".. a value such as social justice has small worth, except as it is moved, or is moveable, from believing into doing, from verbal affirmation into action" (Blundo, 92). This quote puts social justice into perspective. Without a voice, a person or a community social justice does not happen. It is about recognizing a problem and doing something about it to make a greater change for those affected.
As I am catching up on all the readings posted on the wiki, Blundo (2010) refreshes my memory on #decolonizehistory. I was inspired by decolonize history and never got a chance to blog about it. I mostly appreciated the concept of story telling and giving sound to stories that have been silenced. I've learned that stories are either silenced because it is easier to forget and just move on or stories are silenced to protect a person, a place or something. Either way this Toronto based sticker art project is using its art to tell the story, which I think is a rad way to get people involved and talking about the history of violence and how it is still here in present day. It has also been through The Warmth of Our Suns, that I have been able to acknowledge that the history of segregation and racism still lingers.
http://decolonization.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/storytelling-resistance-decolonizehistory/
Blundo, R. (2010). Social justice becomes a living experience for students, faculty, and community. Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 30(1).
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Creatavist
I'm feeling a little stuck on my project this week, not so much because I don't have enough material, but because it's so important to me to do justice to Hugues' story and find the right medium for sharing it. As I've listened to the recording over and over while transcribing, I realize how important it is to me that his voice--his actual voice, not just his thoughts--be heard, as his enthusiasm is so infectious. At the same time, I felt there was a lot I wanted to add to the story--context about Burundi, about the political climate in Maine around immigrants, etc. I've wrestled with an achievable, yet compelling, way to pull it all together considering I don't have any video footage, and don't believe I have enough still photos to create a meaningful video or slide presentation.
That's when I remembered Sean's suggestion of Creatavist--an app I was not familiar with, but one that seems like a perfect solution for what I am trying to accomplish. I wanted to share a few Creatavist projects I've found that use this medium as a powerful way of sharing oral histories and narrative, in case anyone else is as inspired as I was. I particularly loved that a Ball State University student used it to present his master's thesis---gives me some ideas as I move forward with my own graduate work!
blog
Well, after last week I have been still thinking about how to present this project since I feel that I have come to a dead end with the information that I can continue gathering. I try to call Kingstree, SC and I explain what I am doing and talk to them for awhile and they say that I have done my research and I have gathered almost as much as the historical societies have on hand. I am still debating how far I am can go out of my comfort zone with presenting this project. What usually happens is that I debate with myself and then finally it all falls into place. Lets hope that this happens. I do realize that even if I myself don't feel as if the presentation doesn't feel completed I know that I have expanded my area and have gained more from doing it one way than another.
Patrick J
Patrick J
The Great Migration and The New Jim Crow Laws... My processing of "The Warmth of Other Suns"...
While I was reading "The Warmth of Other Suns," I kept thinking of how these stories of the Great Migration, the difficulties of those in which we read to attain jobs, the horrible lives they fled the south of, the desperation once in the North to find work and make a wage, the civil rights movement, and the Jim Crow Laws effected the lives in which we are reading about, on page 386 in the story of Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, she shares that "Yet the very thing thing that made black life hard in the North, the very nature of northern hostility - unwritten, mercurial, opaque, and eminently deniable- made it hard for King to nail down an obvious right- verses wrong cause to protest." It goes on to describe segregation of the "South side and the West side- restricting jobs they could hold and the mortgages they could get, their children attending segregated and inferior schools, not by edict as in the South but by circumstances in the North, with the results pretty much the same." (Wilkerson, p.386). The stories of the creation of mundane laws to restrict blacks, make me to think as I am reading this book of a book by Michelle Alexander, and the "New Jim Crow" Laws and how incarceration of minorities are the new way of enforcing these "Jim Crow laws." How the unwritten laws of segregation are taking place today. In reading this book makes me think of the untold stories of those who are still experiencing segregation, still experience racism, and are incarcerated because they are black, Latino, or any race other than white, or are living in poverty, homeless, and not of the majority. I think of the stories to be told as this book is doing from the past but of struggles and the lives and journeys of men and women today who continue to suffer similar consequences as their family members.
