How to Talk About Democracy: New Webinar Series Offers Cross-Sector Messaging Tools

The Pro-Democracy Narrative Playbook, an initiative coordinated by Metropolitan Group, is hosting a webinar series in September 2026 that examines how democracy intersects with public health, higher education, environmental and climate justice, limits on power, and civil and human rights. Each session introduces a sector-specific narrative and message guide, developed with practitioners in that field, and shows how evidence-based framing research can help professionals talk about their work in ways that also strengthen a free and fair democracy. The premise running through the series is that democratic values, institutions, and civic health make progress on nearly every social issue more possible, and that how advocates communicate about democracy shapes public will to protect it. The sessions run online across September 8, 10, 16, 17, and 24, each pairing the initiative's team with sector partners applying the guides in practice. For the NCDD network, the series offers a useful complement to convening work: research-grounded language for talking about democracy across the many issue areas where dialogue and deliberation take place.

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The Pro-Democracy Narrative Playbook initiative, coordinated by the strategic communications firm Metropolitan Group, is running a five-part webinar series this September that looks at how democracy connects to a range of pressing issue areas. The organizing conviction is straightforward: a free and fair democratic society makes advancing nearly every social issue more possible, and the way advocates and professionals communicate about democracy affects the public will to defend it. Over recent months the initiative worked with practitioners across sectors, from public health and local government to higher education and civil rights, to build customized narrative and message guides for each field. The webinar series walks through those guides one sector at a time, showing the evidence-based research behind them and how professionals can apply the framing to their own work. Each session is a panel featuring the initiative's team alongside sector partners already putting the guides into practice.

​The five sessions each run from 1:00 to 2:00 PM Eastern and take place online. The lineup opens with Public Health and Democracy on September 8, featuring partners including the American Public Health Association and Eyes on Health, followed by Higher Education and Democracy on September 10, Environmental and Climate Justice and Democracy on September 16, Limits on Power and Democracy on September 17, and Civil and Human Rights and Democracy on September 24. The through-line is practical rather than theoretical. Attendees will learn the research that shaped each narrative and, more usefully, how to apply a pro-democracy framing to their own communications and organizing. It is worth being clear about what the series is and is not. This is a messaging and narrative resource, oriented toward how practitioners talk about democracy to build public support, rather than a facilitation or deliberation training. For dialogue and deliberation practitioners, that focus is a complement to convening skills, not a substitute. The people NCDD serves often host conversations precisely at these intersections of democracy and health, education, environment, or rights, and having tested, evidence-based language for framing those issues can make such conversations land more clearly with the communities they aim to reach.

The series speaks to the NCDD network because it takes seriously a question practitioners face constantly: how to talk about democracy in ways that invite people in rather than push them apart. Its cross-sector structure reflects a reality the field knows well: that democratic health is bound up with the specific issues communities care about, and that reaching people often means meeting them through those issues. While the initiative's approach is rooted in advocacy communications rather than neutral convening, the underlying research on how to frame democracy accessibly and inclusively is relevant to anyone designing public conversations, invitations, or outreach around civic questions. Practitioners can attend the sessions most relevant to their sector, or follow the full series to see how the framing adapts across fields. Registration for all sessions, along with the underlying narrative and message guides, is available through the initiative at https://prodemocracynarrativeplaybook.org/events/. Sessions run throughout September, so those interested should register soon for the dates that fit their work.