A jigsaw puzzle, no two segments alike, that comes together to form a bright picture only when the whole community helps to assemble it.
The Buddhist image of “Indra’s Net,” a web in which a jewel at each juncture reflects all the other jewels (and is reflected in them), demonstrating the infinite connectedness of the universe.
The branching patterns found in human capillaries, cedar fronds, and a head of Italian broccoli.
When wrestling with ideas like adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), trauma, health and community—and how they relate to each other, metaphors like these help carry abstract concepts down to earth and make them accessible to a range of audiences. So when the Buncombe County ACE & Resiliency Collaborative in North Carolina wanted to explain community resilience and inspire people to make it happen, they partnered with theFrameWorks Institute of Washington, D.C., to find just the right “sticky” metaphors and images.
“Every great movement has a compelling narrative,” says Lisa Eby, human resources director of Buncombe County Health and Human Services and a member of the ACE & Resiliency Collaborative. She noted that the push for same-sex marriage legislation gained momentum when the message shifted from “marriage equality” to “It’s about love.”
FrameWorks has taught the group from Buncombe County the science involved in creating effective messages: How our brains make sense of the world by unconsciously snapping new information into existing frames. When thinking about adversity and health, many people carry frames that suggest individual responsibility and fatalism—concepts such as “pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps” or “nothing can be done.”
[For more of this story, written by Anndee Hochman, go to http://marc.healthfederation.o...how-simplify-complex]
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