Under Jim Crow laws, black Americans were relegated to a subordinate status for decades. Things like literacy tests for voters and laws designed to prevent blacks from serving on juries were commonplace in nearly a dozen Southern states. Michelle Alexander writes that many of the gains of the civil rights movement have been undermined by the mass incarceration of black Americans in the war on drugs. Millions of blacks (and other minorities) are arrested for minor crimes remain marginalized and disfranchised, trapped by a criminal justice system that has forever branded them as felons and denied them basic rights and opportunities that would allow them to become productive, law-abiding citizens (Alexander). Alexander says: "I think it's very easy to brush off the notion that the system operates much like a caste system, if in fact you are not trapped within it. I have spent years representing victims of racial profiling and police brutality and investigating patterns of drug law enforcement in poor communities of color, and attempting to help people who have been released from prison attempting to 're-enter' into a society that never seemed to have much use to them in the first place. And in the course of that work, I had my own awakening about our criminal justice system and this system of mass incarceration. ... My experience and research has led me to the regrettable conclusion that our system of mass incarceration functions more like a caste system than a system of crime prevention or control."
"People are swept into the criminal justice system — particularly in poor communities of color — at very early ages ... typically for fairly minor, nonviolent crimes," s "[The young black males are] shuttled into prisons, branded as criminals and felons, and then when they're released, they're relegated to a permanent second-class status, stripped of the very rights supposedly won in the civil rights movement — like the right to vote, the right to serve on juries, the right to be free of legal discrimination and employment, and access to education and public benefits. Many of the old forms of discrimination that we supposedly left behind during the Jim Crow era are suddenly legal again, once you've been branded a felon" (Alexander in a NPR interview.)
If we take a look back in history, not too distant from today, we can see how there have been community organizers, and the use of power and privilege have created and continued this segregation epidemics in our country. Looking back on the subject in our methods class in community organizing, I wanted see how community organizing effect the bolstered racial matters through the War on Drugs, Weil says that "the War on Drugs unintentionally bolstered a resurgent conservative agenda with their silence on racial matters and active support for initiatives that created an incarceration crisis of epic proportions in communities of color" (Weil, p. 252).
With community supports such as the police, local activists, mayors, courts systems, public health departments, and the president launching the "War on Drugs" the U.S has spent more than $1 Trillion dollars in 40 years on this war, and we are losing that war. The war on drugs was in my eyes a new way to attack those who are vulnerable, who are minorities in our country. 65% of those arrested have been minorities, most of which have been for violations on parole, and for those who are released now face charges that limit them to the jobs they can get, marking a box on a application of felony charges. If this country looked at the reasons people are turning to drugs as the epidemic then maybe there would be more supporters of Universal Health Care, there could be a decline in self- medicating. If we provided a "Living Wage" to all, then those who are vulnerable would not need to seek other means for income, and thus there would be less drug dealers, less users, and less incarcerations. The U.S is taking steps in legalizing some drugs, in other countries some drug use and possession is not a crime, and those countries have seen a decline in the distribution of drugs. If the U.S looked at drug use as a health condition, open rehabilitation centers more affordable to those who are using, then I wonder where we would be today? We are loosing the "War on Drugs" and need to look at different ways to fight drug use, dependency and distribution. The use of power and privilege exists all around us, and it the lives of those who were impacted by such laws in which we read about.
