Building Safe and Healthy Communities

Sharing and telling the same big story helps to amplify a shared vision for safe and healthy communities and provides a proactive counter message to fear-based narratives. Our issues intersect and so must our stories and messages. This messaging playbook synthesizes research and guidance from experts in drug policy, community safety, housing, and public health for speaking to these intersecting issues, to help us keep building a broader coalition and telling cohesive stories that break through the fragmented media landscape. 

This guide is for organizers, advocates, service providers, journalists, policymakers, and communicators working on housing, drug policy, mental health, and community safety. The recommendations in this guide reflect the collective wisdom, messaging, and research of this ongoing work.

Acknowledgments

This guide was written by Tarah Walsh Communications for Vital Strategies with significant contributions from narrative and communications experts at the ACLU, The Action Lab at Northeastern University, Big Cities Health Coalition, Drug Policy Alliance, Housing Narrative Lab, Reporting on Addiction, and Vera Action, and from partners at Open Society Foundations and Jockey Hollow Foundation.