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Technical Assistance ToolkitStorytelling

One of the most effective ways to share information is through storytelling. Storytelling is a powerful tool to show how technical assistance (TA) can advance equity and the importance of investing in it to address pressing needs. It may be a story about an individual TA recipient, or the story of a community that came together to enact change, or even the story of a state agency that implemented an assistance program to more equitably serve communities across the state. Depending on the goals and audience for the content, there may not always be an opportunity to build out a complex story, but explaining the objectives, actors, activities, and outcomes of a TA effort in a way that centers human experience can make your story more compelling. Telling the story of a TA effort can also demonstrate what capacity building looks like on the ground in a way that is easy for your audience to understand.

Why is Storytelling Important?

Whenever possible, stories about your program should not only cover the activities of the TA but should explain why they are needed. Why should the audience care about this project? What problem is the TA addressing? While it may seem obvious to agency staff or partners involved in the project, it may not always be clear to those who are not as familiar with the needs of the community the TA is serving. Indicating that the objective of the TA is to advance social equity is critical, but it is also important to explain how the program is meeting that objective.

The list below highlights examples of the value of amplifying TA efforts through storytelling and effective communications:

• Raise awareness of available TA resources to reach more TA recipients
• Demonstrate the importance of providing sustained funding for TA
• Inspire other agencies to provide TA
• Encourage low-capacity agencies and organizations to apply for grants or implement policies knowing that support is available
• Build trust in State government
• Build a stronger relationship with TA recipients and providers by recognizing their hard work and success

Culturally Sensitive and Asset-Based Storytelling

One challenge that funders and TA providers often face is how best to communicate about community needs without focusing only on what a community lacks. When telling the story of a community’s need for TA, it can be easy to dwell on the hardships the community is struggling with in a way that can reinforce negative stereotypes and cast historically underserved communities in a negative light. It is important to be honest about the challenges that under-resourced communities face without disregarding their strengths.

Residents are sometimes offended by the term “disadvantaged” in reference to the communities where they live, work, and play, so keep this in mind when communicating about investment in these communities. While it may not be possible to go into great detail on the histories that have affected these communities, pointing to structural inequalities that have led to current conditions can provide a more accurate picture. Lifting up the strengths and assets that already existed in the community and were able to shine through the TA or capacity building effort is important in order to honor the hard work that TA recipients put into the success of the project.  Telling the story of strengths and assets already present in a community also challenges the idea that under-resourced communities are unaware of the need for climate action, because these communities have historically had to adapt and find solutions amid state underinvestment.

Creating a Communications Strategy

This section provides an overview of key considerations related to communicating the message of TA and capacity building projects, which can help to extend the impact of a TA investment beyond its original recipients. This section includes guidance on how to work with a variety of partners to highlight project milestones and success stories throughout the TA project, and share outcomes and lessons learned once it is completed.

Communications Planning

Planning communications in advance can help ensure that all partners are on the same page about how to share information about your TA project. Meet with your communications or public information office early oto understand what communications services are available internally and what your communications team will need from program staff in order to communicate regularly about the TA program. Consider website updates, social media, blogs, press releases, case studies, videos, presentations, and other types of communication tools and media. For agencies lacking the internal capacity to create some of the desired communications content, it will be important to include some tasks and deliverables related to communication in contracts with TA providers and/or evaluators.

Ideally, your agency should not be alone in sharing the successes of TA efforts. TA recipients, TA providers, community partners, elected officials, local and regional governments, and other partners may also be interested in getting out the word about the exciting progress that is being made. There are many ways to nudge partners to share information through their networks

Spreading the Word

The following provides some suggestions of ways to engage a variety of partners in communicating the successes of TA and capacity building efforts. Please note that these options will not apply to all TA projects so it will be important to pick and choose the ones that are relevant to your program:

• Create a communications kit for TA recipients – It may be helpful to create some guidance for TA recipients about how to communicate about the TA they received, perhaps suggesting sample social media posts or website content. This may be created by State agency staff or included as a deliverable of a TA contract. If the agency or TA providers create a MOU with the TA recipients, it may make sense to include some responsibilities for the TA recipient to communicate about the TA they are receiving through their channels.
• Notify a variety of contacts that their community has been selected for TA – Telling elected officials, local and regional governments, community partners, and other relevant entities that their community will be receiving TA is important because they may want to share that information with their networks as well. If the TA is meant to support grant application assistance, follow up with these contacts if their community ends up receiving the grant.
• Engage TA recipients in the creation of communications materials – If case studies, blog posts, videos, or other types of content are developed in collaboration with local partners, those partners are much more likely to share the content throughout their networks. Engaging local partners is also generally appreciated because it allows those partners to drive the narrative about their own communities and helps ensure that the stories are accurate and resonate on the local level.
• Use social media – Ensure that TA providers and other partners take pictures of workshops, site visits, trainings, and other events and share them on social media as they happen. Tag other partners in those posts to ensure that they see the posts and may even share with their own networks.
• Share relevant deliverables publicly – Simply posting deliverables such as case studies, videos, final reports, evaluation materials, and other content on your agency website does not ensure that your target audience will see them. Website traffic is usually limited to people who are looking for something specific, so if people are not notified that materials are available, they are unlikely to stumble upon them. Sharing these materials via your agency newsletter and social media accounts can be helpful and sending a personal email to contacts with content that may interest them is also effective.

Audience

It is important to determine who your audience is when planning a communications strategy. While many audiences benefit from communications about TA, communications are most effective when targeted to specific audiences. Depending on the audience, the form and style of communications content should vary. The table below provides some examples of how you might frame a story that is tailored to different audiences.

Accessibility

Taking language access into consideration when creating any communications content is critical. If your audience will include non-English speakers, translation services should be budgeted into any contract that includes communications deliverables. It is important to carefully consider your audience when securing translation services, as simply providing materials in Spanish and English may not be sufficient. For example, if your audience includes members of a Latinx community, do not assume that everyone is Spanish speaking, as some may speak indigenous or other non-English languages. Also, when Spanish becomes the default translation option, there is a risk of erasing other languages spoken in California communities such as Mandarin, Tagalog, or Arabic.

In addition to language access, it is also important to make materials clear and easy to read by avoiding jargon, acronyms, and overly technical descriptions. This can help improve the accessibility of these documents to a broader audience, and makes translation much easier. Removing unnecessary detail to focus on and clarify your key message is also a general best practice for creating a more impactful document for all audiences.

Additionally, Assembly Bill 434 (Baker, 2017) requires all documents posted on State agency websites to be fully digitally accessible. This means that any deliverables that your agency plans to post on its website must be American Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant. Ensuring that documents are ADA compliant can be a time-consuming process and may require setting aside additional work hours in your TA contract to ensure that all public-facing documents are ADA compliant.