I watched "The House in Which I Live" in my criminology class, if you have the time and interest I highly suggest watching it, we can see how this "war" discriminates towards minorities and those in poverty. There needs to be community organizing to put and end to this war, and focus on the true problem, poverty, racism, mental health, and injustices. If the United States is supposed to be the richest, and best country to live in, then why can we not offer Universal Health Care, why can we not put an end to poverty, why can we not organize as a strong enough community to face the facts, that there needs to be changes in the way this country is run. I believe that we need to bring awareness to all, so that we can teach our children what they need to know, so we can provide them with the skills to recognize injustices and how to come together for change. If we teach our children how to develop paradigms of truth and understanding, and looking at things through others perspectives then maybe we can achieve these important changes that are so badly needed for the future of our children, for the growth and success of our Nation. Reading "The Warmth of Other Suns" has really made me take a step back and think about the lives we have read about and how the changes over the years, and how they may have not truly changed, from segregation to desegregation, and the changes in Civil Rights movements led by Martin Luther King, how far have we really come? Some may say a long way, but as we continue to read and hear stories of the experiences who face these realities each day, it is apparent that we have not come far enough.
Wilkerson says that "[The Great Migration] had such an effect on almost every aspect of our lives — from the music that we listen to to the politics of our country to the ways the cities even look and feel, even today," says Isabel Wilkerson. "The suburbanization and the ghettos that were created as a result of the limits of where [African-Americans] could live in the North [still exist today.] And ... the South was forced to change, in part because they were losing such a large part of their workforce through the Great Migration."
The Great Migration undoubtedly changed America and the lives of many for African-Americans. The Great Migration "enabled educated Blacks to obtain jobs, establishing a measure of classy mobility, the migrants encountered significant forms of discrimination in the North. Because so many people had migrated in so short a period of time, the Black migrants were often resented by the White working class in the North, who feared that their ability to negotiate rates of pay, or even to secure employment at all, was threatened by the influx of new labor competition. In many cities, working classes tried to defend what they saw as "their" own territories"(BlackHistory.com).
Wilkinson says on page 535 that " Many black parents who left the South got the one thing they wanted just by leaving. Their children would have a chance to grow up free of Jim Crow and to be their fuller selves. The Great Migration, "if nothing else, an affirmation of the power of an individual decision, however powerless the individual might appear on the surface. "Millions of African-American southerners have altered the course of their own, and all of America's history" (Wilkerson, p. 538). We continue to see history change, and some day I hope to see a world that is not segregated, not run by power and greed, where everybody has a fair chance at a life worth living, where people can get paid for the work they do and not live pay check to pay check. A world where children can go to school not in fear, and that all people are created and treated equally. One can only hope, and I hope that if I do not see that in my life time that my children gave the chance to see it.
I have linked many of the photo's to the NPR interviews as well as video clips of the movie. If you have time please listen to them they are so great to hear. And if you have time to watch the video I promise you will learn so much. (I wanted to say you would not be disappointed, but then though you might be- but not in the movie but in the legal-system in which we operate.) Also check a great YouTube video on The Great Migration-the pictures speak for themselves, but the song gives words the the photo's- something we hope to do with our project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVCuH6ClZWM.
Resources:
The Warmth of Other Suns The Epic Story of America's Great Migration. Isabel Wilkerson. (2010)
Community Practice. Marie Weil
Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of
colorblindness. New York: The New Press.
Butler P. (2010) The People: One Hundred Years of Race and Crime.The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology.
http://www.npr.org/2012/01/16/145175694/legal-scholar-jim-crow-still-exists-in-america
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9D-O0F3ZN8w
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/great-migration
http://blackhistory.com/content/64166/the-great-migration
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=129827444&m=129831730
Check out this interview about Tomlinson Hill
This about an hour, but well worth watching. What I like about it is Chris is being interviewed by Lavar Tomlinson and not a professional.
http://www.c-span.org/video/?319737-1/words-chris-tomlinson
http://www.c-span.org/video/?319737-1/words-chris-tomlinson
Are we "rethinking" homelessness?
