PhotoVoice Workshop for Social Action and Social Justice

Thursday, 3 October 2019, 13.00 – 19.00 (6h)

Workshop Instructor: Susana Helm, PhD is a Community & Culture Psychologist and Professor of Psychiatry at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawai`i Mānoa, in Honolulu, Hawai`i, USA. Dr. Helm is an American of Italian descent – her grandmother moved to the US from Chiavenna early in the 20th century.  PhotoVoice and photography for social action has been a useful tool in her community and academic work since the 1990s.

Member of IAPS- The Italian American Psychological Society.

Note: This is a 6-hour workshop to be conducted in English. Please feel free to bring snacks for yourself and to share. Please wear comfortable clothes, including walking shoes. Submit your photo before the workshop, and if you have questions, please contact me:  PhotoVoice.Napoli@gmail.com

Part 1. 13.00 – 14.30, Introduction & Overview

This workshop will be introduced by Maria João Vargas-Moniz, President of ECPA and Professoressa Fortuna Procentese, Scientific Director of the Community Psychology Lab, University Federico II. PhotoVoice is a technique for promoting social justice and social action through community collaboration when local residents use photography to voice their concerns, identify solutions, and address power imbalances.

This workshop will provide participants an overview of the PhotoVoice technique, including “Photography 101.” Dr. Helm will share examples from her work in Honolulu. Workshop participants are referred to these articles, which may be read prior to the workshop:

  • Wang C & Burris MA. (1997). Photovoice. Concept, methodology, and use for participatory needs assessment. Health Education & Behavior, 24(3), 369-387. DOI: 10.1177/109019819702400309.
  • Wang CC & Redwood-Jones YA. (2001).  Photovoice ethics. Perspectives from Flint Photovoice.  Health Education & Behavior, 28(5), 560-572.  doi: 10.1177/109019810102800504
  • Helm S, Lee W, Hanakahi V, Gleason K, McCarthy K, Haumana. (2015). Using photovoice with youth to develop a drug prevention program in a rural Hawaiian community. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 22(1), 1-26. doi: 10.5820/aian.2201.2015.1.  PMCID:  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4401743
  • Helm S & Davis K. (2017). Puni Ke Ola. Drug prevention in rural Hawaiian communities. Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice, 8(2), 1-6. https://www.gjcpp.org/pdfs/SB4-HelmDavis_Final.pdf

Part 2. 14.30 – 16.30, PhotoVoice Session

Next, we will conduct a one-hour PhotoVoice session with workshop participants using the SHOWED facilitation technique based on the conference theme as it occurs in our personal and professional lives: dal conflitto e dall’odio alla cura e alla speranza (from conflict and hate to healing and hope).

  • Workshop participants are requested to submit one of their own photos as a jpeg prior to the workshop: Napoli@gmail.com
  • Jpegs should be no larger than 2mb and labeled with your name.
  • We will debrief the activity by highlighting what worked well, challenges, and critical questions.

Part 3. 16.30 – 19.00, Photography for Social Action, Social Justice

We will participate in a short (45 min) photo walk in the neighborhood where the workshop will be held, again guided by the conference theme. Please bring a digital camera, preferably a cel phone. Participants will complete a SHOWED worksheet for their photo (15 min). Then workshop participants will co-critique the aesthetic value of the photos as this pertains to the social action and social justice component of PhotoVoice (45 min). Good pictures tell better stories.

We will conclude with a discussion of how workshop participants may use PhotoVoice in their own work (45 min) – from needs assessment, to intervention development, to feasibility studies, to outcome evaluations, and other forms of research and knowledge co-construction.