The Photovoice activity assessed the protective and risk factors in the community for youth violence. Students received a camera and attended a classroom session on the history and process of Photovoice, the ethics and mechanics of photography while maintaining personal safety. They attended a guided photo shoot and chose photos, which displayed either a risk or protective factor for youth violence. They wrote about them utilizing the SHOWeD method, which answers the questions: What do See here? What's really Happening here? How does this relate to Our lives? Why does this problem or strength exist? What can we Do about this? This questioning is used to identify the problem or the asset, discuss the roots of the situation, and develop strategies for change.

Here are examples of photos and freewrites created by members of the Youth Empowerment Solutions for Peaceful Communities (YES) youth council. This photovoice project was part of a needs assessment process to help youth participants plan community projects.

Example 1

What do you See here?
My family—brothers and sisters and cousins connecting at my Aunt's house.

What's really Happening here?
They were all having fun, and we decided to just take pictures for fun. That's what we do in our family—we have fun. This is the house where everyone in my family comes together and plays cards, or watches the games on TV. I spend a lot of time with all of my family members.

How does this relate to Our lives?
Everybody has a family, but not that many pay attention to them. You see how happy these people are together in this picture—when you kill people, you see what bond you are destroying by separating them, and causing really strong emotions. When people say bad things about their family, that can make you mad, and that can cause youth violence. If you don't have a family, or are in a foster home separated from your family—or some parents, they just do stuff for the fun of it that can really hurt their child; when you have bad parents or no family, it puts a strong hold on you and you take it out on somebody else, like at school, and that can cause youth violence.

Why does this problem Or strength exist?
This strengths exists because our family has a strong bond with each other, no matter what we do or how bad we have it. I think family is the most important thing for living, because family is who you look up to, and who takes care of you. If you don't have a family, when things are hard, you can't handle that stress.

What can we Do about this?
If we had events with food, like barbecues and thanksgiving dinners, then people would come together and spend more time with their family.

Example 2

What do you See here?
A Dragonball GT DVD. The characters are Supersan 4 Veagita and Supersan Gofuji.

What's really Happening here?
Dragonball is a battle between good and evil—it's a popular violent cartoon. It's also a card game.

How does this relate to Our lives?
Before they start fighting on the cartoon, they start arguing and it always leads to fights. People in the cartoon are always fighting, so it makes little kids want to act it out on their friends, and then their friends act it out on them and they get into a fight. This can also start arguments between friends, they start debating about the cartoons and then get upset about it and start a fight. Sometimes they also fight over their cards.

Why does this problem Or strength exist?
I think kids fight about this because one thinks they know more than the other and then it hurts the others self-esteem and they start arguing about it. Kids think it's okay to do what they see on TV just because it's on TV—they also think it's cool because it's on TV, so they act out what they see even if it's fighting. Since the characters are mean to each other, kids say the same things to their friends and then they start fighting.

What can we Do about this?
We can put less violence on TV and have more talking; also, the characters could have better attitudes, they're really mean and set a bad example.

Example 3

What do you See here?
What seems to be a good store to buy things from. It's a liquor store.

What's really Happening here?
This is a place where people get shot and sell drugs. People sell drugs around the store, in the store, and the clerks try to cheat the kids.

How does this relate to Our lives?
It's a place where we go every day to get household items, and we can't go to the store without seeing somebody selling drugs or arguing. There are usually a lot of people around the store, I think because they're selling drugs. When kids come to the store, and they see drugs, somehow they get linked to the chain and become addicted and start selling drugs themselves.

Why does this problem Or strength exist?
I think people buy drugs because it helps them get away from stress. People do crazy things when they're high, hallucinations of bunny rabbits and things. It really makes their stress worse though, because it messes with their brains and their emotions and makes their feelings stronger and makes them think nobody around them cares about them—that's probably why they go off on people so fast.

What can we Do about this?
We could try to get police officers at the stores because they really aren't safe. That might decrease shoplifting and drug selling and all of that. I think they should put more commercials out about what has happened to people in real life who were on drugs.