I wanted to
talk a little about the video that Jen posted a few weeks ago on rethinking
homelessness. I too recently came across
the video, which is by the Florida grassroots initiative Rethink Homelessness,
and I am torn about the project so I thought that I would re-share it with all
of you. The video shows people who are experiencing homelessness holding up
cardboard signs explaining past careers, skills they possess, what brought them
to homelessness, etc. The initiative hopes that the video campaign will help
the general public understand that people experiencing homelessness are just
people like everyone else, with similar experiences and goals and that
homelessness can happen to anyone.
I think that this is a great concept. I think
that in order to alleviate homelessness we have to get the general public to
care about the homeless and I think that the best way to do that is too help
the public better connect with the homeless population. And we know that personal
stories and narratives foster connections between people and create a space for
open dialogue.
This is why
I am torn about the video portion of the initiative. I think that the signs
will get some people to examine their misconceptions surrounding homelessness. However,
I worry that the signs do not tell enough of the participants’ stories. A few
people may watch the video and want to know more so they will research the
initiative and what they can do to get involved. I worry that others will watch
the video and promptly ignore it because they will not feel a connection with
the population. I worry that people will not care about the homeless
participants from the video because they do not really know anything more about
them than they did at the beginning of the video.
What do you
think?
Here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THxtcWNw3QA
Here is the link for the initiative Rethink Homelessness: http://rethinkhomelessness.org/
Monday, July 28, 2014
ICA
This past weekend I visited the ICA museum in Boston and was
brought back to the experience and imagery in a new way after reading Adrienne
Chambon’s article. She contests the social work discipline’s dominant approach
and asks that “alternative ways of questioning and of representing (Witkin,
2000), no less reasoned but in a rationalistic perspective, are needed in
social work” (592). Although I am
far from an authority on contemporary art – or anything related to art for that
matter – I felt that the following images spoke to this article, as well as the
constant reinvention of art through new mediums and depictions.
Catherine Opie’s photograph Untitled #1 (Michigan Womyn's Music Festival) below captures a space in
Michigan where thousands go every year for a music festival run entirely by
women. Her image focuses on space
rather than individuals and the environment that is created by, and subsequently
helps to define, the women who created it.
A very moving piece to me was Equipped. A set of black and white photographs capturing mobility
devices for persons with disabilities with captions such as “third leg.” As Ray Navarro lost his sight to complications from HIV, his friend and fellow artist Zoe Leonard, assisted with executing the project. The anxiety and suspicion in the
1980s surrounding the AIDS epidemic is merged in imagery of disability and
sexuality.
In Chambon’s reference to Italian Philosopher, Mario
Perniola, she describes him as one who “advances an aesthetic that is not meant
to be pleasant or comforting but aims to enhance and to reveal sites of
tension, an aesthetic to serve for opening possibilities, an aesthetic understood
as thought, as sensitivity, and as action” (600). Perhaps, we should heed Perniola and Chambon’s advice to
examine new forms of representation and expression.
Home is....
What does home mean to me?
In 99.9% of cases I would crop this picture; so that you could not see the mess in the background. The truth is, this picture represents everything that home means to me. In this picture is my son, daughter and husband. They are my world. If you notice none of them are wearing shoes. Partly because we just woke up. Regardless, we don't allow shoes to be worn in our house. You can also see my huge comfy couch in the background that I immediately jump on when I get home after a long day, and my flat screen that holds all my amazing netflix shows and movies. My son's favorite cereal is sitting on our kitchen table as we just finished a lazy morning of sleeping in. Downstairs is my bedroom, where I sleep peacefully. It also holds my office where I can quietly escape to do homework, work or read a book or the internet in peace. All of these things describe home for me. These all seem like little things in terms of the big picture. Even talking like this in any other context others most likely would assume I am bragging. I am not. I am showing how lucky and how thankful I am to be able to walk into a home every night and lock the door behind me, to take off my shoes and know they will be in the same spot when I go to find them the next morning.
The following video is from the Preble Street website of the first women to move into the Florence House permanent housing. I cannot imagine what they were feeling but I am overwhelmed with emotion watching (1).
