Saying “Hope” Again and Again...

“Hope is not about pretending everything is fine. Hope is about facing the truth, and still choosing to act.”
 

— Thomas Coombes

The high ceilings of Minerva Han echoed not only our voices but the questions we carry, the narratives we live with, and the ones we long to change. Last month, I joined the Hope-Based Communication Bootcamp, hosted by TÜSEV (Third Sector Foundation of Turkey) and supported by EU TACSO 3 (EU Technical Assistance to Civil Society Organisations in the Western Balkans and Turkey). Together with fellow civil society actors from Turkey and the Western Balkans, we didn’t just talk about communication—we questioned how narratives are built, who builds them, and how they can be reframed.

And through it all, one thing kept stirring in my mind:

Hot pepper jam.

Yes, really. A strange metaphor, maybe—but it captures the essence of what this work feels like. Hope, like hot pepper jam, burns and heals. It’s bittersweet. It stings, but it stays.

Hope-based communication is exactly about finding that delicate balance. Speaking the truth without being consumed by it. Feeling the burn, but still creating something nourishing.

On the Side of Those Who Walk Away from Omelas

“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas...”
— Ursula K. Le Guin

You know the story: a utopian city thrives, but at the cost of one child suffering in darkness. Everyone knows the child is there. Most carry on. But some walk away.

I’m not talking about abandoning that child.

I’m talking about refusing the narrative that justifies their suffering.

Hope-based communication is the language of those who do not  accept this bargain.

It is not a tool to cover up the truth—it is the courage to face it, and still say: we can do better.

Five Shifts That Reframe Everything

“Good messaging is not about saying what is popular. Good messaging is making popular what needs to be said.”
 — Anat Shenker-Osorio

Thomas Coombes didn’t hand us a checklist—he invited us to rethink. We explored five narrative shifts that don’t just tweak messaging, but transform how we relate to the world:

• Fear → Hope

 Messages that empower, rather than paralyze.

• Problem → Solution

 Not just what’s broken—but what’s possible.

• Against → For

From resistance to vision.

• Threat → Opportunity

From survival mode to creation mode.

• Victim → Human

Not pity, but dignity. Not fragility, but agency.

These aren’t just techniques. They’re political choices.

Reputation Hurts

Derya Tombuloğlu shared TÜSEV’s research on the reputation of civil society in Turkey. One sentence echoed in my mind long after the session ended:

“The promises of civil society are the size of a basketball, but their visibility is no bigger than a ping pong ball.”

This wasn’t just a research finding. It was a mirror.

We do so much—and are seen so little.

We give hope—but are often mistaken for being hopeless.

And unless we confront this, no communication strategy will save us.

It’s Not Mocking Hope—It’s Unlocking It

“Humor is not the opposite of seriousness. It’s a powerful form of resistance.”
 — Yana Buhrer Tavanier

Yana’s sessions reminded us that play, art, and humor aren’t soft distractions. They are tools. They are strategies. In societies like ours, where pressure silences and fatigue numbs, laughter can open locked doors.

We learned not just how to make people laugh—but how to make them think, and act, through laughter.

Hope Is Not Repetition, It’s Reinvention

“Reframing is accessing what we already believe unconsciously, making it conscious, and repeating it until it enters public discourse.”
 — George Lakoff

The follow-up session on June 26th wasn’t a recap. It was a workshop of action. Participants brought their real-world texts—press releases, campaign drafts, social media content—and together we reframed them.

Not to make them more “positive,” but to make them more true, and more transformative.

Final Word: Hope as a Language of Resistance

“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution.”
 — Ursula K. Le Guin
Hope is not just a feeling. It’s a worldview. A position. A practice.

When we say “hope-based,” we’re not smoothing over suffering—we’re declaring: this is not all there is.

I don’t see hope-based communication as a technique.

I see it as a form of resistance.

A language for those who choose not to walk away silently, but to speak—clearly, collectively, and courageously.