Beyond the Body: PhotoVoice
Beyond the Body captures the daily lives of 15 South Asian youth with a family history of diabetes. Through photography, the youth consider the individual, interpersonal, organizational, community and policy level factors that they feel impact diabetes risk and management in their communities.
The main goals of the PhotoVoice Project through our South Asian youth is to:
Challenge the dominant perspective that blames South Asian individuals for being afflicted with diabetes and brings attention to the structural factors (low income, employment insecurity, low educational attainment, and poor living conditions) that put this racialized community at a higher risk.
Inform government, academia, healthcare, social-service agencies and the broader public to think about the influence that public and health policies has on the risk of developing diabetes among the South Asian population.
Bring attention to a specific policy in the provision of more diabetes prevention services such as the SAADAP for South Asian youth with a family history of diabetes using a social determinants framework.
Beyond the Body - Documentary
Workshops
Participants were engaged in a series of workshops in the Region of Peel in 2019. These workshops were developed and facilitated by members of the research team - a group of racialized, public-health graduates.
Session 1: Orientation
Introduced group expectations, social determinants of health and the Beyond the Body Project
Session 2: PhotoVoice & Photography
Outlined the PhotoVoice tool and taught participants photography basics.
Session 3: Social Determinants of Health
Facilitated a conversation on the social determinants of diabetes using the socio-ecological model. Participants were also guided through a photography demo, covering topics including consent and safety.
Participants were given two weeks to photograph their community using the following prompts:
'What are healthy and unhealthy elements in your life and/or community?'
'What are positive and negative elements that shape your health and your family's health?'
Session 4: Focus Groups
Participants were divided into three focus groups, consisting of 5-6 participants and 2 facilitators. Participants selected their top photographs and engaged in a facilitated, reflexive discussion using the SHOWeD technique.
Session 5: Reflection & Civic Action
Introduced participants to civic-action approaches and included a hands-on activity with advocacy strategies.