High risk youth have few opportunities to engage in the community and have their voices heard. Photovoice is a creative community-based participatory research methodology that has been successful in giving marginalized populations leadership roles in assessing their environment and advocating for positive change (Catalani & Minkler,2010; Hergenrather, Rhodes, Bardhoshi, 2010; Israel, Eng, Schultz, & Parker, 2015; Wang 2006).
Research has established the positive impact of community service, community and school engagement, positive youth and adult relationships and enhanced self image on reducing youth risk behavior. The purpose of Photovoice is to (1) to enable individuals to record and reflect their community's strengths and concerns, (2) to promote a dialogue and knowledge about important issues through discussion of photographs, and (3) to reach key stakeholders in the community. The ability to digitally communicate their identities, the context of their lives, and express changes that they believe need to be made on individual and societal levels has given these teens a voice. This presentation will share results from a photovoice activity and a program evaluation of high risk teens participating in a civic engagement and leadership program.
Methods:
An exploratory qualitative method was employed to examine the impact of photovoice combined with civic engagement and leadership program participation on eleven high school students in Southern Massachusetts. An interview guided focus group was audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data was coded and themes were summarized. In addition, photographs from the photovoice project and their accompanied narratives were coded and summarized into themes.
Results:
Focus group analyses showed that teens experienced concerns about gender and race discrimination. They were also concerned about the crime rates in their community. The teen experienced empowerment, identity awareness, and community awareness through the workshop and photovoice activity. Participants expressed their desire for civic engagement. In addition the teens expressed short and long term plans for education attainment, graduation and productive life goals. At the end of the year the group is planning an exhibition of their photographs in their high school and community library, to raise the consciousness of the community and key stakeholders to their view and vision for their community.
Conclusion:
This study has implications for professionals and researchers engaging with high risk minority teens in the community. Photovoice methodology can complement any program that has teen empowerment among their goals. Photographs acquired through a photovoice project have the potential to promote participatory action by allowing participant to have a voice.