New Narratives Lab
- Advanced the capacity of 22 participants from 16 CLAIM member organisations on the Narrative Change/Strategic Communications approach & skills
- Engaged 258 members from 42 CLAIM Organisations & 151 participants from other networks in events and training on Narrative Change/Strategic Communications
- Ran a successful social media pilot that significantly and positively moved the attitudes of a movable middle segment to Muslims & Islam
- Certified 6 Narrative Change Specialists from CLAIM member organisations
- Developed and shared an in-depth Strategic Comms Knowledge Base
- Developed and shared a campaign strategy that can be adopted and adapted by CLAIM members and broader networks looking to tip the balance of middle attitudes towards Muslim communities [toolbox coming in 2024]
The New Narratives Lab was the core capacity-building element of the RESET project. The Lab ran from 2021-2023 with the aim to:
- Advance the knowledge and skills of CLAIM Allianz members in the development of effective narrative change campaigning approaches to sceptical audiences, within the framework of longer term strategic communications goals.
- Facilitate the development and implementation of a new public campaign that will aim to reframe the debate on Islam and Muslims and more broadly on migration/integration with new positive narratives to engage moveable middle audiences.
As can be seen in the diagram below , 2021 was capacity building and strategy development year, ending with a tested campaign strategy and 1st draft materials. In 2022, the campaign stories and social media content was built out (in partnership with Restless Communications) and topline narratives tested. In 2023, the #KommMit pilot was run and evaluated. These steps follow the Narrative Change Campaign Planning Process detailed in ICPA’s toolkit.
The Lab draws on approaches, methodology, and resources from ICPA’s Strategic Communications Incubator. The Strategic Communications Incubator is a platform that provides the required space (to experiment/reflect and learn), support (through needs-driven training/mentoring from a wide range of experts) and community (fostering peer-based collaboration and connection to key actors in the movement) to incubate strategic communications initiatives with partners committed to working at scale to reframe key debates on issues of migration and integration.
Roles in the Lab
- CLAIM members participating in the Lab made all the key decisions about the campaign strategy and approach in 2021 and played a key role in the development, implementation and evaluation of the pilot campaign in 2022 & 2023.
- ICPA led the development of the capacity of CLAIM members in reframing public advocacy approaches and provided advice, facilitation and mentoring in a step-by-step manner based on best practice and expertise in a learning-by-doing approach. ICPA is NOT a campaigning/activist organisation and our logo will not appear on public materials.
Key features of the lab
- A tried and tested interactive, learning by doing methodology to build skills
- A warm, supportive & collaborative environment to experiment and learn
- Practice-based advice based on international & German experience of reframing and strategic comms
- An evidence-based approach to map out the challenge, test and evaluate through each step of the work
- A can-do approach to finding innovative solutions to the challenge
Go to New Narratives Lab 2021 >>
Go to New Narratives Lab 2022 >>
Go to the Overview of the #KommMit Pilot (from Lab 2023) >>