Word Force

Since its inception, Second Chance month has been billed as a way to celebrate and uplift formerly incarcerated people. To call anything a chance tells us that we have finite opportunities to grow and learn as human beings. But we know that the more we pour into people, resources and support, the more opportunities they have to grow. We should be thinking about that in an expansive way rather than a limiting one. Join Word Force and the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network for a roundtable IG live conversation with Terrell A. Blount, MPA (Executive Director, FICGN), Stacy Burnett, MBA (Senior Manager, Ithaka S+R), and Shannon Ross (Executive Director, The Community), moderated by Nikesha Williams (Co-Editor, Word Force) to reimagine what a true month of uplifting current and formerly incarcerated people should be. #SecondChanceMonth?

"It is easy to say they voted for white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy. But I’d like to reframe the narrative and say they voted for aspiration." Nikesha Williams and Megan Izen share post-election thoughts, plus resources and recommendations in the latest Word Force Observer.

?? A storytelling event where the Moth meets the movement.?? Join us next week in St. Louis for a live oral storytelling event featuring Crystal Monds of Amplify Georgia, Terrell A. Blount, MPA of Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network, and Brian Phillips of Missouri Workers Center. Drinks and appetizers will be provided! Narrative Initiative and Word Force present Crossroads: It Starts with a Story Live November 21st 6-9PM (program starts at 7PM) Bluewood Brewing 1821 Cherokee St Saint Louis, MO 63118

Your story matters, even if you feel like it only matters to you, become your first audience and tell your story to yourself. Nikesha Williams concludes this three-part oral storytelling series with the message: Narrative work is generational, so keep telling your story. ——— Big news! Word Force is hosting a live storytelling event at Facing Race , a national conference hosted by Race Forward taking place in St. Louis, Missouri this year. Join us Thursday, November 21st from 6-9 PM for "It Starts with a Story Live: Crossroads" at Bluewood Brewing — Watch our LinkedIn and Instagram for more event information! Hosted together with Narrative Initiative.

There are two distinct groups you want to aim to influence with your story: your audience and your target.?In the second part of our three-part series on live storytelling, Nikesha Williams covers four audience groups for movement organizers to consider. This is Part II of our three-part series on live storytelling. Read Part I ?? https://lnkd.in/gYqsccmB ——— Big news! Word Force is hosting a live storytelling event at Facing Race , a national conference hosted by Race Forward taking place in St. Louis, Missouri this year. Join us Thursday, November 21st from 6-9 PM for "It Starts with a Story Live: Crossroads" at Bluewood Brewing — Watch our LinkedIn and Instagram for more event information! Hosted together with Narrative Initiative. Live storytelling is a powerful medium for making authentic connections. If you are interested in exploring the format for yourself, Nikesha Williams, co-editor at Word Force and a TEDx trainer, shares her tips on style elements for public storytelling. This is part two of three that will be shared in the coming weeks.

Big news! Word Force is hosting a live storytelling event at Facing Race, a national conference hosted by Race Forward taking place in St. Louis, Missouri this year. Join us Thursday, November 21st from 6-9 PM for "It Starts with a Story Live: Crossroads" at Bluewood Brewing — Watch our LinkedIn and Instagram for more event information! Hosted together with Narrative Initiative. Live storytelling is a powerful medium for making authentic connections. If you are interested in exploring the format for yourself, Nikesha Williams, co-editor at Word Force and a TEDx trainer, shares her tips on style elements for public storytelling. This is part one of three that will be shared in the coming weeks.

Readers will have gotten the Word Force Observer in their inbox last week— we're reposting it on LinkedIn one week out from the U.S. presidential election. Nikesha Williams writes: "After the last five years of book bans, Moms for Liberty, anti-CRT campaigns,?Parental Rights in Education,?S.T.O.P. W.O.K.E., January 6, the big lie, ongoing genocide in multiple countries around the world, and now?conspiracy theories that the government controls hurricanes, I know that revisionist history will be treated as fact and disinformation as reality by a not-insignificant portion of Americans. Which makes truth-telling a courageous act in a country that cries wolf.?"

?? Challenge | What should a comms team do after investing time in writing and pitching an op-ed that ultimately doesn’t get accepted by an editor? ?? Solution | Megan Izen says: Pitching and having editor contacts is good. But the priority is to focus on getting your ideas out there. Don’t worry if an editor doesn’t take the piece. It’s common. What’s more important is to invest time in writing and feeling confident in self-publishing on a social network. Example: Glenn Harris, President of Race Forward, knows that access to quality public schools is a barometer for the status of racial justice in the United States. In this op-ed, he and his co-authors argue that not only is funding public education crucial, but that current methods of funding (property taxes) are inherently inequitable. Word Force worked with Race Forward on this piece below to strengthen their argument and encouraged them to use LinkedIn as a place to publish to get their ideas out into the world. ?? Read: Vouchers and How We Fund Public Education Are Still a Barrier to Equity By Glenn Harris, Race Forward President; John H. Jackson, Schott Foundation for Public Education President and CEO; and Sara Sneed, The NEA Foundation President and CEO ?? https://buff.ly/3YisPwa ?? Resource: Getting Around The Gatekeepers ?? https://buff.ly/3BxznxO

Successfully placing an op-ed relies on multiple factors, including your relationship to editors. Not every organization will have a media director on their comms team to handle editor contacts. That’s why Word Force emphasizes self-publishing as a way to get around the gatekeepers. However, when an organization does place an op-ed, it’s a point of celebration. Amplify Georgia worked for two years to place an op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a daily newspaper with around 10 million monthly readers across print and digital. In their op-ed, “The Republican Party is Wrong on Abortion Rights in Georgia,” Roula AbiSamra and Leo Seyij Allen establish what most voters in Georgia want (“access to safe, legal abortions”) and then show how the Republican party is out of touch with the needs of every day Georgians. The op-ed was published during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which hooked their opinion to the current news cycle. ?? Read ?? The Republican Party is wrong about what Georgians want on abortion rights https://buff.ly/3YedU5Q ?? Resource ?? Op-Eds for Narrative Change https://buff.ly/3XAcbaG

In the newest edition of the Word Force Observer: ?? Nikesha Williams asks: Did y'all see the debate? ???? A shout out to Haiti in 1804 for overthrowing French colonial rule ? Member Spotlight: Aryampa Brighton at the Coalition for Human Rights in Development ?? The books and shows on our radar right now