Crisis Response: COSF Reflection
Challenge
Most education professionals have not had to deal with intense scrutiny before. And they definitely have not had to worry about threats to their reputations, jobs, and even their lives—all because they promote supportive practices and inclusive content. Since our inception, the Campaign for Our Shared Future (COSF) has delivered vital proactive and crisis-management support for educators and superintendents, education associations, curriculum and professional development providers, and related organizations.
Approach
A crisis can take on many different forms depending on the person or organization. However, it is not impossible to prepare. COSF spent significant time building and sharpening strategic communications and crisis management tools in the service of helping the field a) talk about their work effectively, and b) defend against ongoing threat and manage crisis situations.
We spoke at conferences and hosted private workshops about how to best prepare for the worst. These sessions typically included a policy analysis to help partners make connections between their work and national issues, messaging training based on recent polling, scenarios and lessons for how to employ the messaging, and a checklist for how to stay vigilant and protect against attacks.
As much as we helped partners and allies fortify their defenses, the extremist attacks would evolve, so COSF made itself available to consult crisis response pro bono. Typically, this work included regular conversations with the individual or leader of the organization under attack. We often advised on messaging and next steps regarding external and internal communication in order to mitigate the harm. We helped convene other consultants and provided updates to funders so that the people at the center of these situations could also spend time on their work educating children. We also provided counsel on decision options and anticipated outcomes. If necessary, we connected our partners with security or legal counsel.
Tools & Resources
Rapid response one pager with tools for partners to deploy
Our foundational school leaders toolkit for superintendents, designed to help them avoid and de-escalate crises
Results
It’s important to remember that a success in a crisis situation usually means that there was little or no action. COSF played a role in neutralizing dozens of threats across the country. A few had the potential to receive national attention, but they often fizzled out in the extremist echo chamber.
These wins included:
Prepared leadership of 550 school districts across 30 states in strategic communications and crisis management to avoid or de-escalate crisis
Trained more than 400 district superintendents from 20+ states in strategic communications and crisis management to avoid or de-escalate crisis
Provided extensive crisis management & response for The Teaching Lab, a professional learning organization, when they were ambushed by conservative news outlet Project Veritas. COSF team provided coaching, connections to legal and security professionals to support Teaching Lab’s response and intervention to thwart the impact of the expose. We utilized this experience to develop and deliver preventative training for other professional learning organizations who have been targeted.
Delivered vital proactive and crisis-management support for educators and superintendents, education associations, curriculum, assessment, and professional development providers, and related organizations who have been attacked for supportive practices and inclusive content.
Lessons
Threats of violence can certainly be effective in preventing good people from doing good work. It’s important to keep in mind that these crisis scenarios are not intellectual exercises, and the physical and mental well-being of everyone involved is the top priority.
You do not have to suffer attacks alone. It helps to speak regularly with peers and create an open dialogue about a possible coordinated response if the need should ever arise.
Likewise, these attacks are a lot more sophisticated than they may seem. In some extreme cases, the ambushers have received extensive training on how to create the most chaos.
It’s important to never forget the organization’s mission. The reason an extremist attacked is likely because the day-to-day work was effectively helping students by promoting pro-equity values.