Reaching Beyond the choir : Reframe academy 2025
JUNE 23-27, 2025 | ATLANTA, GA
What do you do when a story about your community feels all wrong?
When others, detached from your struggle, reinforce messages that completely miss your dreams and reality? When your community is under attack and the truth is being flattened and replaced by disinformation?
You change the narrative and we fight back!
That’s what ReFrame’s Academy is about and we want you to join us.
we’re sharpening skills and asking bigger questions
- How do we break through the noise, misinformation, and apathy to reach people who’ve been written off or left out of the conversation?
- How do we build a shared megaphone across movements, organizations, and platforms that can actually change hearts and minds at scale?
- How do we contend for narrative power in an era where tech oligarchs with authoritarian tendencies shape the very environment we’re communicating in?
These are the challenges we’re meeting head-on.
Born out of work led by Black, Indigenous, people of color, women, LGBTQIA+ folks, working class and immigrant organizers and communicators, the Academy is a space to sharpen our tools, deepen our strategy, and stay rooted in the power of our people.
Join us in Atlanta June 23-27 as ReFrame celebrates its 10th anniversary by bringing together a powerful cohort of organizers, communicators, digital strategists, artists, and culture workers for five days of deep, collaborative trainings designed to build both foundational 101-level skills and cutting-edge narrative-power-building strategies.
Academy is sharper than ever
Over the past year our team has sharpened and refreshed the Academy curriculum to meet the evolving needs of the field and respond to the urgency of the moment. This year’s curriculum includes a renewed emphasis on 101-level narrative training, meeting the urgent need for organizers who are stepping into comms roles and supporting narrative strategy for the first time. ReFrame’s unique training approach blends interactive large and small group training, lectures, collaborative practice and integration sessions, and dynamic political and popular education methods. This methodology is designed to equip participants with advanced narrative-building skills, strategic insights, and strengthened leadership capabilities, enabling them to immediately apply and integrate their learnings within their organizations, coalitions, and broader movement spaces.
Here's what you can expect
- Comprehensive multi-day training sessions
- Expert-led workshops and interactive breakout groups
- Daily Practice and Integration Sessions
- Access to exclusive resources and training materials
- Networking opportunities with fellow narrative practitioners and movement leaders
- Meals and snacks during training hours
we're headed back to atlanta!
ReFrame Academy 2025 will be held at the Loudermilk Conference Center in downtown Atlanta, Georgia—a city with deep roots in civil rights history and movement-building. Participants will stay at the nearby Hilton Atlanta, just a short walk from the venue.
Please note that ReFrame does not coordinate or resource travel for Academy participants. However, in previous years, philanthropic and funder partners often provide travel stipends to their grantees directly.
why reframe academy?
Narratives are the beliefs that shape our worldviews and help us make sense of the world. They’re often conflicting, not neatly tied to ideology—and they drive everything from public opinion to policy outcomes. That’s why ReFrame defines narrative power as the ability to build, shift, and sustain beliefs that move people to act and shape the conditions for justice. The Academy exists to train the strategists who can do exactly that.
This isn’t just a training. It’s a five-day, high-impact experience that brings together movement leaders, communicators, and organizers to develop the strategy, skill, and infrastructure needed to wield narrative power at scale. Each day includes small group practice and integration sessions led by seasoned strategists—space to ask questions, reflect deeply, and apply insights directly to your org or coalition’s work.
Trainers include ReFrame’s in-house team and an all-star roster of narrative experts from across movements, geographies, and lived experiences. Expect hard-won lessons, practical tools, and frameworks you can bring back to your people the very next week.
Reframe Academy 2023 by the numbers
ReFrame Academy sharpens your skills
Don't just take it from us. See what past participants have to say!
I had a great time and am so grateful for the convening and learnings. It was my first time convening with so many folks at the intersection of communications and organizing and it was so grounding and inspiring. I loved getting to know people throughout the week. The workshops and panels were also powerful and insightful. It such a warm welcome from Atlanta and southern organizing. I’ve brought so many of those conversations back to my community in DC.
Chatting with a few people about the connections philanthropy could make was incredibly helpful and orienting for my work. I have a better sense for how narrative, cultural strategy, visual strategy, organizing and earned media fit together.
Michelle Loo
Justice Funders
As a journalist, often in the form of editing, much of my career has been focused on defending and defining meaning, so much expanding and shaping meaning, so this is a growth opportunity for me to reconsider how I’m not just reporting a story or telling a story but embracing the intentional concept of *making meaning*.
amy winn
Vote Run Lead
I loved the narrative power mapping activity. It was a good reminder that even if we have majority support for a topic, change isn’t automatic. In that activity, I noticed that some people mentioned that power feels “”icky”" and others had a hard time really assessing the governing power of some groups. This didn’t cause any conflict in my group, but it stuck out to me as someone with class privilege, for whom power has often been framed as something positive and accessible. It could be helpful to unpack the big range of feelings and perceptions that might come up re: power. In building power, how might we want to wield that power differently? How can we stay accountable to the people we work with?
Kana Hammon
Asian American Futures
My most prominent take away came during the narrative strategy session. Another participant shared that their organization treated narrative like a checklist item and not an integral part of the organizational strategy. This was a huge aha for me because it explains why I’ve been feeling so isolated in my work! I now have the words to describe why it’s important. Additionally, I’m now able to draw examples from other orgs...and advocate for a narrative retreat and support for myself!
Peyton Wilson
We Are Dissenters
cost
ReFrame offers sliding scale pricing to ensure broad access across movement organizations, geographies, and budget sizes. Your ticket is an investment in deep strategy, practical tools, and lasting infrastructure for narrative power. ReFrame offers sliding scale pricing to ensure broad access across movement organizations, geographies, and budget sizes. Your ticket is an investment in deep strategy, practical tools, and lasting infrastructure for narrative power.
If you're part of a philanthropic institution and want to sponsor seats for grantees, contact sustain@thisisreframe.org.
If you're purchasing five or more seats at once, reach out to training@thisisreframe.org to coordinate bundle pricing.
2025 registration Rates
- $6000 - Organizations with budgets over $10M
- $4,400 - Organizations with budgets between $5M and $10M
- $3,600 - Organizations with budgets between $2M and $5M
- $2,700 - Organizations with budgets under $2M OR Individuals without organization support
Your registration includes
- Lodging at the Hilton Atlanta for four nights
- Breakfast, lunch, and snacks during scheduled programming
- All training materials, exclusive narrative tools, frameworks, and access to our digital resource library
- 1:1 Support from expert movement communicators
- Daily immersive training with ReFrame facilitators and nationally recognized narrative strategists
- Live practice and integration sessions to test new skills in real time
- Dedicated small group integration sessions each day with expert field specialists for hands-on strategy support
This does not include airfare or travel to/from Atlanta, local transportation, or meals outside of scheduled programming.
Have additional questions? Review our FAQ or send us an email at training@thisisreframe.org.
