In Our Hands

Narrative Change campaign

The Collaborative is embracing narrative change as a powerful strategy to shift public perception and drive greater investment in the early care and education (ECE) workforce. In partnership with Community Change,, we’re launching a digital campaign that amplifies the voices of parents and providers—using storytelling and organizing to build support for fair compensation and long-term, systemic change.

At the heart of this effort is a simple but powerful idea: when we change the story, we can change the system.

phase 1

In Phase I, The Collaborative engaged Frameworks Institute and Purpose to explore the use of narrative change as an effective lever for systems change, identify and understand the prevailing narratives on the early education workforce and compensation, and explore new messages that push for more public investment in compensation for the early educators.

Key components of Phase 1 include:

Narrative ecosystem mapping that informs how to position the campaign within the current ECE ecosystem and potential messengers who can help amplify the campaign’s messaging.
Messaging and framing principles to guide which narrative framing and messaging tactics will be most effective and resonant across all four target audience segments.
Audience insights and empathy maps that explore segments within our audiences of interest (parents, educators, employers, business community and decision-makers).
Narrative vision and campaign outcomes to guide the strategy for the campaign and inform design of impact measurement tools and instruments.
Impact outcomes and goals by audience, introducing a new model prioritizing families’ and educators’ stories.
A campaign brief that provides recommendations for a pilot campaign’s core concept, goal, target(s), message and audience journey options. The campaign concept and brand identity were co-created with focus groups, ECE experts and stakeholders as part of Phase 1.

phase 2

In February 2025, Community Change officially launched its child care cohort for the In Our Hands narrative campaign. The cohort includes 12 grassroots partner groups and 11 parent and provider organizers from 17 states and Washington, DC, all working together to build public support for higher compensation through coordinated digital organizing strategies. This network of trusted messengers is helping to create a powerful moment of connection around this issue by collaborating with well-known organizers and using their platforms to amplify the message through shared media.