The flyer

“This is my voice!" project aims to make heard, loud and clear, the “voices" of 40 youngsters with hearing and speaking disabilities from Poland and Romania through Photo voice method. The project is funded by the European Commission through Youth in Action, Action 1.3, Youth Democracy Projects.

Euroarte Association is the coordinating organization and the partners, from Poland and Romania, are: Polish Intercultural Group and Silent Voices from Warsaw, Poland; Association Vasiliada from Craiova, Bucharest Student Culture House, Association ArtImage from Cluj, Photo Club “Mihai Dan Calinescu" from Craiova, Romania.

The project activities take place in Poland and Romania, in the timeframe May 2011 - June 2012 and consist in training 40 hearing and speech impaired youngsters by the means of photo voice methodology.
Photo Voice Method helps young people to develop, self-discover, express themselves through photography, by identifying problems, seeking solutions, communicating with decision makers and the community.

After an intense Photo voice training in the cities of origin, the 40 young people involved in the project meet in Bucharest in October 2011, during a 4 days workshop.

The best pictures created by young participants during the project will be subject to a traveling exhibition in Bucharest, Craiova, Cluj and Warsaw.

The Itinerary Photography Exhibition will be presented to the public first time in Bucharest, at the Student House of Culture, Way of Pleven, no. 61, between October 6 to November 6, 2011, and will be opened on October 6, 2011, in the presence of project beneficiaries and their guests.

For more information about the project please visit the blog: www.thisismyvoice-photovoice.blogspot.com.

Note: This project is funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects only the views of the author and the Commission can not be held responsible for using the information it contains.

PhotoVoice in Cluj - Romania

The second PhotoVoice module was implemented for 10 youngsters with hearing and speaking disabilities from Cluj, Romania, in the period 6 June - 4 July 2011. A selection of the best pictures produced by the young participants will be showed in Poland and Romania, during the Itinerary Photo exhibition “This is my voice!”.

This group photo show will be opened first in Bucharest, Romania, at Student’s Culture House, being scheduled for the beginning of October 2011.

PhotoVoice in Craiova - Romania

A PhotoVoice module was implemented for 10 youngsters with hearing and speaking disabilities in Craiova, Romania, in the period 2-31 May 2011. The best resulting pictures will be showed in Poland and Romania, during the Itinerary Photo exhibition “This is my voice!”.

This photo show will be opened first in Bucharest, Romania, at Student’s Culture House, being scheduled for the beginning of October 2011.

Visit to Poland

In the preparation stage of the project “This is my voice!”, representatives from all the main partner organizations got together in Warsaw, Poland, for a preparatory meeting.
So, Between 8-10 April 2011, representatives of Euroarte Association, Vasiliada Association from Romania met with the informal groups Silent Voices and Polish Intercultural Group from Poland.

Important issues related to the further implementation of the bilateral project “This is my voice!” were discussed and the future steps were established for Romania and Poland.

Project presentation in Romanian Deaf Language

About PhotoVoice methodology

"Photovoice is a method that enables people to define for themselves and others, including policy makers, what is worth remembering and what needs to be changed." - Carolyn Wang

The photovoice concept was developed by Caroline C. Wang and Mary Ann Burris and is described in a series of research articles. They used three main sources to create the photovoice concept: the theoretical literature on education for critical consciousness, feminist theory, and documentary photography; the efforts of community photographers and participatory educators to challenge assumptions about representation and documentary authorship; and their experience applying the process in the Ford Foundation-supported Yunnan Women's Reproductive Health and Development Program.

Photovoice blends a grassroots approach to photography and social action. It provides cameras not to health specialists, policy makers, or professionals, but to people with least access to those who make decisions affecting their lives.

Photovoice has three main goals:
1.to enable people to record and reflect their community's strengths and concerns;
2.to promote critical dialogue and knowledge about personal and community issues through large and small group discussions of photographs; and
3.to reach policy makers.

The stages of photovoice include:
1.conceptualising the problem
2.defining broader goals and objectives
3.recruiting policymakers as the audience for photovoice findings
4.training the trainers
5.conducting photovoice training
6.devising the initial theme/s for taking pictures
7.taking pictures
8.facilitating group discussion
9.critical reflection and dialogue
■selecting photographs for discussion
■contextualising and storytelling
■codifying issues, themes, and theories
10.documenting the stories
11.conducting the formative evaluation
12.reaching policymakers, donors, media, researchers, and others who may be mobilised to create change
13.conducting participatory evaluation of policy and programme implementation

The project Poster!