The “Jail No” Campaign was a successful struggle to prevent the expansion of a county jail in the rural Midwest. I was brought in by the organizers to structure the narratives

This campaign holds a special place in my being. I hadn’t had the opportunity to be part of a grassroots organizing campaign before, especially one with stakes as high as this one. I learned an immense amount about narrative design for grassroots work that form the foundation of my movement work now. But maybe more importantly, I learned about the intricacies of (unlikely) coalitions in movement work.

The campaign worked. The jail wasn’t expanded, and people were actually released in the process.

While I was seen as one of the “professionals” in the room (or on Zoom), I learned more from this project than I contributed. I guess you could consider me “host of long strategy conversations” with members of the team.