Dear Friends:
Welcome to our photovoice project, Youth Cultivating Change. My fellow Community Food Leaders and I are excited to share our journey of discovery with you. This project has helped us grow in so many ways. These photos, along with our reflections, express how the Food Literacy Project has impacted our community and us. It was exciting to use the art of photography as a way share our experiences.
During photovoice, we found our voices, witnessed the growth of food we cultivated to nourish ourselves and our neighbors, and showcased how we worked to serve our community. Most importantly, this project captured the friendships we have developed while farming.
We are honored that you are going to see something that feels like a part of us. A picture really is worth a thousand words.
Sincerely,
Fathma ”Fruit”
Community Food Leader, Youth Community Agriculture Program
P.S. We have organized the photo and our reflections into the categories of community, leadership and justice to serve as guideposts as you journey into our world. Click on the photos below to explore each theme. Click here to see them in booklet format.
Photovoice is a “process by which people can identify, represent, and enhance their community through a specific photographic technique” (Wang & Burris, 1997, p. 369). The photovoice principles involve 1) enabling people to record and reflect their community’s strengths and concerns, 2) promote critical dialogue and knowledge about important issues through large and small group discussions of photographs, and 3) to reach policymakers. Photovoice is often used by community-engaged researchers to shape and change communities through policy. Youth photovoice projects are one way to ensure youth voice is placed at the center of decision-making about issues directly affecting them.
Photovoice equips individuals with cameras to create photographic evidence and symbolic representations to offer insight, teach others about their experiences and help others see the world through their eyes.
Images contribute to how we see ourselves, how we define and relate to the world, and what we perceive as significant or different. The lesson an image teaches does not reside in its physical structure, but rather in how people interpret the image in question.
Carolyn C. Wang, Photovoice Creator/Researcher