We take for granted the fact that we get to lock our doors at night and take off our shoes or have closets to store our belongings. We need to be more thankful for these things. I agree with this video that anyone can become homeless.
Reading the article, "Through the Eyes of Women" I began finding commonalities left and right between our research on asking "What home means to you?" for the homeless and Alice asking the Northern Ireland women what the photos and home means to them (2). I began trying to think in terms of Phenomenology (3). These women were trying to consciously understand the meaning behind these photos. Deirdre, explains that the pictures represent a place with unique meaning that has shaped that person's past, their attitude, beliefs and actions in the present (Pg. 47). We cannot take for granted what we have, we cannot judge people for their actions because they don't have. We are all trying to survive. These women interviewed have homes yet in the context of this article it seams the question of home is really within the community. I found commonalities in the reccy. As Alice said, "home carries with it both the connection to one's immediate family as well as to members of the larger community." (Pg. 54) The reccy was part of their home. Where as at Preble Street the Resource Center is part of the homeless communities home. Sorcha, another woman Alice interviewed describes home as a place where you can bring your friends and family (Pg. 59). Another thing that I feel we neglect to see as a luxury that the homeless population does not have. Jacqueline shows a picture of her children in front of a locked gate to their home. She explains the gate represents safety to her. During war time it meant she could sleep at night and feel safe (Pg. 60). Again, something we may overlook but is something so meaningful to these women and to people experiencing homelessness.
Looking at Preble Streets housing first model and their method behind Florence House and Logan Place; we have to think of our basic needs. If a homeless person is given a cot to sleep on but not the peace of mind to know if they sleep their not going to get assaulted or their shoes stolen off their feet. If they have to liquidate all their belongings except two bags how are they suppose to keep an interview outfit ready. We need to start thinking of the big picture and realizing how hard it is to rise up out of that situation and that people should not be expected to do so on their own. It takes a community.
Work Cited:
1) http://www.preblestreet.org/florence_house.php
2) Mcintyre, A. (2003). Through the eyes of woman: photovoice and participatory research as tools for imaging place. Gender, Place, and Culture,10 (1), pp. 47-66.
3) http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology
little blond haired kid
I just love this picture and I wanted to share it with all of you. This is Elaine-1930's in front of the house that she is in today.
I have literally looked through hundreds of photos and Elaine has a story for every single one.
Elaine:
He was the oldest of eight children. And apparently he must’ve always been a very
mature kid, maybe because of the younger ones beneath him. And so the
neighbors, many of whom had no children, would call on my father when they had
any kind of a problem. They would ask Walter to come and he would try resolve
whatever the problem is and help them out in anyway that he could. But because
of that, and the fact that we had elderly couples, or they seemed elderly to me
then, they may have only been 50, and they didn’t have children. Here I was,
this little blond haired kid, they all thought that I belong to them. And so
all these couples became Aunt May, and Mr. Archambualt, Aunt Trudy, and Mr.
Twombly, and they just all treated me like the princess of this Pine Woods
Circle. It was a unique situation to grow up in. One Mr. Shambo would shovel
from the stone house where he lived – he built that - to the little cottage
that my parents were living in. He’d
shovel this all across the trees so that I could run to their house and visit.
So it was a special way grow up. I had all these almost extra grandparents as a
child.
Patrick:
So you were lucky in that way.
Elaine:
Maybe it gave me an appreciation for older people. I don’t know.
Now, of course, here I am, the older person on the street.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Too Sadly Funny not to Share... then more serious...
