National Reframing Human Services Initiative
Building Well-Being So Everyone Can Reach Their Full Potential
An Introduction to Reframing
Human services play a vital role in ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential and contribute to their communities. Yet the rich value, broad scope, and vast societal benefits of human services are simply not resonating with the public. As a result, the human service sector has struggled to marshal the resources and public engagement necessary to address the complex issues facing their communities. Since 2012, the National Human Services Assembly’s National Reframing Initiative has worked to change the conversation on human needs in order to make human services a national priority.
The National Reframing Initiative builds broader and more robust civic support for human services to improve well-being for all people across their lifespan. To help create an effective and evidence-based strategy, the National Assembly engaged the FrameWorks Institute to conduct a multiyear study on how best to build the public’s will to support the sector’s important work. Based on the findings, FrameWorks identified an overarching story, the Building Well-Being Narrative, that is proven to significantly increase the public’s knowledge of what human services are and why they are critical for a vibrant society.
To accelerate the widespread adoption of this new approach into human service communications, the National Reframing Initiative advances comprehensive mobilization and implementation strategies at the local, state, and national level, including:
- Developing publicly available tools and resources to help organizations, associations, and networks integrate the Building Well-Being Narrative into their communications;
- Providing targeted newsletters and implementation guidance to help organizations adopt the reframed narrative into their communication strategies; and
- Creating and disseminating reframed messages to provide policymakers, the media, and the public with a more accurate understanding of the vital role of the human service sector.
This initiative has been generously funded by The Kresge Foundation and Annie E. Casey Foundation.