Narrative Organizing
NYJN’s Narrative Organizing division convenes youth justice advocates to develop shared narrative goals (Narrative Initiative), engage in collective visioning and analysis, develop narrative strategy and infrastructure, collaborate on narrative campaigns, and build long-term narrative practices that advance anti-racist, healing-centered youth justice.
Narrative Organizing Theory of Change
Youth justice advocacy sits at a critical juncture with the opportunity to emphasize not just what we want to dismantle, but to paint a vision of what we want to build – for all generations and communities. Narrative organizing helps us build long-term ideological, solidarity, political and economic power to define a new way of thinking about justice and safety.
In our Youth Justice Narrative Organizing Theory of Change, we outline a organizing and strategy framework for building the necessary infrastructure to build narrative power over the long term.
Narrative Change Working Group
NYJN’s Narrative Change Working Group (NCWG) is the hub of our narrative organizing for our network. The NCWG takes a two-pronged approach to narrative power building. First, we work together on peer-to-peer messaging support and technical assistance to help each other solve acute messaging challenges related to legislation, campaigns or media response. Secondly, we convene to develop a shared long-term narrative vision and strategy that goes beyond short-term messaging to get at the heart of shifting long-held beliefs and values that criminalize youth of color and fuel tough-on-crime propaganda. With deep investments, our NCWG can grow youth justice narrative capacity by offering more workshops and training, technical assistance and widening our coalition.
To learn more about NYJN’s Narrative Change Working Group, email NYJN’s Director of Communications, Courtney M. McSwain.