The Art and Science of Framing

This worksheet can be used as a guide to select the right frame for your audience and communication goals.

This course focuses on the 10 PHRASES framing recommendations and four framing tools. It provides a deep dive into the tools and finishes with an interactive piece to show learners how to use the framing tools to build and sustain cross-sector partnerships. The entire training is expected to take 30 minutes to complete. There are no prerequisites.

Outreach emails are often an important early communication between public health professionals and other sectors. This tool has “before” and “after” versions of a sample introductory communication to initiate a cross-sector partnership.

PHRASES crowd-sourced tough questions about public health that practitioners are often confronted with, such as “What is public health?” and “How is public health different from health care?” This tool shows a standard or typical answer to the question, and a suggested reframed answer.

When communicating with sectors outside of public health, often what we say can come across in a very different way than we might anticipate. This tool shows commonly used phrases from public health, explains what the other sector might be thinking in reaction, and provides framing tips and guidance for reframing our communications.

A “frame element” is a communications device that alters the presentation (but not the content) of a message—like a metaphor that helps clarify a concept, a cultural value or shared principle that signals broad relevance, or a particular tone that the messenger adopts. Every communication involves many different frame elements—though they aren’t always chosen strategically. The Foundation of Community Health, GPS Navigation, and Value of Investment frame elements were designed specifically to close critical gaps in understanding between public health experts and professionals in other sectors. They were also tested in multiple settings and shown to be extremely effective. Below is a sneak peak of each element.

Recommendations for public health professionals and advocates who want to communicate more effectively with the housing, education, health systems, and business sectors about the value of collaboration. Make sure to view all 10!

Get a short summary of the perceptions of experts in public health and leaders in other sectors about the health, public health, and cross-sector collaboration.

Framing strategies that are proven to shift thinking and attitudes about public health in productive ways. These recommendations can be used to build support for meaningful partnerships with other sectors.

This report analyzes the assumptions and gaps in understanding that public health professionals face when engaging other sectors, detailing how leaders in other sectors think about health, public health, and the value of collaboration.