Postcards From Home

Community  Development  Through Participatory Photography

For more information on the program, contact
Alison Hanham
Community Resource Development
(304) 293-6131 Ext. 4207

Using participatory photography this program provides a simple tool to help build confidence and leadership skills in youths and adults, develop civic capacity, promote grassroots action, and provide a catalyst for community development efforts. This program is particularly suited for groups that traditionally have not had a voice in community affairs.

 How does the program work? A community team is brought together to record their perspective on certain community aspects or specific issues through the use of photography. The participants take pictures that represent the positive and negative points relative to the issue. The pictures should be able to explain the issue to an outsider. After the film is developed, each participant displays their pictures on a poster, writes short descriptions for each picture and a narrative about the issue. Optimally, the group then selects a community development project based on the photo exercise.

 The results of this exercise can be shared with the larger community by displaying the posters in prominent spots, doing a presentation to local officials or community groups, or holding a press conference. The program can be used to begin a planning process to identify important issues or as a monitoring tool to record the impact of a service, project, or development effort.

Postcards From Home: Community Development through Participatory Photograhpy  Presentation - PDF Format (83k)