Asset-Oriented Advocacy

Asset-Oriented Advocacy

When we change the story and how we tell it, we can change the world.
Frameworks Institute, Framing 101

Powerful advocacy messages combine data on needs and impacts with illustrations of what works and why within an asset-focused framework. These statements depict adult education organizations as builders and sustainers of a rich and resilient civil society and adults in foundational education as motivated learners and contributors to the well-being of the entire community. They create connections that generate support from the broader community and responsiveness from policy makers.

An asset-oriented framework is the key to the power of these messages.

How Framing Works

A framework is a guide or mental model that a person uses to organize and understand information. Framing is essential because it sets the context for the advocacy message. Without such a context,

  • Stories about individual adult learners can resonate with an audience and show the relevance of adult foundational education to specific situations or contexts. However, they can also play to the “up by your bootstraps” mindset rather than identifying larger societal structures that impede educational attainment, and they do not necessarily promote the idea of community support for programs that support adult learners.
  • Data on levels of need, such as the percentage of adults who read below a certain grade level, can indicate the extent of low literacy in the adult population. Similarly, data on the outcomes of participation in adult foundational education, such as number of participants who obtained a high school equivalency, can encourage an audience to see adult education in a positive way. However, numbers and data alone do not make the connection to the systemic causes that underlie them.

Stories and data can be powerful parts of the advocacy message when they are framed in ways that link them to existing social structures and promote collective action toward change. Alone, neither one effectively conveys the value of adult education to the wider community or successfully promotes community support for programs that educate adult learners.

Solutions-Oriented and Vulnerability-Oriented Framing

Advocacy for adult learners and adult foundational education often leads with needs:

  • 25 percent of the adults in our county read at a third grade level or below.
  • Our workers don’t have the digital skills they need to qualify for next-level jobs.
  • The wait list for admission to our program is really long, but we don’t have enough funding to hire more teachers or expand our facilities.

However, research has repeatedly shown that this type of vulnerability-oriented framing is much less effective than framing that is oriented to strengths and solutions. For example, a recent report on donor behavior produced by the Yale Center for Customer Insights notes:

Framing non-profit organizations as a source of solutions drives intent to donate. Researchers discovered that when people see how a non-profit’s work can contribute to solving an issue, they are more likely to engage with or donate to the organization. In the study, when the environmental non-profit was framed as a source of climate solutions, donors’ intent to donate increased significantly. This result highlights the importance of communicating impact.
Yale Center for Customer Insights, Understanding Donor Behavior: Insights for Increasing Engagement and Charitable Giving

Similarly, the Frameworks Institute observes:

Balancing problem statements with proposed solutions is key. When we balance urgency (“we can see a problem ahead”) with efficacy (“there’s a way to steer around it”), we offer people both a reason to engage in collective action and hope that it will work. As part of this balancing, it helps to adopt a “can-do” tone, and to offer concrete examples of the kinds of actions that will make a real difference.
The Frameworks Institute, Don’t Feed Fatalism – Put Forward Solutions Instead

The NCL Asset-Oriented Advocacy Framework

An asset-oriented or solutions-oriented framework is strong because it elicits positive responses. For this reason, NCL has developed a four-point asset-oriented framework for advocacy in adult education.

Illustrations

  • Adults who benefit from the opportunity to develop their literacy, numeracy, and digital skills are members of all age groups, from 16 on up. They pursue educational attainment in order to increase their sense of self-efficacy, achieve a better life situation for themselves and their families, and give back to their communities.
  • Classes for adult learners can take place through a variety of community institutions, including the K-12 school system, libraries, community centers, and community colleges. In addition, small classes and tutoring take place in social service organizations, houses of worship, prisons, and other public and private nonprofit agencies. See the handout Who Provides Adult Education? at https://nrsweb.org/policy-data/data-highlights for more information.
  • Federally funded adult education programs
  • Integrated education and training (IET) programs
  • Integrated English literacy and civics education (IELCE) programs

Helpful Videos from the Frameworks Institute

NCL encourages everyone who understands the importance of access to foundational education to commit to becoming an advocate. Follow NCL’s four-step process for developing your advocacy skills:
1. Discover different types of advocacy and choose the one that fits your situation
2. Understand how and why to use an asset-oriented framework
3. Develop a powerful advocacy message
4. Practice!

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