Using photovoice as a participatory evaluation tool in Kaiser Permanente's Community Health Initiative.

Photovoice is a community-based participatory research method that provides participants who traditionally have little voice in community policy decisions, with training in photography, ethics, critical dialogue, photo captioning, and policy advocacy. Photovoice has been used primarily as a needs assessment and advocacy tool and only rarely as a pre-/postintervention evaluation method. This article describes the use of Photovoice as a participatory evaluation method in the Community Health Initiative, a 6-year, multisite community-based obesity prevention initiative, sponsored by Kaiser Permanente.

Promoting policy and environmental change using photovoice in the Kaiser Permanente Community Health Initiative.

Creative ways must be found to engage both community residents and political leaders around policy and environmental solutions to public health issues. Photovoice is a community-based, participatory approach to documentary photography that provides people with training on photography, ethics, critical discussion, and policy advocacy. Photovoice projects have been implemented across the nation as part of Kaiser Permanente's Community Health Initiative-a community-based obesity prevention effort.