Reclaiming Futures: Using communication to drive community and systems change

Reclaiming Futures is a national juvenile justice reform initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. During its 11 years of demonstration and expansion phases, Reclaiming Futures has used a variety of communications strategies, tools, and techniques to achieve its objectives. This paper describes the literature relevant to contemporary use of communications tools to achieve social change, and presents a brief history of how communications contributed to the development of Reclaiming Futures and how communications strategies were implemented at key points. A focus on communication principles and tools in practical terms is highlighted, including strategies for empowering project leaders to be effective messengers and for conducting outreach to community members, professional stakeholders, and elected officials, as well as examples of creative projects developed to advance program goals. Use of techniques such as branding, messaging, and integration of social media are also presented. Implications for other system change efforts are explored.