I was playing on Facebook when I came across this post, I wanted to share it because it is something that as social workers we will be facing more and more. Though the first link is funny (thank you Colbert Report) the others are more serious. It is sad that we have people in government that do not believe in helping others. People are fleeing for a reason and maybe we need to look into what services we can provide rather than denying aid to those with nothing, those who are at risk of dying if they do not leave. As Jennifer was saying in class about coming to the country with next to nothing (a bag and some flour). I have heard other stories of mothers having to leave their children because it was what needed to happen so that she could save them. Parents leaving their children in danger in hopes of saving them by coming to the US.Parents whose children were murdered, parents murdered, separated, lost for years in hope that they were still alive. The stories need to he heard and received, something I do not feel our Governor is capable of doing (my opinion). Please click on the "Children at the Boarder" it is defiantly political, but the map give a good sense of why people are fleeing.
NEW YORK, New York (NEWS CENTER) -- The Colbert Report featured a section on the "Housing Crisis for Immigrant Children" Wednesday night and made fun of Gov. Paul LePage's response to the eight children placed in Maine.
"Out of the 52,000 children in federal custody, Uncle Sam is unfairly saddling Maine with a whopping eight of them," said Stephen Colbert.
Gov. LePage learned this fact while on a call with the White House, and immediately released a statement.
"'We cannot become a state that encourages illegal immigration. We simply cannot afford it,'" said Stephen Colbert, quoting Gov. LePage
Colbert mocked the fact that eight children are throwing Maine, the "state of plastic bibs," into a financial crisis.
"Do you know what that means? That means when Maine goes out to dinner they will automatically be charged with the 15 percent gratuity for parties of eight or more," joked Colbert.
Gov. LePage has not released a response to Colbert's jokes.
READ MORE:
LePage: Feds placed 8 immigrant children in Maine.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) -- Gov. Paul LePage says that eight unaccompanied children who crossed the nation's border illegally have been placed in Maine.
LePage said Tuesday that he learned the information on a conference call with White House officials on Tuesday, but received no details on where the children are from or where they were placed.
LePage said President Barack Obama has failed to enforce border laws and says Maine can't be a state that "encourages illegal immigration."
Maine has no federal detention facilities.
Susan Roche, executive director of the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, said she has no details on the specific situation but that unaccompanied children are released to family members in the U.S., if they have them. She says they're often applying for asylum or seeking special immigrant juvenile status.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
NEW YORK, New York (NEWS CENTER) -- The Colbert Report featured a section on the "Housing Crisis for Immigrant Children" Wednesday night and made fun of Gov. Paul LePage's response to the eight children placed in Maine.
"Out of the 52,000 children in federal custody, Uncle Sam is unfairly saddling Maine with a whopping eight of them," said Stephen Colbert.
Gov. LePage learned this fact while on a call with the White House, and immediately released a statement.
"'We cannot become a state that encourages illegal immigration. We simply cannot afford it,'" said Stephen Colbert, quoting Gov. LePage
Colbert mocked the fact that eight children are throwing Maine, the "state of plastic bibs," into a financial crisis.
"Do you know what that means? That means when Maine goes out to dinner they will automatically be charged with the 15 percent gratuity for parties of eight or more," joked Colbert.
Gov. LePage has not released a response to Colbert's jokes.
READ MORE:
LePage: Feds placed 8 immigrant children in Maine.
LePage: Feds placed 8 immigrant children in Main
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) -- Gov. Paul LePage says that eight unaccompanied children who crossed the nation's border illegally have been placed in Maine.
LePage said Tuesday that he learned the information on a conference call with White House officials on Tuesday, but received no details on where the children are from or where they were placed.
LePage said President Barack Obama has failed to enforce border laws and says Maine can't be a state that "encourages illegal immigration."
Maine has no federal detention facilities.
