Video voice mapping project: Youth changing communities

In 2009, a group of Bakersfield youth affiliated with the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program (CCROPP) in Kern County, undertook a Video Voice Mapping Project to document the places where they live and describe inequalities in access to physical activity opportunities. The youth have used this innovative, community-based participatory research methodology, to raise awareness about opportunities for and barriers to physical activity in their neighborhoods. This has prompted youth advocacy in informing public health professionals and policy makers about places and things that need to be changed. The videos have also been used to inform The California Endowment's Building Healthy Communities (BHC) planning process; which will dedicate resources over a 10 year period to support the development of communities where kids and youth are healthy, safe and ready to learn. The youth were trained in the Video Voice Mapping technique and learned to organize their raw video footage into edited pieces of work that could be uploaded via You Tube onto web sites. The Video Voice Mapping was conducted in collaboration with other youth groups in the county, thereby expanding the cadre of youth employing this method to document their environments. In addition, the youth videos have been geo-coded and uploaded onto Healthy City maps in English and Spanish. The session will include a discussion of the Video Voice Mapping methodology, examples of Video Voice maps, changes that have resulted from the youth's mapping and advocacy efforts, and recommendations for using Video Voice Mapping with youth in other communities.