On the Road with the Photovoice Show: An Intern’s Reflections

By Alice Chan, ICH Summer Intern

Tufts University Psychology Student Class of 2015

How do a crossword puzzle, a tennis racket, and food relate to mental health? According to eight Asian American teens, these items symbolize what they perceive to be the strongest influences on mental health and well-being: self care, the social environment, and family. For one teen, something seemingly as mundane as a tennis racket is significant for mental health: “tennis is a huge stress reliever for the workload I get from school.”

From January to April 2013, these eight teens developed their perspective, or “voice,” on mental health and wellness using Photovoice, a participatory visual method that utilizes photography to promote social change.  Developed by Caroline C. Wang and Mary Anne Burris in 1994, the Photovoice initiative helps youth explore and expand their understanding of a social issue through story-telling and photography (PhotoVoice, 2013). With support from Institute for Community Health’s (ICH’s) Dr. Shalini Tendulkar, the Chinese Culture Connection (CCC), and the Asian American Civic Association (AACA) - eight Malden teens used Photovoice to search within their communities and themselves to answer the following: “As an Asian American teenager, I think mental wellness is…”   

The results of their hard work—24 vibrant images and detailed reflections—were recognized state-wide. In April, The Families for Depression Awareness, a national non-profit organization, awarded the youth and the project partners the 2013 Distinguished Service in Mental Health Advocacy Award. Following this honor, the teens’ photos were presented in a series of public exhibitions, ranging from the 4^th Annual Asian Pacific Islander Mental Health Forum to a special showcase at Malden City Hall. For the teens, most of whom are Malden residents, the opportunity to connect with their community through photography was ineffably meaningful:

“Photovoice made me think more about my own mental health, and the ways I could improve it. There are many factors that can badly influence our mental health, and with a different mindset we can change the way we live starting with our daily routines and experiencing new settings.”

All together, the photos held powerful messages reflecting what mental health and wellness mean to these teens as Asian Americans growing up in 2013.

As an undergraduate intern at ICH and an Asian American, I was amazed by the depth of the teens’ introspections on mental health in their diverse photos and original writings. At the end of this yearlong project, the teens invited the world to see mental health through their eyes, and academics, city officials, and community members alike were deeply touched by their stories.  It is clear that this traveling photo show made true lasting impressions on the community members of Malden and Boston, the project personnel, and me. I am so proud to have been involved with this project with Dr. Tendulkar, CCC, AACA, and, most importantly, our youth. What an incredible and unforgettable experience!

Learn about the ICH Internship Program

  

PhotoVoice. "Background to the Field: PhotoVoice, Photovoice Methodology and Participatory Photography." PhotoVoice, 2013. Web. 27 Aug. 2013. <http://www.photovoice.org/whatwedo/info/background-to-the-field>. 

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 The views expressed on the Institute for Community Health blog page are solely those of the blog post author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the views of ICH, the author’s employer or other organizations with which the author is associated.

Engaging Youth through PhotoVoice: ICH Intern Perspective II

By Alice Chan, ICH Intern

What a wonderful way to start off the New Year with the third session of our Youth Photovoice project, funded through the Saffron Circle, in Malden! After a successful last session, Shalini and I were ready to move forward with the next (and exciting) step of the project – the Photography Workshop! The objective of this session was to train the youth with a basic tutorial in using digital cameras, generously loaned to us by Yolanda Ortiz from Wayside Youth, before giving the youth the cameras to capture trial run photos.

It was important to review the principles and importance of the ethics involved in taking photos and so I led a team building exercise to refresh the youth’s memory on these ethical principles developed at a prior session. Everyone proved to be very knowledgeable about the “dos and don’ts” with their soon-to-be-assigned cameras. Following this brief review came the photography tutorial part of our session. Who better to lead this photography workshop than our fellow Cambridge Health Alliance colleague Dr. Freeman Changamire, MD, ScD, an expert and enthusiast in all things photography? Dr. Changamire led an outstanding demonstration of the cameras’ functions and settings. Thanks to his guidance, I am confident that the youth are well-prepared to spend the next month taking pictures that capture their attention and convey personal meanings in relation to mental health.

Now that the youth have finally received their digital cameras, they have an opportunity to capture their thoughts and ideas on the topic of mental health and wellness via photos. The goal from now until the next session is for the youth to experiment and be creative as they are exploring their community for those fascinating and noteworthy photo opportunities.

As the cliché goes: a picture is worth a thousand words. At the next session, that is exactly what we will be proving (that is, we will be putting, or “analyzing,” the images with words). Stay tuned for more updates!

Alice Chan is an intern at ICH working with Shalini Tendulkar, ScD, ScM on the Youth Photovoice project through the ICH Education Program. Ms. Chan is a sophomore in the Department of Psychology at Tufts University.

For more information on internship opportunities like this one at ICH, please click here!

______________________________________________________
The views expressed on the Institute for Community Health blog page are solely those of the blog post author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the views of ICH, the author’s employer or other organizations with which the author is associated.

Engaging Youth through PhotoVoice: ICH Intern Perspective I

By Alice Chan, ICH Intern

The second session of our Youth Photovoice project funded through Saffron Circle took place on Sunday, November 18th at the Chinese Culture Connection (CCC). It was great that our session took place in Malden, the home to most of our high school participants. After not seeing the youth for a month, I was excited to see them at the meeting! I’m sure they were also excited to take the next step in our exciting project!

Our second meeting focused on introducing the principles and importance of ethics, something that our youth needed to know about before receiving cameras to photograph their communities and lives. I’m sure our easy-to-read and creative ethics powerpoint slides helped to drive the message home! The slides and our quiz should be adequate resources for the youth to have before snapping a photo of a person. After this session, the youth will receive cameras to start on this exciting project – capturing pictures to represent what “mental health” means for them.

As the youth marked down the upcoming meeting dates on their Project Calendars, I felt optimistic about the project’s future. Along with the youth, I too expect to become better aware of mental health in my community and understand mental health’s presence in the Asian American community. Pictures are fun, simple, and creative works of art that express our emotions, stories, and ideas. Who wouldn’t like to have plenty of photos to share and show the world? I know I would. That being said, let’s run wild with our cameras!

The Saffron Circle Youth Photovoice Project is one of ICH’s many projects featuring novel Qualitative Methods and a Community-Based Participatory Research approach.

Alice Chan is an intern at ICH working with Shalini Tendulkar, ScD, ScM on the Youth Photovoice project through the ICH Education Program. Ms. Chan is a sophomore in the Department of Psychology at Tufts University.

For more information on internship opportunities like this one at ICH, please click here!

______________________________________________________
The views expressed on the Institute for Community Health blog page are solely those of the blog post author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the views of ICH, the author’s employer or other organizations with which the author is associated.