Susan Roche, executive director of the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, said she has no details on the specific situation but that unaccompanied children are released to family members in the U.S., if they have them. She says they're often applying for asylum or seeking special immigrant juvenile status.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Children at the Border
Resources:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/15/us/questions-about-the-border-kids.html?_r=0
http://www.wcsh6.com/story/news/local/2014/07/23/lepage-food-stamp-recipients-work/13047231/
http://www.wcsh6.com/story/entertainment/2014/07/24/colbert-report-paul-lepage-immigration-crisis/13089815/
http://www.wcsh6.com/story/news/local/2014/07/22/8-immigrant-children-sent-to-maine/13021663/
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Taking it Beyond Today...and into Tomorrow
Throughout my week I have been busy getting ready for my internship at the Cancer Care Center in Sanford ME. I have met with my supervisor to discuss some of the things I will be doing and learning this coming year with them. I learned that in addition to providing supports and services to those with cancer of all forms, who are receiving chemotherapy and radiation at the center, that I will be co-facilitating a young widow/widowers group at the Center for Grieving Children, running support groups at the cancer center, and going to school to teach children/youth about skin cancer. I will be learning to write grants and was told to start thinking of a project/ target population I am passionate about and formulate and idea, write a grant for funding for it and execute the project.
So why am I
telling you all this...because I am so inspired by photovoice, oral history and
the use of narratives that I am pumped! My brain has been filled with all these
ideas, all around using narratives, collecting stories to educate others, to
change policy and programs, and to engage a community. So this week I have been
searching the web looking for articles to support the grant and research. So I
will apologize now for a long list of resources but there are so many great
projects out there that I though you all would be interested in viewing.
I found this
great article from Wang, 2004, she says that "The photovoice concept, and
its application for conducting participatory needs assessment, asset mapping,
and evaluation, and reaching policy makers. Photovoice has been used by Chinese
village women promoting reproductive health, young mothers and grandmothers
establishing cross generational links in Detroit, Black and Latino youth
drawing attention to the AIDS epidemic in the San Francisco Bay area, and many
others. Five key concepts are intended to unite the ways in which diverse
groups apply the photovoice technique. These concepts include the understanding
that 1) images teach; 2) photographs can influence programs and policy; 3)
community people ought to participate in creating and defining the images that
shape healthful public policy; 4) the process requires that from the outset
planners bring to the table policy makers and other influential people to serve
as an audience for community people’s perspectives; and 5) photovoice
emphasizes individual and community action."(Wang; Pies, 2004).
From reading
Martin, Wang's (2006) articles and other web links I became inspired. How do I continue the work we learning to do in
this class into my future (other than Street to Heat and our current project!)?
I want to teach, influence change, policy, get a community involvement of some
form using stories, narratives, photos, etc... To show peoples perspectives. Martin
says to define the selected issues: 1) develop broader knowledge and
understanding of the community, history, find community strengths, build rapport,
and conduct oral history interviews (Martin, p. 132-133). We read
in Wang's article of youth’s participation in photovoice to promote community
change, of the nine steps to mobilize community action. 1) Select and recruit a
target audience of policy makers or community leaders. 2) Recruit a group of
photovoice participants. 3) Introduce the photovoice methodology to
participants, and facilitate a group discussion about cameras, power, and
ethics. 4) Obtain informed consent. 5) Pose initial theme/s for taking pictures.
6) Distribute cameras to participants and review how to use the camera. 7) Provide
time for participants to take pictures. 8) Meet to discuss photographs and
identify themes. 9) Plan with participants a format to share photographs and
stories with policy makers or community leaders (Wang, 2006).
So how do I use these steps to create a
project- well research is first- what services does the cancer center already
have using photovoice or narratives of the clients- NONE!! SO WALA…(But first I
need to get started at the Cancer Center, meet people, talk to people, hear
their stories and pitch my idea. What if we used photovoice, narratives, or
oral history to create a documentary of the lives of those with cancer- let the
client decide what story they want to share- maybe it’s a legacy on their path
to recovery/remission. Maybe it is a keepsake for their family members of their
strength, maybe it is a photovoice of their life start to current time… let the
client shape it to what they want. Bring together group members (from support
groups) to (potentially) share their stories with friends and family members. Use
the stories and photographs as a way of therapy.
