Here at AARW, we talk a lot about narrative strategy as a way to guide our campaign and programmatic work. We are inspired by the work of the Butterfly Lab for Immigrant Narrative Strategy, especially paying attention to their narrative design toolkit. We strive to design our work in alignment with their framework of narratives and deep narratives, as well as analyzing our place in the narrative ecosystem and where we can best position ourselves to make narrative change.

So what is narrative strategy? Narrative strategy is, according to the Butterfly Lab,

the praxis of thinking and using stories, messages, and narratives in a purposeful way to move people toward the narratives, deep narratives, and worldviews we want to advance.

A few more definitions from the Butterfly Lab:

Narrative: An array of related and connected stories and messages on a particular subject, issue, or problem. They suggest causes, problems and solutions. We interpret stories and messages through them. Narratives evoke emotion, offer analysis, and suggest action; they tell us how we should feel, think, and act. Narrative is the level at which society moves.

Deep Narrative: Narratives, in turn, are held together by underlying frameworks and values we call “deep narratives.” These deep narratives constitute worldviews, the ways in which people understand their world.

We use the deep narratives that the Butterfly Lab has already identified for the movement- abundance, safety, interdependence, and freedom to thrive. From there, we use think about the narratives we want to change, and the campaigns that can help change them.

We have identified three key narratives that we align our work around- disrupting the model minority myth, our anti-displacement framework, and an intentional understanding of pan-asian community. The most prominent in our work by far is our anti-displacement framework.