Youth views of community needs: A photovoice collaboration

Despite evidence that neighborhoods influence residents of all ages, youth input is largely excluded from neighborhood research. The present study used Photovoice to engage youth in an assessment of their urban neighborhoods in [redacted for blinded review]. Nine adolescents (16–20 years old) from an economically-distressed neighborhood participated in the project. This study adhered to procedures approved by an Institutional Review Board. Participants took photographs that reflected important aspects of their daily lives and attended six weekly sessions to share photos and engage in group discussion. During the sessions, the participants and researcher analyzed the photographic data using Participatory Visual Analysis (Wang & Burris, 1997). To describe participants’ experiences, content analysis was used to identify categories discussed across Photovoice sessions. Ten categories emerged from participants’ photos, descriptions, and group discussions. Three themes reflected primary aspects of participants’ experiences: adolescence, neighborhood environment, and their social roles. Youth also completed individual interviews about their experience participating in research. Youth’s photographs and discussions illustrated the dynamic ways that youth interact with their neighborhoods. Youth’s photographs highlighted important ways in which their neighborhoods function as social spaces as well as influencing their access to institutional resources. The present study proposes that photography allowed for the inclusion of youth perspectives and that youth-serving institutions can use Photovoice and other participatory methods to enhance youth experiences in programming and empower youth to address issues in their own community.