So you might ask
how can arts be therapeutic… We
think of photography in relation to our holiday snaps shots, to news reporting
or celebrity, Instagram, Facebook etc…, So how is art theraputic? Why is coloring such a relaxing activity, why
do people draw, write poems, create paintings and sculpturing? Because they can
tell a story through art, express their feelings, thoughts, and fears. They can
release their feelings through art.
When we dwell on how photographs accompany us
throughout our lives- how they relate to our memories, how they link us to who
we are and how we perceive ourselves and each other- then we can start to
imagine its huge potential as a creative tool to explore the world we live in
and our own relation to it (photovoice.org).
The
therapeutic power of photography lies in its ability to enable dialogue and
communication about ourselves, our experiences and feelings, sharing them with others.
"Photography asks
us to frame the world, capture a moment, a meaning, a memory- decide what to
include, what to leave out, what to emphasize and what to overlook." As such
photography helps us to form a sense of ourselves and our place, where we are
at, and what we are feeling.(photovoice.org)
Photography, photovoice, and narrative in therapy help to/encourage/exploring self, identity and memories. Photographs of ourselves, our family albums, images of places we have been to, experiences we have lived through– all of these build a picture of who we are as people. For many of us, talking about the personal pictures that we keep can provide opportunities to explore, experiment and reflect on who we are, who we have been and who we want to become.
Photographs can
act as a distraction, offer respite from distressing symptoms. Photographs can
be a means of creating order and meaning. By using photovoice as a therapeutic benefit
it is linked to its potential for looking and discussing through pictures and
stories, issues which are difficult or sensitive creates distance, perspective
and a sense of safety. Photography
(photovoice) encourages sharing, storytelling and dialogue, build bonds,
friendships and supports. Through sharing stories, talking about photographs
together encourages social networking, peer support. It creates and memories,
talking about pictures, asking questions of meaning of photographs, what was
going on at the time of the photograph, what feeling does the photo bring up?
Questions and photographs can be used to overcome barriers or verbal
expression, encourages creativity, and confidence. Telling stories through art
provides an opportunity to explore memories, identity, and provide
self-confidence to family members and clients. (photovoice.org)
So now I take
what we have learned and apply it to the next stage of my life…how to use
photovoice, and oral history as a social worker in therapeutic care. Wish me
luck…
I was searching
for some videos and came across so man that I want to share…. A few that relate
to my groups current project, and a few that relate to the Gender and Aging
class I am also taking that I know many of you are in and a few that I just had
to add.
I look forward
to the next steps….
Resources:
(For gender and aging classmates)
(For gender and aging classmates)
Smithsonian Folklife and Oral History Interview Guide retrieved from,
PhotoVoice Giving Local Health Departments New Perspective on Community Health Concerns.
Cheri Pies, MSW, DrPH; Padmini Parthasarathy, MPH, retrieved at,
Maternal and Child Health Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, June 2004.
Family, Maternal, and Child Health Through Photovoice
Caroline C. Wang, DrPH, MPH; and Cheri A. Pies, MSW, DrPH retrieved from,
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/45326/10995_2004_Article_486733.pdf?sequence=1.
Sharing Stories, Living Legacies: How Intergenerational Programs Empower Diverse Elders retrieved from,
Sharing
Stories, Leaving Legacies: How Intergenerational Programs Empower
Diverse Elder - See more at:
http://www.nhcoa.org/blog/sharing-stories-leaving-legacies-how-intergenerational-programs-empower-diverse-elders/#sthash.Dh25jNBD.dpuf
Sharing
Stories, Leaving Legacies: How Intergenerational Programs Empower
Diverse Elder - See more at:
http://www.nhcoa.org/blog/sharing-stories-leaving-legacies-how-intergenerational-programs-empower-diverse-elders/#sthash.Dh25jNBD.dpuf
http://www.nhcoa.org/blog/sharing-stories-leaving-legacies-how-intergenerational-programs-empower-diverse-elders/Cancer Support Stories
http://www.wikicancer.org/ (this one is for you Dr. G!!)
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