use values, metaphors, and examples to give people new ways to think about the value and importance of human services.
Affordable Housing
 
Advocates are riding a growing tide of public anxiety about rising housing costs to build support for more affordable housing. Yet the frames they use to advance their cause may inadvertently undermine their efforts. Here's why: Americans tend to think about housing as a consumer good that individuals are responsible for securing. So even the most compelling stories about people who lack housing backfire because the public blames the individual rather than society. Instead of telling individual stories, widen the lens and tell a systems story to spark more productive thinking. Learn how to avoid the backfire effect in your messages about affordable housing.
Education
 
Like Humpty Dumpty, the disconnected fragments of the conversation about education reform often appear to outsiders as simply a broken thing, with little possibility for putting the system together again.  Based on research that queried more than 40,000 Americans, FrameWorks developed a Core Story of Education that shows the public how the pieces fit together, and why we must put them back together again. It combines values, such as the idea that the future depends on collective preparation, and explanatory metaphors, such as comparing reliable neighborhood public schools to "charging stations" that power up kids and communities. In sum, there are dozens of tested themes that help advocates talk about what works in education and build support for the public system as a public good. Learn how to tell better stories about the education system.
Budgets and Taxes
 
Anti-tax messaging is a dominant, pervasive, and largely unchallenged feature in the public discourse about government and the economy. This poses challenges for those seeking less partisan and more pragmatic and nuanced conversations about these issues. How can we drive more productive conversations about fiscal health--especially as these issues come to the foreground this year? Expand people's timeframe and combat consumerism by talking about budgets and taxes as a "forward exchange" and about the importance of prevention, or the idea that we can use resources now to prevent problems in the future. Learn how to reframe the conversation about budgets and taxes.
Parenting
 
Most people recognize the importance of parenting, but few are aware of the science behind it or the policies and practices that support it. This poses a communications challenge for advocates, who are working to build support for societal solutions to promote children's development and wellbeing, reduce social disparities, and strengthen family, civic, and community life. Challenges are compounded at a time of new technology and concerns about "helicopter parenting." To overcome these challenges, describe parenting as a set of skills and show how they can be supported or undermined through programs and policies. Learn more about the challenges of reframing parenting.
Aging
 
Media and advocacy groups frame aging in various and sometimes unproductive ways. One of the most common is the demographic crisis narrative: the oft-told story about the "silver tsunami" that is about to come crashing on our shores as the Baby Boomer population ages. Statistics are often used to buttress this story and convey a sense of urgency. To counter this damaging narrative, provide clear, concrete, and public solutions when describing the challenges related to aging and explain how policy solutions can improve outcomes for older adults and society at large. Learn more about the challenges and opportunities in the current discourse on aging.
We need your help to get these frames into circulation, where they can build coalitions, take on dominant ways of thinking, and win new ground for progressive policies. The history of social movements suggests that it is only when advocates across organizations adopt, echo, and amplify effective frames on their topic that they can build momentum and start to see change. Join our mailing list , take a framing class , or partner with us in framing the social issues you work on. Let's get together to change the conversation on these important issues. In the meantime, we wish all of you a happy, healthy, and productive new year.