PhotoVoice: Participatory photography for social change.

As an artist involved in my own participatory projects, I was delighted to discover PhotoVoice. Most projects are based in the UK, but it does spread its wings internationally every once in a while. Spread the word and join in so PhotoVoice can reach around the entire globe.

One of my favorite projects is called Waiting, Glasgow

In the year 2009-10 more than 10, 000 young people (aged 18 – 24) in Scotland were accepted as homeless. Over the winter we’ve been working with Fairbridge Glasgow (for the second time) and eleven young people affected by homelessness. After a residential teambuilding trip of night photography, glowsticks and white water rafting, they met twice a week for six weeks with facilitators Brian Sweeney, Christina Kernohan, and Fairbridge Staff, travelling over Glasgow to shoot an impressive body of work. In 2003 the Scottish Parliament passed groundbreaking legislation stating that everyone who is homeless would have the right to a home by 2012. This programme to tackle homelessness has received international acclaim and Scotland has been recognised as having the best homelessness legislation in western Europe. Many young people are living in unsuitable temporary accommodation, waiting for a permanent place to live. When they are offered a place it is often in a location or in a condition that others won’t accept. Support available to furnish it can take a long time to come through, and young people can be forced into paying rent for places they can’t yet live in. For some young people this means double rent and years paying off the arrears. In 2012 when the legislation comes into place all homeless young people will have the right to a home – but for this right to become reality there must be homes for them to live in.

images here photovoice.org