This month: Dobbs messaging guidance, plus Caring Across Generations' conversation with This Is Us

New Guidance: Talk About Reproductive Freedom 

Last week’s Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health threatens reproductive freedom for millions of people across the United States. Our response must uplift an intersectional vision of the critical importance of abortion access to realizing full rights and justice. The impact of how the Court overturned Roe extends far beyond abortion rights, and we must stay vigilant about further legal attacks on the right to privacy that undermine access to contraception and the freedom to marry who we love, regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, or gender.   

As TOA president Ellen Buchman wrote before the decision, the heart of our democracy’s liberties is at stake. In community, we will right this wrong. And it starts with community care and aid to help people access reproductive healthcare while also painting an aspirational vision that centers dignity, equal justice, and freedom. See our guidance for more tips on talking about Dobbs. 

This Is Us: This is Care. A Conversation. 

In June, Ai-jen Poo of Caring Across Generations and Seth and Laura Miller Rogen of HFC sat down for a conversation with This Is Us executive producer KJ Steinberg and cast members Mandy Moore, Chrissy Metz, and Jon Huertas about the realities of caregiving in the United States. 

Across the United States, 53 million family caregivers provide physical, emotional, or financial support to a friend, partner, or family member. Caring for a loved one is one of the most human things we can do. And while many of us will receive care or know someone who is a caregiver, this unpaid labor often feels invisible and undervalued. 

This Is Us went where popular culture often does not go — telling nuanced and authentic stories about the challenges of needing and providing care. From the joys and hardships of caring for a family member with Alzheimer’s to the intense experience of being a sandwich generation caregiver, the series modeled how to have tough but important conversations around care. 

Check out Caring Across Generations’ discussion guide for difficult conversations, as well as their resources for caregivers of people with Alzeheimer’s or Dementia and an introductory guide for storytellers.  

And join the conversation on social media using #CareCantWait and #ThisIsUs to emphasize the importance of representation on TV in building cultural and narrative power to win systemic changes that support families and their caregivers. 

July 2022 Editorial Calendar

Our Editorial Calendar is now live, with media hooks and messaging guidance to uplift disability rights, LGBTQ+ history, and important anniversaries in the movement for Black lives and civil rights. The Comic-Con International 2022 show also returns to San Diego on July 21-24, creating opportunities to emphasize the #PowerofPop to shape narratives through the stories we love.

Image credits: The Opportunity Agenda, The Opportunity Agenda, Sharon Farmer Photography, Maya Minhas of Caring Across Generations, and The Opportunity Agenda

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