Multnomah County Health Department

Students will work closely with the community partner, Multnomah County Health Department, Chronic Disease & Prevention, as technical consultants to a community PhotoVoice project. This project will engage community members in exploring healthy eating and active living including safe routes to school. PhotoVoice, which puts cameras into the hands of community members, has the capability to reveal evidence of crime, poorly light streets, or empty buildings that may also affect the willingness of kids to walk to school.

PhotoVoice can be particularly helpful when attempting engage non-English speakers as it relies heavily on photographic imagery. The photographs are taken by and for the community, of the community, and are used as vehicles for discussion about the issue at hand and to explore potential solutions. Photographs are enlarged in hard copy and electronic form for this purpose. In addition, students will create a GIS ArcReader project or Google Earth project by which students can explore demographic and other variables that could be factors. All photographs will be geotagged for this purpose. Students will compile their findings in the form of a hard copy report and also html for display on the web.