Activity: Establish Community Agreements

Before discussing personal experiences, community or group agreements help to create a shared understanding of how to keep the group space respectful, safe, and collaborative for all participants in the first session and beyond. Have the group come up with a list of group or community agreements.  Once all agreements have been established, start all future sessions with a reminder of the community agreements. Here are some examples:

Examples include (adapt the wording to your in-person or virtual setting):

- Participate!  Share your ideas and opinions. Ask Questions.This is a co-created project, we are working together to shape it.

- One Mic: One person speaks at a time, avoid interrupting others and mute yourself when not speaking.

- There are no right or wrong answers or questions.

- Respect each others’ opinions even / especially if you don’t agree with them.

- Be respectful with technology use: be as present as you can, step out if you need to use the phone

- Be patient with yourself and others.

- Privacy: what is said here stays here.

- Speak from your own experiences.

- Be open to different perspectives.

- Give everyone an opportunity to participate.

See Section Four for more community/group agreements.

Activity: Introductions and Ice-Breaker 

Starting each session with an ice-breaker helps participants become comfortable speaking with one another and establishes a collaborative atmosphere.

Whenever possible, use activities that incorporate photographs or visual storytelling. This helps participants begin thinking about how images communicate experiences, emotions, and ideas.

This first session is a great time to do introductions along with the ice-breaker. 

Facilitating Team Tip: The note-taker should take notes on participant responses. The Note-taker can use flip-charts and post–it or document on the computer. 

Here is an example of introduction and ice-breaker questions:

• - Name, Where/How do you serve in your volunteer program?

• - How/When you joined your volunteer program?

• - Which picture describes how you are feeling today? 

• - Why did you say yes to this project?

See Section Four for more Ice-Breaker Prompts and ideas.

Activity: Introduce and Discuss Photovoice

Provide participants with a brief overview of the Photovoice method.

What is Photovoice? 

Photovoice is a way for people to explore topics through taking and discussing pictures. 

• People and community members are able to identify, represent, and enhance their community and answer research questions through the use of photography, dialogue, and action. 

• Since it was introduced in 1994, this has been used in various fields with a wide array of outcomes ranging from policy change to community action projects with various and diverse communities from youth to seniors.

The goals of photovoice include:

• 1. Enable people to record and reflect their community’s strengths and concerns

• 2. Promote critical dialogue and knowledge about important community issues through large and small group discussions of photographs

• 3. Reach or influence policymakers

Source: Wang and Burris, 1997

Facilitating Team Tip:  If you have past Photovoice projects or videos on Photovoice, you can include them here. Allow time for participant questions and discussion.

One of the most important goals of the first session is understanding what matters most to participants, as it relates to your Photovoice project theme.

Rather than deciding project topics for participants, use this session to learn about their experiences, interests, and priorities. These discussions will shape the topics explored throughout the project. This section will also help participants get to know other participants in the group. Two example options are described below.

Discussion Activity Option #1: What Matters to Me (adapted from Hamilton Photovoice, 2007)

Facilitating Team Tip: Note-taker needed to capture responses on post-it notes and/or note-taking document.

Invite participants to reflect individually before sharing with the group. There are 4 discussion prompts, you will ask participants to reflect and share about. Select as many as feel relevant to the project you are designing.  Remind participants you would like to hear from everyone and will  be taking notes on their responses.  These notes will help inform the Photovoice topics, or what we will take pictures over the next few sessions. 

Discussion Prompts:

1. Where, How, and Why I Serve …

Reflect on and share:

• - WHERE they SERVE …

• - HOW they SERVE in their community …

• - WHY they SERVE …

2. Things I Am Proud Of:

Reflect on and share:

- What are one or two things you are proud of through your service and why?

If participants need guidance, encourage them to think about:

- Personal accomplishments

- Relationships they may have  built

- Skills they may developed

- Moments that made them feel successful

- Changes they’ve seen while serving

3. Needs I See in My Community:

Reflect on and discuss:

- What needs or challenges do you notice?

- What issues deserve more attention?

- What strengths already exist?

4. Making the Volunteer Experience Better

Reflect on and discuss:

 - What would make your service experience more meaningful or effective?

Discussion Activity Option #2: Photo-Sharing What Matters to Me

This activity is similar to option #1, but allows participants to gather photos to use as a starting point for discussion. This activity will require an added step of sharing the prompt and directions with participants before the first session. (See Handout for pre-session homework below) 

- Directions: Ask Participants to bring in 1-2 pictures to the first session that represent “what matters to you as an AmeriCorps member.” These can be actual pictures they took or clips from a magazine or newspaper or even pinterest. The goal is to have materials that will be a catalyst to begin group discussions. 

- Facilitation:  Be sure to explain why you asked participants to bring 1-2 photos to this first session. Photovoice is a participatory and collaborative process and this is a part of that process. Remind participants you would like to hear from everyone and will  be taking notes on their responses.These notes will help inform the Photovoice topics, or what we will take pictures over the next few sessions. 

Facilitating Team Tip: Note-taker needed to capture responses from participants and others in the group. The Note-taker can use flip-charts and post–it or document on the computer. This is important to inform and determine Photovoice Topics.

How Participants Can Share Their Photos: 

Directions: Ask participants to answer the following questions about their photo: 

1. 1. Describe your Picture. What inspired you to take or choose a picture of this? 

2. 2. Why do you want to share this photo today?

3. 3. Thinking about your picture, what does it tell others about your volunteer service experience?

Set a Timer for 3 minutes per person (adapt to the number of participants in your group and session format). 

Allow time for Group Reflection & Discussion

Set Time for Group Reflection: 1-3 minutes (adapt to the number of participants in your group and session format). 

Facilitating Team Tip: If not all participants are able to bring in a picture use the discussion prompts in the previous activity to get all the participants engaged and sharing their experiences.

Now that you have your notes from the introduction and the discussion activity. It’s time to pull those responses together and identify project topics. 

What is a Topic? 

A topic is a guiding question or theme participants will investigate or answer through photography during the project. Identifying topics before starting to take pictures creates a common set of questions that participants can take with them as they decide what pictures to take. Here are some examples of topics:

• - How do I feel about this question?

• - How can I answer this question or statement with  a photograph?

• - How will this photograph capture my unique perspective?

Topic Examples:

- Why I serve as a volunteer …

- How my service is meeting community needs … 

- How my life experience supports or helps my community…

-What being a volunteer has done for me  OR Opportunities my volunteerism has given me …  

- What motivates me to serve at my site …

- How my service is reducing barriers to community services …

- What is my impact as a volunteer …

- The one thing and/or message I would share with future volunteers would be …

- How have I grown since becoming a volunteer … 

- My volunteer experience and why I was proud to serve … 

- How I cope with challenges as a volunteer …

- The Impact of my volunteer service on my career and/or personal growth …

- What is my impact as an volunteer …

- The Work continues …

- The Long-term Impact of our volunteer service …

- Hope, Resilience, Change in my service community …

- Building stronger communities through volunteerism …

Tips for Identifying Topics

Use the notes from the introduction and the discussion activity and help the group simplify their ideas into focused topics that are easy to remember when they are taking pictures. Look for repeated ideas, sentiments, and experiences. Here are some examples.

The group can end up with a range of topics, from one to as many as 10. The group should determine the appropriate amount of topics together. After identifying potential topics, the group should vote on which topics they would like to use to take pictures. See examples below: