Strategic Communications Incubator

The Strategic Communications Incubator is an ICPA programme which aims to embed strategic communications thinking, practice and know how in national and transnational advocacy networks and alliances to empower them to act at scale and deliver narrative and policy change. The main focus of our current strategic communications work is designed to advance and safeguard open society values in the areas of social cohesion, migration, inclusion and mobility and the protection of civic space and civic action.

Key features of the Incubator:

The Incubator provides a broad spectrum of advocates the space, support and community that allows them to professionalise their skills, innovate and experiment with ideas and receive needs-driven expert support throughout their process (from concept to evaluation).
Three interconnected, expert-led Resource Hubs - Learning & Mentoring, Research & Evaluation, and Infrastructure - provide the backbone of structure, support and tools to enable partners to achieve their ambitious strategic communications goals. In addition, we draw on our wide network of experts and practitioners to further support in the areas needed for specific projects and campaigns.

Our story: why strategic communications?

From our work over nearly two decades across Europe and the former Soviet space, we’ve seen that the magnitude of the challenge on issues that currently polarise society (e.g. migration and civic space) requires a broad and comprehensive response to achieve lasting positive change. A strategic communications approach offers just this. As a result, we’ve embraced a longer-term strategic communications strategy that moves beyond individual or ad-hoc interventions, even going beyond what is normally considered communications work to incorporate the multi-faceted work of civil society organisations and networks as tools for narrative and policy change. Focusing on the movement level, we draw on our strategic communications experience to support organisations/networks to play their role in developing the infrastructure to act at scale and deliver the narrative power needed to not only shift public debates, but ultimately target a change in norms and rules (legal/policy change).