This masterclass will present transformative communications practices and tools to help engage, empower, and activate people in their advocacy work. The session aims to develop participants' skills and abilities in understanding who they are talking to, why it matters, how to present issues that truly resonate with others, and how storytelling can serve as a “superpower” for doing just that. The session will present the theory (45-60 minutes) before jumping into a practical workshop (45-60 minutes) to help participants immediately implement it and exercise their advocacy and storytelling skills.

This session will be organized as a collaboration between the Youth4Capacity programme and the Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) Hub and delivered in partnership with the United Nations University's Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) and communicator, campaign strategist, and sustainability specialist Dickon Bonvik-Stone.

The session is part of the larger ACE Hub Youth Event from 5 - 7 June as part of the ACE Hub, promoted by the German regional government of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) to foster education and public awareness, training, public access to information, and participation in climate change action, for more information on the ACE Hub Youth Event head to: https://unfccc.int/topics/action-for-climate-empowerment-children-and-youth/ace-hub/action-for-climate-empowerment-hub-youth-event

Credit: UNU EHS

Credit: Action for Climate Empowerment

Background

Developed as part of a broader methodology deployed during the 2024 SBs in association with UNU-EHS, the Transformative Urban Coalitions project, and the UNFCCC ACE Hub Youth Event, this Masterclass on Transformative Communications for Community Building seeks to emphasise strategies for effective advocacy while giving participants the opportunity to put the theory into practice with and for their peers in a collaborative way that both generates and exemplifies the learning.  

Objectives

Participants will learn to

• understand who they are talking to, why it matters, how to present issues in ways that truly resonate with other people, and how storytelling can serve as a “superpower” for doing just that
• use communication to build local coalitions, generate meaningful engagement, spur knowledge exchange, share visions of desirable urban futures, foster collaboration for identifying the potential trajectories of change, as well as the wide range of perspectives in place, and how to elevate these perspectives into climate governance
• collaborate, negotiate, and ideate their way toward a simple yet engaging message

Structure

The Masterclass is delivered in-person, using a combination of presentation, dialogue with the audience, and application of described theories into practical outputs, facilitated in groups. 

The session will present theories around effective communication, framing, and storytelling  (45-60 minutes) before jumping into a practical workshop (45-60 minutes) to help participants immediately apply this knowledge and flex their advocacy and storytelling skills in collaboration with their peers.  

The practical workshop will weave the strategies for transformative communications into a real-life urban issue with elements like a specific context setting and diverse or contested accounts. As a result, at the end of the masterclass, participants can present structured and engaging narratives for different audiences to promote socially inclusive urban climate action. 

Speaker

Dickon Bonvik-Stone - Communications Trainer, Communicating Climate Change

Andrea Ramirez - Facilitator, United Nations University - Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS)