This document provides guidance on using stories and anecdotes to communicate the impacts of budget cuts. It emphasizes finding local stories about how cuts affect individuals and communities to make the issues more real and memorable. Reporters should be given concrete examples and local sources. Messengers need to be prepared to tell their stories consistently through various channels and provide additional context over time. The goal is to highlight the human impacts of cuts and engage communities in budget discussions.

1. Slide
Finding our Stories
We can do this!

2. Slide
We can all do this!

3. Slide
What The HHS Network wants from you
• Be a resource
• Engage in the on-going
public dialogue/debate
• Localize & make the cuts
real
• Find local stories to
illustrate the impact

4. Slide
Three things you can do
• Learn the Key Messages – and Use Them
• Find stories you can use now, and in the
future
• Work the media & social media in your
community
– Raise awareness
– Earn media coverage
– Earn legislative attention

5. Slide
What exactly are we up to???
• Our Goal:
– Highlight the impacts of the cuts in our
communities
• Our Strategy:
– Train leaders to find their stories (today)
– Make these cuts “real” by putting a human
face on them
– Engage coalition members in larger budget
discussions/media/community work
• Our Messengers:
– Families & advocates, agencies & providers

6. Slide
What are we saying? Our 2010 Messaging
Family Recovery Budget / Plan
• Create jobs, preserve the jobs we have and
invest in California’s workers
• Maintain a strong safety net where there are no
jobs
• Find targeted revenue solutions to help our
economy and families recover
• Bring home the federal funds intended for
California’s economy and families.

7. Slide
Storytelling – The Importance of Anecdotes

8. Slide
Storytelling – The Importance of Anecdotes
• Storytelling is common
thread through all cultures
• Humanizing. Anecdotes
personalize the issue
• Impact - Anecdotes are a
way for audience to
understand your perspective
– more powerful than text of
your remarks
• Linkage – a story can
personalize an issue much
faster than reciting statistics,
or historical facts.
• Credibility – anecdotes allow
you to “borrow” someone
else’s credibility Graeme Frost, SCHIP Kid

9. Slide
Storytelling – Budget Examples
• Finding new
messengers
• County could lose $262 million
loss in federal and state money
(CCTimes 7/3/08)
• In the end, Nick Robinson just
couldn't afford the Bay Area. And
with pending state budget cuts
threatening the foster care
counselor's programs and salary,
he decided to pack his belongings
and leave Walnut Creek for
Boston.

10. Slide 1
Storytelling – Budget Examples
• Just like me & my family
• Boy's special medical care
imperiled by state budget crunch
(Sac Bee 5/11/08)
• Derek Longwell's wheelchair bears all
the scars of rough handling by a fully
charged 13-year-old boy: scratched
metal frame, chipped paint, worn
treads and a perpetual coat of dust on
the footrest.
• The teen with dark chocolate hair and olive-tinted eyes suffers
from spina bifida, a birth defect that has left him with an
incomplete spinal cord and an inability to walk. But a
committed team of doctors and his devoted parents, backed
by a specialized state health care program, have enabled
Derek to enjoy an active life outdoors.
• Now the state's ominous fiscal forecast is threatening to
disrupt Derek's ability to see his doctors in a timely manner or
get leg braces to fit his growing body.

11. Slide 1
Think about the many ways to use a story

12. Slide 1
Finding your stories
What stories do you have to share?
• Tell me about ONE person? A kid, a
parent, a community partner.
• Tell me a “win” and tell me a “loss”
• What is the impact on our community
today? Tomorrow?
• Why is this important
– Don’t lose sight of big picture & messaging
– What does this story illustrate?

13. Slide 1
Sharing your stories
Who will tell your stories
• Is this the right
messenger?
• Can they tell it in a way
that is memorable?
• How can you continually
refresh the story with
new facts, new stories,
new wins/losses?

14. Slide 1
Sharing your stories
How will you share your stories (e.g.)
• Print/Booklet: Children’s Defense Fund
• On-line: Mom’s Rising
• Person to Person: You?
• Legislative Advocacy: You and your
partners
• Media: How can you ready your family &
storytellers to present to media

15. Slide 1
HELP reporters help you tell stories
• Make it real
• Find a local face
• Root the story in a
local place
• Find an expert
(preferably local)
• Go to the media &
legislators – don’t
wait for them

16. Slide 1
PROVE IT! Here are the basics of some stories
• What have you seen
that makes you proud?
That makes you worry?
• How has/will this
change lives?
• What will this mean for
the things you care
most about?

17. Slide 1
What Makes a Story?
• Controversy. Patients temporarily close clinics in
protest
• Conflict. Local families confront electeds
• Problem/Solution Dynamic. Advocates & families
provide a family recovery plan
• Timeliness & competitive advantage – What are you
doing now to prepare for May Revise? July 1?
• Access to & reliability of sources – Are you making
yourself available as a local expert?
• People/Personalities. Talk about small investments in
people that can save big for the state – job training!

18. Slide 1
What Makes a Story?
• Dramatic Human Interest. Parent who works third job
and doesn’t sleep to pay for aging parent’s homecare
• Trends. Three is a trend – Third local example of local
families struggling with same bind (jobs, housing)
• New Announcement. Release of new numbers on those
without access to services. Goal: Make it fresh.
• Localize national story (and vice versa). Take a
nationally breaking story and emphasize
its local impact

19. Slide 1
What Makes a Story?
• Anniversaries/ Milestones. – May Revise, July 1 are
certainly important milestones. So is the end of the
school year.
• Fresh angle on old story. Same budget challenges but
we are missing access to federal dollars
• Stories. Impact on local family
• Special event. Can you leverage an event, march or
forum to raise attention/awareness
• Rapid Response. Being prepared on July 1
• Celebrity. Is there celebrity who benefitted from child
health or IHSS programs?
• Strange Bedfellows. Who is the least likely
person that you might be aligned with?

20. Slide 2
Maximizing the Power of a story:
What People Need From You
• A quick synopsis of the situation as you see it
• Honesty & Forthrightness
• Clear and concise answers
• Quotable quotes & a sense of humor
• Access – are you available to tell it often
• Positive & non-defensive attitude
• Mastery of issue(s)
• Become an on-going resource

21. Slide 2
Now What? Here’s a To-Do List
• Know your goal & find a few stories.
• Make communicating them an organizational
priority.
• Don’t be afraid to learn by mistakes.

22. Slide 2
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