Skip to main content

National CCR Youth PhotoVoice Initiative!

CCR Youth PhotoVoice Blog

The CCR Youth Network is proud to present its national PhotoVoice initiative!

Visit our PhotoVoice blog to see the projects led by groups of newcomer youth and allies across the country: http://ccryouthphotovoice.tumblr.com.

Background

For several years the CCR Youth Network has been partnering with different individuals and organizations in order to provide “photovoice” workshops. They continue to be very popular and well attended.

This year, we proposed a national initiative! The purpose was to establish a collective project that would engage youth network members from a variety of regions and address the wide range of issues they are concerned about.

As part of this national initiative, six groups organized PhotoVoice workshops in Vancouver, Edmonton, Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa, and New Brunswick between January and April 2015. Other workshops have also been organized as part of other Youth Network initiatives.

All of these stories have been compiled into a repertoire: CCR Youth PhotoVoice!

What is PhotoVoice?

YAG photovoicePhotovoice combines photography with grassroots social action. In a photovoice project, participants are asked to represent their community or express their point of view by photographing a variety of scenes. These photographs are then brought before the group and they work together to develop narratives or a piece of writing to explain the message of each photo. 

Photovoice allows groups to take control of how they are presented in the media and to the world, rather than someone else talking about them or choosing which images to use. It attempts to give voice to the perspectives of those “who lead lives that are different from those traditionally in control of the means for imaging the world.”


Source: Photo by YAG photovoice participant.

How to do a PhotoVoice Workshop

Organizing a photovoice workshop involves:

  • Finding a suitable space to hold the workshop in;
  • Finding someone to facilitate the workshop;
  • Choosing a theme to focus on as a group;
  • Helping the participants to create their own photovoice project.

Tools

Use this workshop outline example to help you organize and guide a photovoice workshop.

To see what a photovoice project looks like, check out the one created at the CCR 2014 Youth Action Gathering here: EYE SPY: YAG Photovoice.

 

Other useful resources about running PhotoVoice projects

Some messages from the facilitators on social media:

ccryouth-photovoice-workshop-outline.pdf