UCI affiliates Jenny Fan, IMTFI manager, and Melissa Wrapp, ’21 anthropology Ph.D. and postdoctoral project manager of Community Credit, report out on Photovoice Worldwide
Photovoice is a community-based participatory research approach in which participants tell stories about their lived experience through photography. UCI’s Community Credit research project is using photovoice as one method to explore people’s financial lives and identify ways for financial institutions to better understand their community’s actual needs. The UCI photovoice research team included Dr. Bill Maurer, Community Credit’s Principal Investigator, Professor of Anthropology, and Director of the Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion (IMTFI); Dr. Melissa Wrapp, anthropologist and Community Credit’s postdoctoral project manager; and Jenny Fan, IMTFI manager.
In Spring 2022, Community Credit piloted the use of photovoice as a method for understanding people’s financial stories. This pilot included public listening sessions and discussions of the methodology, which were attended by local nonprofits, credit unions, and community members. Among the attendees was Abrazar (“to embrace” in Spanish), a non-profit serving residents in Orange County. Abrazar offers a range of services, including a 12–18-month financial empowerment program for low-income residents known as SparkPoint OC. After participating in Community Credit’s public listening sessions, Abrazar was interested in exploring the use of photovoice within this program, both as a beneficial experience for clients and as a program evaluation tool. So, following on their first pilot, in Fall 2022 the UCI team partnered with Abrazar to run an online photovoice training for SparkPoint clients and coaches: “Embrace, Educate, Empower: An Abrazar-UCI Photovoice Project on Financial Security with PhotovoiceWorldwide.”
This second photovoice project included seventeen participants made up of Abrazar clients, financial coaches, and nonprofit leadership. Participants met for four two-hour sessions, simultaneously interpreted in Spanish and English, in which they learned about the ethics and practical elements of using photography as a research tool. Over the period of several weeks, participants took photos to explore the concept of financial security: what it looks like, how it’s created, and how does one feel when thinking about money. The questions used to guide participant-researchers also focused on understanding their hopes for the financial future and lessons they have learned from participating in the SparkPoint OC program.
Follow this link to read the full blogpost on the project: https://www.photovoiceworldwide.com/talking-about-money-together-an-abrazar-uci-photovoice-collaboration/
Forthcoming: May 12th, Picturing Financial Security: An Abrazar-UCI-PhotovoiceWorldwide Collaborative Exhibit at the “May Your Mental Health Thrive with H.O.P.E. (Health Opportunity Progress Equity)” Health Fair at the Delhi Center in Santa Ana.
