Photovoice
Photovoice is both a data collection strategy and a knowledge mobilization tool.
Our research produced the Lived Experiences exhibit, which combines photographs taken by older immigrants and our summaries of their life story narratives that provide the context for the audience’s interpretation. The exhibit itself was intended to draw the attention of policymakers and other stakeholders to our research findings.
Our exhibit openings attracted the attention of many, and we created a catalogue as a persistent record of the exhibit. We also (somewhat unexpectedly) reached audiences of non-immigrant older adults in seniors’ centres where the exhibit was displayed. However, leveraging the power of the stories told by the exhibit to inspire organizational change required more focused conversations that we facilitated with additional funding and partnerships in our Learning from Lived Experiences forums.
The United Way of the Lower Mainland and the Canadian Centre for Elder Law were valuable partners and the presence of the B.C. Senior’s Advocate at one of our three forums helped to shine the spotlight on our work.
The Learning from Lived Experiences forum on Caregiving, Family and Homecare was co-organized by Dr. Koehn and trainee, Laura Kadowaki with the United Way of the Lower Mainland (Barb McMillan and Bev Pitman). The B.C. Senior's Advocate, Isobel McKenzie (centre), was a guest speaker and participated in our knowledge cafe tables.
