By Laura Lorenz and Stephanie Lloyd

We are pleased to offer two foundational photovoice professional development courses. In this blog, we compare our two foundational course offerings, to help you choose the right course for you. Alumni of both courses are invited to participate in our PhotovoiceWorldwide community of continuing education, including alumni webinars. 

In a nutshell, Talking with Pictures is well suited to researchers, clinicians, graduate students, and nonprofit staff who will be planning a photovoice project from start to finish, including ethics review. Photovoice Facilitation Basics is a basic nuts-and-bolts course that provides researchers, nonprofit staff, community health workers, and peer leaders with the understanding and skills they need to run photovoice groups and meet project goals.

Now let’s explore each course a little more in depth.

Talking with Pictures: Photovoice is a comprehensive 10 hour course spanning 5 interactive sessions (2 hours each) taught by Laura Lorenz, who has a master’s in instructional design/adult education and a doctoral degree in health policy and health services research. With a focus on storytelling and examples from photovoice practice, this course takes you on a journey through the steps of photovoice planning and implementation. The course provides guidelines, options, hands-on practice, and a wealth of supporting materials to guide photovoice planning and implementation from start to finish. As a course participant you will gain an in-depth understanding of the ethical issues related to this powerful method and access to examples of documents for ethics review. You will learn about communication strategies for working with people who have different abilities and disabilities, using photovoice for evaluation, interpreting photovoice data, and disseminating project results. You will also gain an understanding of ways to read photos like text and store your photovoice data. All 5 sessions include hands-on practice with each photovoice step and brainstorming ways to apply course learning to your context. Upon course completion you will have a Photovoice Planning document tailored to your context, with feedback from instructors and peers. We anticipate that contact hours (CEs) will again be available for nurses, psychologists, and social workers.

Well designed, practical, engaging, and supportive. USA

Photovoice Facilitation 101: The Basics is a nuts-and-bolts 6-hour course spanning 3 sessions (2 hours each) and is taught by Stephanie Lloyd, who has a master’s in applied sociology. The course content is grounded in our consulting services training project teams to run photovoice groups. As a participant you will gain an overview of the photovoice method and learn the basics of ethical photovoice practice, including tools and strategies for introducing your project to participants and gaining informed consent. You will learn about options for implementing photo interviews and photovoice groups. You will gain techniques and tools for engaging participants in all stages of your project, from deciding on photo-taking questions to identifying common themes. All 3 sessions include hands-on practice with photovoice tasks and brainstorming ways to apply your learning to your context using a Photovoice Facilitation planning tool. Upon course completion you will be prepared to contribute to project planning, choose among interview and group facilitation options, and work with participants to support their success and reach project goals.

Now I have content to facilitate photovoice workshops. CANADA

All courses offered by PhotovoiceWorldwide intentionally seek a balance between discussion, presentations, small group work, and hands-on experience. Both Talking with Pictures and Photovoice Facilitation Basics provide practical practice with the steps of photovoice, from taking pictures to discussing them, choosing some for captions, and presenting to others. By the end of either course, you will know what it is like to participate in a photovoice project. You will be ready to work with participants in a meaningful way, support their success, and reach your project’s goals.

We hope that you now can make an educated decision on which of our foundational courses is best for you, and we welcome you to join our growing community of photovoice researchers, practitioners, clinicians, and peers. If you have any questions or need more information to help you to determine the better choice for your needs; email us at team@photovoiceworldwide.com to set up a time to talk.