Join Freestyle Love Supreme for a Purpose Party to benefit the New Orleans VideoVoices Project!

Join us for a presentation on participatory video and human rights in New Orleans at the 2008 Human Rights Center Conference!

Conference, November 6, 2008, 10AM to 5PM
Alumni House, UC Berkeley

Health, Human Rights and Vulnerable Communities - 10:00 AM to 12 Noon (Toll Room)

Faculty Discussant: Cheri Pies, School of Public Health

• Caricia Catalani, School of Public Health, Berkeley, Participatory Video in New Orleans, USA

Abstract
Billions of people worldwide have gained access to the Internet, digital recording devices, and other new media tools.  More and more, these new media tools are used as innovative solutions to enduring human rights struggles, however often without critical understanding of their potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  To begin to understand these aspects of new media more thoroughly, this evaluation of the New Orleans Videovoice Project describes the processes and outcomes associated with a particular participatory video methodology: videovoice.

Like its predecessor photovoice, videovoice involves partnering with communities to research health and human rights situations by putting digital cameras in the hands of everyday people.  The New Orleans Videovoice Project took place in Central City, an underserved nieghborhood that was hit hard in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Those who have returned from displacement have faced a difficult recovery period involving loss of family and friends, loss of housing and possessions, closures of primary sources of health care, marginalization by government and its recovery programs, and the ongoing stress of piecing one’s life and the community back together.

The New Orleans Videovoice Project arose out of a need to organize around human rights and health concerns at this critical time.  By building a partnership of diverse community members from the Central City neighborhood, public health researchers, filmmakers, and human rights advocates, the project has produced several participatory documentary videos.  The videos describe the neighborhood’s historical and current struggle for human rights, and their own solutions for a better future.  Beyond videos, this highly participatory project has resulted in other critical outcomes, such as increased capacity to produce media, understanding of community strengths and concerns, individual empowerment, and engagement in community action.

• Krista Kshatriya, School of Law, Berkeley, World Health Organization/Southeast Asia Regional Office, India
• Miranda Ritterman, School of Public Health, Berkeley, Christian Children’s Fund, Angola
• Nobuko Mizoguchi, Demography, Berkeley, Global Health Access Project, Thai-Burma border

Lunch Break - 12 noon to 1:30 PM

Executive Producer Matt Wisdom and Digital Filmmaker Tim Ryan hope to help convey that vision in a new short Internet documentary about recent successes within New Orleans public charter schools. In addition to an insiders look into what makes public Charter schools successful, the short film addresses the impact current public school reform will have on the future of New Orleans.

“If print culture shaped the environment in which the Enlightenment blossomed and set the scene for the Industrial Revolution, participatory media might similarly shape the cognitive and social environments in which twenty-first-century life will take place (a shift in the way our culture operates)” (Rheingold, 2008, pp 99-100)

His talk at the TED conference — viewable here — encapsulates some of the thrilling possibilities for democracy, collaboration, and (in my mind) health promotion in our century.

Upcoming opportunities and deadlines:

* February 12 – Nominations Due for CCPH Annual Award. The award recognizes exemplary partnerships between communities and higher educational institutions that improve higher education, civic engagement, and the overall health of communities. The complete “Call for Nominations” is available at http://depts.washington.edu/ccph/awards.html.

* March 17 – Applications Due for Community-Engaged Scholarship Faculty Development Charrette, May 28-30 in Chapel Hill, NC. We are seeking teams from 20 diverse colleges and universities across the U.S. to participate in a charrette to facilitate development of innovative campus-wide mechanisms for preparing and supporting community-engaged faculty. The complete “Call for Applications” is available at http://depts.washington.edu/ccph/faculty-engaged.html.

* April 4 – Early Bird Deadline for CUexpo Conference, May 4-7 in Victoria, BC, Canada. In lieu of our own major conference this year, CCPH is delighted to be a core sponsor of the third Community-University Exposition, “Community-University Research Partnerships: Connecting for Change.” We encourage CCPH members to adopt the CUexpo conference “as their own” and fully participate in it. The CCPH annual award will be presented at the conference and a CCPH member meeting is scheduled for Monday May 5th. For more information, visit http://www.cuexpo08.ca/index.html.

* April 10 – Applications Due for 11th Summer Service-Learning Institute, July 25-28 in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Gain the knowledge, skills and strategies to incorporate service-learning into the health professions curriculum! We encourage early applications as past years’ institutes have had wait lists. See details at http://depts.washington.edu/ccph/servicelearning.html.